A tunnel has issues with sight lines. An open air bridge is visible to the traffic below. Which allows drivers to report suspicious activities.

The station itself is huge. From eyeballing it I don’t think there is anywhere else they could have located the station and tunnel without destroying the Triangle Parking Garage and/or some other buildings, and stadium concession buildings are being demolished I think.

Your analysis is flawed. None of this criminal activity happened in a tunnel. I could use these examples and argue the land bridge is unsafe.

Bridges wont serve everyone, tunnels will. Tunnels, please. Turnstiles too :)

It seems like it would be simplest if one exit from the station mezzanine level has an entrance in the triangle. It’s not unusual for an underground station to have multiple exits on different sides of the street – and an undercrossing of Montlake Blvd seems attractive. If the concourse is wide it won’t feel like a tunnel.

It seems surprising that there is so little integration to bus routes. I understand that some bus routes from the Eastside via 520 are to connect to Link here, but if the bus stops are on Pacific St. in front of the hospital that isn’t a particularly direct connection, and requires crossing Pacific St. to reach east/south bound buses.

University of Washington police have sent out an alert to students, faculty and staff about a robbery on campus on Sunday.

At approximately 6:15 p.m., three students walking north on Cowlitz Road toward Terry-Lander Hall were approached by two men. One of the men pulled out a black handgun, pointed it at the victims and robbed them of their laptop computers and other personal property, according to the alert.

A woman, who appeared to be serving as a lookout near the intersection of Lincoln Way and Cowlitz Road, yelled at the robbers to hurry. The robbers and the woman then fled.

Officers searched the area but didn’t locate the robbers.
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Notification of a Criminal Incident
10/25/09 – Armed Robbers Arrested – Seattle Campus

On Sunday October 25th, at approximately 7:30 p.m., a male UW student was approached by three male teenagers at the Northgate Transit Center. The teens asked the victim for the time. The victim referred to his iPhone and gave them the time. The victim and three suspects rode the same bus to the area of Brooklyn Ave., N.E. and N.E. Campus Parkway where they got off the bus. The victim noticed that the suspects were joined by a fourth person and appeared to be following him. When they reached the area of N.E. 42nd and University Way, N.E., the suspects surrounded the victim and one suspect displayed a handgun. The suspects then took the victim’s jacket and iPhone and fled the area southbound on foot.

UWPD and SPD officers conducted an area search. UWPD officers located possible suspects in the area of Montlake Boulevard, N.E. and N.E. Pacific Street. After a short foot pursuit three of the four suspects were detained and later identified by the victim. The suspects were turned over to SPD, who later transported them to the Youth Service Center.

The victim did not report any injuries resulting from this incident.

This case is being investigated by the Seattle Police Department under case number 2009-375875.

——————–
On Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 7:39 p.m., a female student was walking westbound in the 1900 block of N.E. 47th St., when she was approached from behind by an unidentified male. The male grabbed her by the neck and put his hand into her pocket but was interrupted by a passing vehicle. The suspect fled in an eastbound direction. The victim received no injuries and nothing was taken.

This case is being investigated by the UW Police Department under case number 01-09-002016.
——————–
On Monday, October 5th, 2009, at 8:57 p.m., North Precinct Seattle Police officers responded to a report of a robbery that occurred approximately 30 minutes earlier. A male victim not affiliated with the University reported that while walking in the area of N.E. 47th Street and University Way, N.E. a male approached him from behind, pressed a hard object into his back and demanded his property. The suspect took property from the victim and fled eastbound on N.E. 47th Street on foot.

This case is being investigated by the Seattle Police Department under case number 2009-352246.

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It’s not a safe neighborhood at all. Tunnels are right out.

http://records.asuw.org/Documents/Governance%20Committee/Faculty%20Council%20on%20University%20Facilities%20and%20Services/20051017-Minutes_.doc

If that doesn’t load try a google search for “uw triangle garage plans”. The top one should be Getting to UW Medical Center | UW Medicine, Seattle which is some good info on the garage. The description for the .doc file is “Oct 17, 2005 … Overview of the Medical Center Facility Master Plan Study (Helen …. access to Triangle Garage and replacement site for displaced parking. …” I was looking for an actual floor plan, ideally with a side view showing grades but couldn’t find one.

There is no reason an underground crossing of Montlake can’t be made as safe as the station itself. There is also no reason a passageway through the garage and to the Hospital can’t be safer than the current situation as well. The sheer volume of people will increase safety all by itself, but good design, and increased security will help as well. There is a tunnel under Benaroya Hall between Second and the University Street DSTT station. For some reason this hasn’t become a hotbed of crime. In the Capitol Hill station plans there is a passage from the station mezzanine under Broadway to an entrance next to SCCC. I haven’t heard any concerns this passage will be a hotbed of assaults either. Why should UW station be any different?

Adding a controlled crosswalk mid-block, the crosswalk cycle will take the extra 10 seconds, so I’d think walking man would be 15 seconds. :0

The underlying issue appears to be drug use with many of the robbers looking for cash for their next hit. And students with ipods, laptops and no weapons, or self defense training or nearby cops making them easy targets.

Any pedestrian access to this station has to have clear street visible sight lines day and night to be safe. That totally eliminates a tunnel.