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A Seattle teen, who saw some safety issues in the neighborhood surrounding his school, decided to redesign the streets and sidewalks.
When Joe Mangan, 17, strolls in front of Roosevelt High School, he sees possibilities. He also sees crosswalks that fill up with students, and traffic backing up.
In November, Mangan sat down at his computer and, using a free program called SketchUp, started redesigning the streets around his school to make them safer for all users. He included bike lanes, better crosswalks, traffic signals, and other safety enhancements.
Mangan sent the proposal to SDOT and got the city’s attention.
“We were super impressed! It’s great to see so much initiative and interest in his community,” SDOT wrote in a statement to KING 5.
Mangan also sent his submission to some local publications that cover transportation. The popular Seattle bike blog even went so far as to say Mangan's designs are better than the current SDOT proposal.
“You're just designing something that's going to change how a whole community functions and looks, and I just think that's really interesting,” he said.
SDOT already has a proposal to improve NE 65th street, and the city says several of Mangan's ideas are already included in that design.
The teen, however, recommends wider sidewalks. He also wants to protect parking spaces. After all, Mangan drives to school.
“Narrowing sidewalks anywhere isn't a good plan, especially since we're adding a light rail station and more apartment buildings,” he said.
Mangan says he wants to someday work in politics or public policy, some kind of field, where, when you see an issue, you do something to fix it.
