Road work hurting business at local coffee stand
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ARLINGTON, Wash. -- The Coffee Cabana in Arlington used to be flooded with business, but all that changed when the state started work on a nearby roundabout.
Jennifer Bjornson has been serving espressos at the coffee stand for nine years, and she said business has been good.
"Normal, gross day, rainy, no one wants to get out of their car, easy $350 a day," she said.
That was before June 15, when work on the roundabout started and the road leading up to the coffee stand disappeared. Now that's she's off the driven path, Bjornson said her business has gone into the tank.
A normal day now might mean selling eight coffees, making roughly 75 cents on each cup sold. Still, she stays open for regulars like Dan Gray, who orders strawberry smoothies.
"It's just on my way and, I mean, they're good," Gray said.
Actually, Coffee Cabana is no longer exactly on his way. He's now forced to park at the edge of the construction and walk down a closed ramp in order to get to the stand. That's loyalty, but it's still just one customer an hour.
There is a back way to the stand, and some have suggested more people would find it if there was a bikini barista.
"Me be a bikini barista?" Bjornson said. "I say, do you want to see all this in a bikini?"
The state says construction will be done in a couple of weeks. Bjornson hopes that's true because she's already lost thousands of dollars.
When all this is over, Bjornson said she'll push for a change in state law to compensate small businesses for losses caused by state construction project.
Jennifer Bjornson has been serving espressos at the coffee stand for nine years, and she said business has been good.
"Normal, gross day, rainy, no one wants to get out of their car, easy $350 a day," she said.
That was before June 15, when work on the roundabout started and the road leading up to the coffee stand disappeared. Now that's she's off the driven path, Bjornson said her business has gone into the tank.
A normal day now might mean selling eight coffees, making roughly 75 cents on each cup sold. Still, she stays open for regulars like Dan Gray, who orders strawberry smoothies.
"It's just on my way and, I mean, they're good," Gray said.
Actually, Coffee Cabana is no longer exactly on his way. He's now forced to park at the edge of the construction and walk down a closed ramp in order to get to the stand. That's loyalty, but it's still just one customer an hour.
There is a back way to the stand, and some have suggested more people would find it if there was a bikini barista.
"Me be a bikini barista?" Bjornson said. "I say, do you want to see all this in a bikini?"
The state says construction will be done in a couple of weeks. Bjornson hopes that's true because she's already lost thousands of dollars.
When all this is over, Bjornson said she'll push for a change in state law to compensate small businesses for losses caused by state construction project.
This business got screwed. Â They cut off the Highway 9 access off completely with a detour way out of the way. Â They could have given them some temporary access off 9, especially when they weren't even working there. Â I question a roundabout at this location too, it's a 55 mph highway, I may hit a green light travelling north or south 10% of the time, now I have to slow down and navigate this 100% of the time.
And how woudl this supposed compensation be factored? seriously construciton happens when it happens if your on the wrong end of htings that is too darn bad. Putting any type of compensation to buisness's near a construction sounds like those ares just asking for yet another hand out.. gimmie a break
This is news huh? I feel empathy for this woman, but this isnt a hospital affected by the construction, so I dont see how this made the news.
Uh huh, what about all those businesses in Georgetown getting killed by that bridge construction with that ridiculously long build schedule? A few years back in San Francisco they rebuilt a bridge much bigger than this one on the 580 connector in 26 days.
Feel so bad for this Coffee Stand, I'm shocked that they are getting any buisness at all, must be just the construction workers buying.. it is miles to get there by detour.. and then you have to walk through hazerdous construction, all for a stupid roundabout in the middle of a major Hwy.. This will be nothing than a 4 way stop and school busses with the schools just a few blocks, will be greatly impacted. This is a major hwy..not a back or side road, we need a light there.
 @bikerchick My theory is that roundabouts were invented by the brake pad industry to make sure we all use our brakes at every intersection rather than 1/2 of us sailing through a green light.
Wouldnt the county or whomever specifically in charge of this project had contacted any business owner when the planning was underway let alone prior to the actual construction of the impact it would cause? The owner would have had plenty of warning to pass out the alt route info for her coffee place before the construction started to save herself problems?
@DarkRenegade  There really is no other way there.. it is completely blocked off and it's miles to go around, not blocks..then you have to walk into the construction area to get there... We all knew it was going to be built, but there really shoulda been compensation as that is the only business that is greatly impaired by the construction.
"When all this is over, Bjornson said she'll push for a change in state law to compensate small businesses for losses caused by state construction project."
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No, she won't. This has already been attempted (actually, instead of just griping about it) hundreds of times with zero results.
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There are no guarantees in life, including no change to traffic patterns to your private or public property, temporary or otherwise. Sorry.
 @PilonidalCyst You're a little off. She may well push for changes. She won't succeed, but she may push for them.
If society benefits, if changes to our super structure benefits the community. Then ALL should pay for the structure changes NOT one poor business person. Before the changes are made compensation for affected business people should be factored into the cost/benefit of the changes. That's how they do it with the big corporate boys. So why not do it with a good American independent business person? Doesn't seem fair to me. Seems down right Will Roger's common sense.
If I ran the zoo, any politician found guilty of promoting those @#%&* roundabouts would be sent to Guantanamo for life. There are not enough hateful words in my vocabulary to describe my feelings about roundabouts.
Given that they are worldwide, and function much better than signalized intersections, perhaps you are just not a good driver or have not educated yourself what to do when faced with one.
 @PilonidalCyst No, they don't always function "much better than signalized intersections." One of the primary reasons for roundabouts is because they're cheap to install and cost almost nothing to maintain versus a signalized intersection.
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Intelligent traffic systems are far more efficient than roundabouts but cost a lot more money to install and maintain.
Most Europian Roundabouts and most functional ones here are two lanes, an inner and an exit, but these that they are building, including the one mentioned above, are single lane makeing them 4 way stops. They work well on the back roads but are causing much much delay of traffic on the busy roads making weekends and after school several hour delays. They totally suck when they do this and the truckers HATE them..
If there is that much volume of traffic, I suggest that a signalized intersection would cause more overall delay. This is a fact based on much research, not a subjective judgment based on the prejudices of people having difficulty getting used to something new.
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The geometry allows truckers to pass through fine, again they complain because it's something new.
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Why is cheap to install and maintain a negative? Just can't please some people.
 @Glassman Why? They work very well and save a lot of gas and time waiting at lights.
 @swan Maybe at lower speed intersections but here you've got a 55 mph highway intersecting a 35 mph arterial.  I think this intersection will get worse now.
 @swan They don't work worth a darned on busy intersections. I've had to wait 15 minutes to be able to enter a roundabout at rush hour. I'm not so sure they save any gas either. Keep in mind that people with a green light don't have to use their brakes then accelerate afterwards. At a roundabout, everyone has to slow down then accelerate.
There is often a 2 hour delay with the roundabouts coming over the passes here because there is never free flowing traffic, leaving roundabouts in busy places nothing more than a 4 way stop.