Will a ‘speed table’ make this Pierce County crosswalk safer? Expect detours
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- Pierce County began installing a raised crosswalk Tuesday to slow Key Center traffic.
- The speed table replaces an existing crosswalk near the fire department and credit union.
- A resident's push for safety after witnessing a crash helped spur the project approval.
A new raised crosswalk to slow traffic in Key Center is under construction and will require temporary detours Tuesday, one to two years after residents expressed concern about excessive speeding in the rural area’s major business center.
Pierce County will install the raised crosswalk, or “speed table,” at the site of an existing crosswalk on Key Peninsula Highway Northwest, near the Key Peninsula Fire Department headquarters and a Sound Credit Union branch across the street, Key Peninsula Fire Department spokesperson Anne Nesbit wrote in a text message.
“The road way may be blocked intermittently,” the Key Peninsula Fire Department posted on Facebook the day before. “An alternative route may be useful during the day by using the Lackey/Olson loop. Please remember that the crosswalk will be raised once construction is done which will require everyone to slow down.”
A speed table is longer and flatter at the top than a speed hump. Most passenger cars can fit all of their wheels on the speed table’s flat surface, which is typically 10 feet long but with approaching ramps of six feet on both sides of the plateau, according to a primer from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration. The actual length of a speed table can vary.
“Today’s the Day, KP Friends!” Pierce County Council member Robyn Denson posted on Facebook Tuesday with several traffic-related emojis. “Thanks to the dedication of engaged community members, the long-awaited Key Peninsula speed table is being installed today!”
She added that construction is expected to wrap up by the end of the day.
The county budgeted $100,000 to build the speed table, Pierce County Planning & Public Works spokesperson Jenny Burger wrote in an email Wednesday.
Key Peninsula News first reported several stories about the journey to bring the speed table to Key Center. Key Peninsula resident Kathy Lyons proposed the idea of a speed table to council member Denson following a collision she witnessed in Key Center, the news outlet reported.
Reached via phone Tuesday, Lyons recounted the story of how her concerns started. She was putting up a scarecrow in Key Center with a friend when a car came racing through at 50 to 60 miles an hour, she recalled. The speed limit in the area is 30 miles an hour.
Another vehicle was turning into the Key IGA grocery store, and the first car “plowed into him,” she said.
One of the vehicles, a truck, “came sideways right at us,” she recalled. Lyons and her friend thought their lives were over, but the vehicle ended up missing them and they survived.
That was when she decided “enough was enough.” After seeing examples of speed tables in other places such as Hansville, a coastal community in Kitsap County, Lyons proposed it to council member Denson.
“I said to Pierce County, I said, ‘Are we going to have to wait until someone dies before then we do something?’” Lyons said.
The county ran studies of that area and other possible projects on the peninsula. Denson called Lyons back one day saying that the county was going to put in the speed table in Key Center, Lyons recalled.
“ ... it will be safe for the pedestrians because they’re putting it right at the crosswalk, and it will slow down the traffic, so I call it a win-win,” Lyons said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the budget to build the speed table.
This story was originally published July 22, 2025 at 1:06 PM.
