Getting There: Even on a bike, the law is the law

Answer: Sorry, says Seattle Transportation spokeswoman Liz Rankin. "The law is the law, and all bicyclists must stop for signals regardless of the time of day."

Question: Steve Anderson of Seattle wonders what the proper protocol is when a school bus is stopped with flashing lights on a four-lane street. He knows the cars behind the bus have to stop. But how about oncoming cars?

"There seems to be confusion about the law," he says. "Sometimes I see cars stop, sometimes I see them continue on, and schoolkids (or adults for that matter) shouldn't be crossing a four-lane street at mid-block anyway. So to me it seems silly for oncoming traffic to stop. What exactly is the law?"

Answer: Seattle Traffic Management Director Rob Spillar says that, according to state law, cars behind the bus have to stop.

Oncoming cars also have to stop if they're on a two-lane road. But on a four-lane road, oncoming cars are not required to stop.

However, there are "some common-sense caveats," he says. "Drivers should take extra caution, no matter what direction they're traveling, when in the vicinity of school buses from which children are being discharged."

Also, he says, "parents, teachers and drivers should all be clear with children about safe walking skills. These include sticking to the 'safe walking routes' identified at the beginning of the school year; crossing streets at safe locations (preferably where traffic signals exist), and when crossing, to always 'look left; look right; look left again' before proceeding."

Spillar adds that "all pedestrians should remember that even when crossing in a marked crosswalk, they are entering the street right of way and need to watch for oncoming vehicles."

Question: Carol Kaufman of Seattle wants to know what's going on with the flashing school crossing lights on Northwest 80th Street. The westbound light at 12th Avenue Northwest has been on 24 hours a day, and drivers are getting used to ignoring it. The one at First Avenue Northwest comes on after children walking to St. John School are already at school.

Answer: Spillar says the city installed 28 new flashing beacons at 14 elementary schools before the school year. A pager and an antenna are built into each beacon. A computer at the city's Traffic Management Center is set to page each beacon to turn them on for an hour in the morning and an hour at dismissal time.

A signal crew chief spotted the beacon at 12th Avenue Northwest flashing 24/7. The city discovered a microswitch was stuck and ordered spare parts to fix the problem.

The city has adjusted the beacon at First Avenue Northwest to more accurately reflect the starting times for St. John School and Greenwood Elementary School. The Greenwood school opens a half-hour earlier than St. John School.

Question: Elinor Kriegsmann of Seattle wants to know why there's no crosswalk at the corner of East John Street and 16th Avenue East, right in front of Group Health Cooperative on Capitol Hill.

"There is heavy car traffic coming from or going to 15th East," she says, "which causes geriatric patients, families with young children as well as GHC staff to run across the John and 16th intersection at risk of being hit."

Answer: Rankin says city workers will take a look.

The city might want to encourage people to cross at a traffic signal a block away.

The intersection is near a bus stop, and Rankin says the city might not want people to cross in front of buses.

"A marked crosswalk in and of itself does not provide a safer crossing, and we would be especially cautious about marking one in a location where elderly or slower pedestrians often cross," she says.