As with other places across the nation, traffic deaths and injuries are rising at a desperate rate. Across the Puget Sound Region, annual traffic deaths have nearly doubled since 2010. We have almost reached one per day.

If you live in King, Kitsap, Pierce or Snohomish Counties, take this survey about the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Safety Action Plan. The plan’s goal is to “establish and foster a regional culture of safety with a focus on protecting vulnerable roadway users and communities,” according to the online engagement hub. The plan would take a safe system approach to traffic management, helping to guide high-level funding, such as Federal grants, while also helping local communities develop safety action plans for their local investments.

Yes, it’s another plan. But Cascade Bicycle Club’s Vicky Clarke put it well in an email urging folks to complete the survey:

I’ll be real; I’m sick of plans. I want action. That said, this plan is different by seeking to understand resident’s openness to particular street safety improvements, like bike lanes, sidewalks, crosswalks, and safer vehicle speed limits. 

This is your chance to say “yes please” to things that will make it safer to get around. Please spend 5 minutes completing it, because one thing’s for sure: without caring neighbors like you and me asking for change, the status quo on our streets will remain. 

The PSRC also recently released a 50-page State of Safety in the Region report (PDF) with a lot of information about traffic safety trends across the region. Stay tuned for a follow-up post about this report, because there is a lot to unpack. But the short of it is that this is a problem the state and the entire region need to take on together because it is much bigger than any one place. We need a regional approach. The report predictably did not find a clear single cause of the increase, but it led them to the following “key findings.”

1. Deaths on the region’s roadways have nearly doubled in the last decade. This is the wrong direction, and unacceptable.
2. Bicyclists and pedestrians represent nearly half of the increase in deaths, with pedestrians representing the vast majority.
3. Crashes are happening everywhere – in all parts of the region, but there are as many deaths in rural areas as in the biggest cities.
4. Communities with lower income residents have 37% higher rates of serious injuries and deaths than higher income areas. Communities with majority people of color have 32% higher rates of serious injuries and deaths than the region as a whole.
5. Deaths and serious injuries are 70% higher in areas with a majority of both people of color and lower incomes compared to the regional average.
6. Native American and Alaskan Native community members are seven times more likely to die in crashes than white residents.
7. Mapping crashes shows the most frequent fatalities and serious injuries occur on major arterials with higher posted speeds.
8. The vast majority of crashes involve cars and light trucks. However, those involving motorcyclists have a one in four risk of death or serious injury, five times that of cars or trucks.
9. In crashes involving light trucks and SUVs, pedestrian and bicyclist deaths are 43% higher than crashes involving passenger cars.
10. The most frequent contributing factors resulting in deaths and serious injuries involve speeding, impairment, distraction, and failures to yield. Crashes may include multiple factors.