The northern segment of the Duwamish trail, a sidewalk.
The Duwamish trail provides one of the only dedicated bike routes to and from the South Park neighborhood, which is currently dealing with an influx of drivers looking for any shortcut they can take to avoid the repercussions of the West Seattle bridge closure. But for nearly half a mile on its northern end, the Duwamish trail is nothing more than a narrow sidewalk through an industrial area. With the South Park to Georgetown trail moving forward, this segment deserves more attention than ever.
For years, the Duwamish tribe has been trying to improve safety in front of their Longhouse on West Marginal Way SW along the river that bears the name of the tribe. It took the West Seattle bridge crisis, which diverted thousands of vehicles per day onto Marginal Way that would have otherwise used the bridge, to provide impetus (and funding) to install a crosswalk and traffic signal directly at the Longhouse. “This year, we leveraged the fact that we have this crisis with the bridge closure to get the city to fully fund the project,” Councilmember Lisa Herbold recently told Real Change. Mitigation funds for the bridge will pay for a new pedestrian crossing directly in front of the Longhouse as well as install a missing sidewalk on the west side of Marginal Way north of the building.
Current “crossing” in front of the Duwamish longhouse.
In 2019, lacking funding for a pedestrian crossing, SDOT took southbound Marginal Way down from one lanes to two for a short stretch in front of the Longhouse. Now SDOT proposes to extend that southbound lane closure up to the northern end of the Duwamish trail, converting the curbside lane into a two-way protected bike lane.
The proposed Duwamish trail connection would bridge a gap between the separated trail and the West Seattle bridge.
This improvement is obviously not a complete replacement for an off-street trail, but would be an improvement, especially for people biking southbound in the direction of traffic. But the biggest benefit of this change would be the impact on the speed of drivers on this segment of Marginal. SDOT recently brought the speed limit on the street down from 40 mph to 30 mph. But consistent design changes would do more to lower speeds, and since drivers are already merging into one lane at the Longhouse, it makes sense to extend that change all the way north.
Proposed cross section of Marginal with space made for a protected bike lane.
But the protected bike lane idea is meeting opposition from those who do not want to see auto capacity on Marginal Way reduced any further. Port Commissioner Peter Steinbrueck has been an outspoken critic of taking away space for vehicles on Marginal at West Seattle Bridge Community Taskforce meetings. In November of last year, the freight advisory board sent a letter to Deputy Mayor Shefali Ranganathan asking the city for West Marginal Way to be “restored as a five-lane facility”. The letter mischaracterizes the final connection of the Duwamish trail as “redundant” because users currently can use the sidewalk. “We are in deeply opposed to removing traffic lanes to add a protected bike lane on WMW”, the letter states. “We believe the proposed signal and sidewalk improvement near the Longhouse will improve safety so that the southbound traffic lane can be restored as a through traffic lane on this Major Truck Route.”
I spoke with Aley Thompson, who serves on the South Park Neighborhood Association and also serves on the West Seattle Bridge Community Taskforce. She told me that it was not her understanding that a removal of the lane reduction in front of the Longhouse was on the table, and cited the need to slow vehicle traffic down on Marginal as the most pressing issue.
SDOT spokesperson Ethan Bergerson characterized the issue as a debate over whether to install the protected bike lane this year or wait until the West Seattle bridge is repaired. “SDOT is committed to making this connection,” he told me. “Maintaining a single lane of traffic throughout the corridor would likely reduce the ‘hurry up and wait’ effect of congestion caused cars merging back into a single lane, and result in more consistent speeds throughout the corridor, closer to the current 30 mph speed limit,” Bergerson said, citing the lane reduction at the Longhouse as the “bottleneck” that is having a bigger impact on travel times than the bike lane would.
Asked if the lane reduction in front of the Duwamish tribe’s facility was on the table for removal, he told me, “There has not been a final decision on this. We are planning to conduct stakeholder engagement in early 2021 to get feedback once we have a design proposal ready to share.”
The new signal at the Longhouse is set to be installed this Summer. A pedestrian crossing will likely only be a bandaid if speed treatments aren’t effective, and adding the lane back to the street will likely increase driver speeds. It’s clear that any bike facility’s larger purpose would be to serve the larger goal of making West Marginal Way a safer street for everyone to use.
2020 was a year of adjusting to new realities, and Seattle’s effort to meet its goals for expanding its bike network did not escape the curveballs that were thrown during the year. In response to a fundamental reshuffling of demand for right-of-way compared to other years, the Seattle Department of Transportation responded with a few new programs, namely Stay Healthy Streets, but mostly stayed the course even as Covid impacts on staffing delayed projects and Covid-induced budget cuts imperiled future ones. 4th Avenue finally has a protected bike lane, protected lanes on Bell Street were installed, and bike lanes on Avalon Way in West Seattle opened just as the West Seattle Bridge was closed in March.
Now that 2021 is here, we are looking forward to some of the projects that are planned for the year across the city that will improve conditions for people biking.
Construction has already started on the installation of this bike lane, which won’t extend north of King Street due to concerns about impacts on traffic, namely the First Hill Streetcar, which doesn’t operate in its own dedicated lane.
12th Ave will feature similar to bus stops to the ones that were installed along NE 65th Street, with bus riders exiting directly into the bike lane. The PBL will extend all the way across the bridge to the connection with the Mountains to Sound trail. A route running the entire length of Beacon Hill is currently planned for 2023.
This project was originally planed for 2020 but was delayed due to coordination with Metro on moving trolley wires. A big win for advocates, this bike lane was originally planned to disappear on either side of the busy intersection at 23rd Avenue but was redesigned earlier this year to bridge the gap. Though the protected bike lanes will not extend west of 14th Ave, the Madison RapidRide project, which SDOT says will start construction next year and take about 3 years, will connect the facility across 12th Ave.
Another 2020 holdover, this project will finally connect the Burke-Gilman at Stone Way with the Fremont bridge instead of that harrowing door zone lane. The project will also add a northbound protected bike lane just north of the bridge, making the transition from the cramped bridge deck a little more seamless.
A segment of the new protected bike lanes coming to N 34th Street.
The first phase of the long-awaited Melrose Promenade project will get underway next year, with protected bike lanes getting installed on Melrose Ave E in far west Capitol Hill between Pine Street and Denny Way. Between Pike and Pine, one of the most obvious places in the city to turn into a pedestrian street, people on bikes will share the road with cars and a massive raised intersection will be installed in front of the Starbucks Roastery. North of Denny Way, SDOT will be installing speed humps in the style of a greenway.
The raised intersection planned at Pike and Melrose.
The repaving project for the east half of the street circling Green Lake will finally be wrapping up next year, including protected bike facilities from Aurora and 83rd all the way to N 50th Street. A separate project will install protected bike lanes on a segment of Stone Way south of N 50th Street as well. The paint bike lanes on 50th Street are staying in place.
With these bike lanes the North Seattle bike network will really start to fill in, with Ravenna Boulevard and NE 65th Street fully connected to north Wallingford.
The Durkan administration’s decision to eliminate bike lanes on N 40th Street that would have been installed while that street was being repaved is still disappointing.
Green Lake Way repaving project brings bike lanes to that street.
With the grand opening of the Northgate Link light rail extension in the fall, the bike and pedestrian bridge over I-5 will also be ready for traffic. This will open up a brand new connection at N 100th Street between the light rail station and North Seattle Community College.
Northgate pedestrian bridge
On the Northgate side of the bridge, separate bike facilities will connect NE 92nd Street all the way up to Northgate Way along 1st Ave NE.
The bicycle improvements required as part of the agreement to renovate Key Arena into what will be Climate Pledge Arena are set to be installed by fall’s opening of the facility. The route will take several zigs and zags as riders heading to Uptown will take Broad Street onto 1st Avenue, continue onto 1st Ave N, and then have to take Thomas Street to Queen Anne Ave to continue north to Mercer.
Connection planned to Uptown for Climate Pledge Arena.
SDOT will come back and improve the 4th Avenue protected bike lane they installed in 2020 by extending the lane north to Vine Street, converting the entire corridor to a two-way facility, and extending it south to Yesler Way via the out-of-the-way Dilling Way. SDOT says they envision the lane eventually connecting south to Main Street but not until there are fewer buses using 4th Ave S.
As part of a project to make more space for Metro buses to lay over in South Lake Union, SDOT will be reconfiguring Eastlake Ave E along I-5 south of the Lakeview overpass and adding protected bike lanes, although a short segment between Mercer and Roy Street will be a multiuse trail. An extension north to the bike lanes planned as part of the RapidRide J line will be coming later.
Bike lanes planned for Eastlake Ave E in SLU
All of these projects are set to happen while a wide-open Mayor’s race takes place where transportation issues like the West Seattle bridge take center stage, and the two at-large councilmembers (two of the best on transportation) are also up for reelection. The only thing that’s certain is uncertainty.
State law in Washington that dates from the 1990s requires that the Washington Department of Transportation complete a “bicycle transportation and pedestrian walkways plan”. The last version of the plan was created in 2008, and is getting a brand new update. A draft of part one of the plan is available to read and comment on at this online open house until February 15 of 2021.
Part one of the plan is in large part devoted to high level concepts around walking, biking, and rolling facilities, overall purpose and need, the current state of Washington’s active transportation infrastructure, and what WSDOT has heard from community member while conducting public outreach for the plan. Part two, which will come out next year, will cover specific policy topics around project implementation, performance measures, and next steps for developing an actual implementation plan- in other words, even deeper into the weeds.
The entire plan is worth your time, but at 184 pages the draft is a bit hard to get through. I want to highlight a particularly rich area of the report, in case you don’t have time to read it. Chapter 4 looks at cost estimates for statewide needs and opportunities. Early in the report, dropped in a section about benefits of active transportation is the fact that “for the approximate cost of one Seattle-area freeway interchange, approximately 300 miles of trail could be constructed”. These numbers come from WSDOT’s own planning level cost estimates, and it’s facts like these that are the best part of the report.
The report looked at the 6,977 miles of state highway and noted that 1,685 of them went through a city, town, or census-designated place. The plan looked at costs to improve state routes in those population centers in part because that is where a large majority of the bicyclist and pedestrian injuries and fatalities occur, 83% between 2010 and 2020.
The vast majority of people walking and biking hurt on our state highways are in population centers.
86% of pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities in Washington occurred on roads with posted speeds of 30 mph or higher during the same timeframe. The active transportation plan looks at the mileage of state highways with posted speeds over 30 mph, 849 miles, and calculates a one-time statewide need to implement changes bring vehicle speeds below 30 mph at $283 million.
Also estimated is the amount of money to improve the 542 miles of state highways that do not have adequate pedestrian facilities and 1,142 miles where there are not separated bike facilities (on highways where people walking and biking are not prohibited) at $1.8 billion. Add to that $1.6 billion to improve crossing treatments at 7,564 locations on the state system, and 1.98 billion to improve 680 bridges on state routes where pedestrian & bike facilities are nonexistent or substandard.
“Intersection gaps” like the one pictured here near Soap Lake were looked in by the Active Transportation plan.
Added together, the total for those improvements for safety and access to the entire statewide highway system totals $5.7 billion. These aren’t upgrades, they are basic elements that a statewide transportation system should have, before the state spends money expanding it.
Costs associated with adding basic infrastructure to the state system
Governor Inslee’s proposed transportation budget for the next two years totals $6.2 billion in spending, $3.7 billion of that for the Highway Improvements program, which mainly goes to expanding highway capacity, while a tiny portion of the biennial budget goes toward these basic safety improvements. Washington State has had a Target Zero goal for twenty years now, and the state’s transportation agency knows what it will take to make the changes needed to get us there.
Pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities in Washington, 2010-2019
We’ll be closely watching for part 2 of the Active Transportation plan to see how we can get there. In the meantime, read part 1 and submit your comments.
In March of 2019, after Mayor Jenny Durkan overrode the finalized plans that the Seattle Department of Transportation had developed for 35th Ave NE in Wedgwood and removed dedicated space for people to bike on that street, it was SDOT who had to go out sell this politically-motivated change. For months, anyone following the issue had seen the opponents of the bike lanes, with well-established ties to the Mayor, push back against the project. SDOT Director Sam Zimbabwe had been officially in his post for only a month before the decision was announced, but the department had to come up with a justification for the change.
One of those reasons cited was the fact that the inclusion of a protected bike lane on 35th Ave NE in the bicycle master plan didn’t adequately take transit into account. Seattle’s bike plan and its transit plan had a conflict on 35th. SDOT’s blog post about the cancelled bike lanes included the fact that “the new design will also allow efficient transit travel through the corridor with southbound buses making in-lane stops at the curb” as opposed to the prior design, which required buses to merge back with traffic after stopping in the bike lane.
Shortly after that, Zimbabwe told Michelle Baruchman of the Seattle Times answering a question about 35th Ave that “we’ve got a lot of modal plans that are getting to be outdated, and how [do] we take those and overlay them to try and work out some of these conflicts at the citywide level, if we can?” The conversation was being turned away from the broken decision-making process onto the city’s long established plans and goals.
Since then, it looks like this idea that the modal plans don’t “play nice” with each other has taken deeper root at the agency. SDOT has been working on developing an in-house tool that would look at all roadway segments in the city that are “deficient”, meaning they don’t appear to have enough space for the modes in multiple plans, and use a proposed policy framework to resolve those modal conflicts.
So far, we don’t have a good idea yet of where bicycle infrastructure would get prioritized over other modes. According to the policy, “critical connections” would receive priority. Included there is the concept of prioritizing pedestrian movement in all of Seattle’s urban centers and villages, some of the most contested space in the city. “Critical bike segments [would] share priority with pedestrians” in urban villages. There are still a lot of questions about how a critical segment would be defined and how that map would be developed. Right now, it looks like this change will eliminate the bicycle master plan as we know it, and the goals that go along with it, like allowing 100% of the city to live within 1/4 mile of an ALEGRA (all ages, languages, education, genders, races, abilities) bike facility by 2035.
This policy is being developed with SDOT’s Policy and Operations Advisory Group (POAG), which originally convened in response to a council resolution to develop a consistent traffic signal policy, a finalized version of which SDOT released this month. Like this modal prioritization policy, the signal policy was heavily centered around adjacent land use.
SDOT’s proposed framework for resolving modal conflict.
At the November POAG meeting, SDOT presented four different examples of how this prioritization might impact outcomes on different street segments. Looking at those concrete examples highlights the shortcomings of the proposed policy.
Elliott Ave W/15th Ave W in Interbay
Elliott Ave W in Interbay
Elliott Ave W & 15th Ave W are massive (70 foot+) streets with 7 lanes, including curbside Business Access and Transit (BAT) lanes for most of its length. It is not considered “in network” for bicycle facilities, likely because they were not included in the bicycle master plan, even though the nearest parallel bike facility, the terminal 91 bike path, is separated by railroad tracks with a connecting pedestrian bridge. Since the neighborhood is a manufacturing/industrial center, freight access would be at the top of the proposed priority list here, in addition to the transit lanes already in place as part of the frequent transit network. The outcome presented at the meeting is allowing freight to use the bus lanes, turning them into Freight and Transit (FAT) lanes. Additional pedestrian facilities or the impact of reducing auto capacity on the pedestrian environment were not considered here in the exercise.
35th Ave SW in West Seattle
35th Ave SW in West Seattle
The segment of 35th Ave SW looked at here is not located in an urban village or center, and not on the freight network, but is on the frequent transit network. The current bike master plan indicates that protected bike lanes should be included on the street, but according to SDOT, “This is an unlikely critical bike segment as there are parallel bike routes that are flatter than 35th Ave SW”. It’s unclear what that proposed route would be. Bus-only lanes would be the proposed policy outcome here. It’s important to note that it’s not clear that those bus lanes would even be prioritized if it meant taking away general purpose lanes here, particularly on the busier northern segment of 35th (at least prior to the West Seattle bridge closure). A proposed rechannelization there was scaled back during the current administration.
12th Ave E in Capitol Hill
12th Ave E in Capitol Hill
The only example inside an urban center or village, no buses use this street, though one is proposed in Metro’s long range plan. It’s also a minor truck route. According to SDOT, this is an “unlikely critical bike segment”, even though the paint bike lanes south of Denny Way are probably some of the busiest unprotected bike facilities in the city. This is probably because the Bicycle Master Plan shows a protected bike lane on Broadway north of the existing lane which also ends at Denny Way, not on 12th. Again, it’s not clear how “critical” bike lane segment is defined.
Since it’s inside an urban center, the proposed policy would put pedestrians at the top of the list here: the current sidewalks are half as wide as Seattle’s right-of-way manual says they should be. So the outcome would be to “prioritize future sidewalk widening to meet Streets Illustrated standards”, though it’s hard to imagine a time horizon where that would actually occur. In the meantime, the existing on-street parking lanes would be retained and “strategic widenings at intersections, bike parking, other pedestrian realm uses” would be identified.
In other words, a potential sidewalk expansion in the future justifies keeping things mostly the same in the near-term.
Sylvan Way in West Seattle
Sylvan Way in West Seattle
Sylvan Way is shown as the example where bicycle facilities would be at the top of the list for prioritization. SDOT called the street an “excellent candidate for designation as a ‘critical bike segment’ because it is one of the few pathways between the Delridge Valley and High Point”. But the current roadway, with two twelve foot travel lanes and a five foot uphill bike lane, is too narrow to add protected bike lanes, so the “options include constructing a multi-use trail side path, or widening the street to accommodate the PBL”. Without a specific grant, that would be likely to eat up a large segment of the bike budget, but it’s possible.
With these four examples, the only space even theoretically proposed to be reallocated away from general purpose vehicles was the bus lane on 35th Ave SW. For advocates of a citywide ALEGRA bike network, it’s hard to see what the benefit will be to moving forward with a watered down “critical segment” version of the bicycle master plan, particularly if it looks to be as skeletal as the examples provided so far have shown.
The biggest thing that seems to be missing from the policy is an actual way to account for how much street space is allocated to none of these modes, but to general purpose traffic. Bryce Kolton, a representative on the POAG from the transit advisory board, told me, “We didn’t even see the words or any term that could be used for the words ‘general purpose traffic’ or ‘single occupancy vehicle’ appear on slides until the fourth meeting”, mentioning that references to the majority of traffic didn’t appear until urging from POAG members.
Kolton is not optimistic that this policy will result in more multimodal projects moving forward. “My question for SDOT, which I have not received a satisfactory answer for, is how come, with all of the plans we have…are we continuously having watered down transportation projects. Why? Until they can tell me why established plans have not been completed when they aren’t for car traffic…I don’t think a multi-multimodal plan is the answer, and I don’t have any faith in them to go back and be able to fix it.”
Anna Zivarts, a pedestrian advisory board representative on the POAG, was slightly more optimistic about the overall goal of the policy. “I think it does need to be a conversation that happens across the modal boards,” she told me. “The question then becomes, is it an equal distribution? How do we then distribute [the street space]? And that I think is what needs to be provided by SDOT or provided by our elected leaders: what is the vision for the city?”
Noting that the policy is still a draft, she added, “From what I have seen, it’s mostly a way of preserving the status quo. I think it makes sense to integrate…if the integration is seen as a way to force the political conversation so the changes can then happen more easily, then that’s helpful, but I’m not sure the city’s going to have the political will to do that.”
SDOT will be presenting a final proposed policy at the next POAG meeting at the end of January. Once it’s finalized, the department will start to use it internally, but SDOT also has a goal of including a citywide integrated transportation map in the 2024 Comprehensive Plan update, which would enshrine these proposed changes even more deeply in city policy. This framework would absolutely play a large role in the development of the transportation levy set to replace Move Seattle at the end of 2024 as well. There’s a lot that could come out of a shift like this, and we have to make sure that it’s not actually a step in the wrong direction.
Last night, 5 days after SDOT announced that it had installed two speed-display signs on either side of the Aurora bridge, a pedestrian was hit and killed on the Queen Anne side of Aurora Avenue N by someone driving. The Seattle Times reports that as of last night SPD did not have any information to provide about the events that proceeded the crash. We know the crash happened on the west side of Aurora Ave in the 2400 block and that the victim has been described as a 41-year old man whose identity is not yet known. The driver reportedly left the scene.
This marks the 10th traffic fatality on Seattle’s portion of Aurora Ave N since last January. Nine of those ten fatalities were people walking on Aurora. Many more people have been seriously injured on the street in that timeframe. Aurora Ave and Rainier Ave frequently change places as the top street for traffic fatalities in the city of Seattle.
Aurora Ave just got a #VisionZero upgrade with new speed radar signs. Thanks to @Reuvencarlyle for supporting our work to end traffic deaths and serious injuries on city streets by 2030! https://t.co/uDiM37ubKf
— Seattle Department of Transportation (@seattledot) December 18, 2020
Last year, when the city announced that it was lowering the speed limit on the vast majority of arterial streets to 25 mph, it noted that state routes like Aurora would not be included in that but that also said that “the City will also partner with the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to reduce speeds on state highways within city limits, including Aurora Ave N on State Route 99 and Lake City Way on State Route 522”. The speed limit remains 40 mph on Aurora Ave all the way from the SR-99 tunnel to Green Lake, the longest stretch in the city with a speed limit that high.
40 mph+ speeds substantially reduces the likelihood that a pedestrian will survive a crash
WSDOT recently spent $19 million repaving the entirety of Aurora Ave from Roy Street to the city line, and despite both agencies having a shared goal of reducing fatalities and serious injuries to zero by 2030, minimal safety improvements were completed with that repaving. According to state law, SDOT is responsible for the traffic operations on the street, though the state would need to approve a change to the speed limit. Why hasn’t it happened yet?
We recently reported that the state 2021-2023 transportation budget will likely include money to complete a $2 million planning study for Aurora, which would not include any money for actual roadway changes. The state has already completed many studies encompassing portions of this dangerous route, what is needed now is action.
Governor Jay Inslee has released his proposed two-year budget for July 2021 through June 2023 in advance of the legislative session starting in January. He has touted the budget as the “strongest environmental justice proposal in U.S. history”, and says that if approved it would put Washington on a path to reduce statewide emissions by 35% by 2030.
The centerpiece of the climate actions include a cleaner fuel standard, aligning us with Oregon and California’s standards, and a cap-and-invest program aimed at the state’s largest carbon polluters.
On the transportation side, the $6.2 billion transportation budget includes a proposed $724 for the state’s continued work to remove culverts blocking access to salmon habitat, and $190 million ($318M over four years) to continue converting the Washington state ferry fleet to hybrid electric. It also includes $15 million to electrify local transit systems, and $1.5 million for electric vehicle promotion and outreach.
It also includes a $20 million boost to the state’s grant program for Safe Routes to School programs as well as the Pedestrian and Bicyclist grant program. That will bring the total funding for both programs to just under $80 million, or 1.3% of the statewide transportation budget.
The local active transportation grant programs relative to the rest of WSDOT’s budget.
The highway management & facilities, highway improvements, and highway preservation programs make up 78% of the state’s transportation budget, or sixty-one times the amount allocated to those safety grants.
WSDOT has already submitted its list of projects it expected to be funded under both the Safe Routes to School and the Pedestrian and Bicyclist program for 2021-2023. Local agencies submitted over $189 million dollars’ worth of projects. Only 16 out of 107 projects were expected to be funded in the Pedestrian and Bicyclist program and 23 out of 125 in the Safe Routes to School program, leaving dozens of worthy projects with real safety impacts unfunded. With the funding boost from the governor’s budget, more will move forward.
Locally, the 1st Ave NW neighborhood greenway in Greenwood is set to receive $1 million in Safe Routes to School funding. $1.8 million for the protected bike lane on MLK Jr Way S connecting Judkins Park Station, $2 million for sidewalks on Renton Ave S just south of Seattle’s city limits, and $1.5 million for a planning study on Aurora Ave N were the projects initially set to receive Pedestrian and Bicyclist Program funding.
With the additional boost in the governor’s budget, it looks like a neighborhood greenway along 135th Ave NE connecting the Olympic Hills greenway to the Cedar Park Elementary greenway is likely to receive the $620,000 that SDOT was hoping to be awarded.
That leaves dozens of projects that could make walking and biking to school easier and improve the ability to get around without a car in cities all across Washington. WSDOT includes a chart in their program update showing the historical availability of funding compared with the requests from local agencies. These are exactly the types of projects that should all receive full funding from the state department of transportation.
Pedestrian & Bicyclist program funding relative to funding requests, since 2005.
Meanwhile, the WSDOT “highway improvement” program is set to receive funding for expansion of I-5 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord of $101 million, more than the entire requests for funding in either grant program. There’s also $112 million to widen I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass, $533 million for the next phase of the Puget Sound Gateway highway expansion project, and $205 million for the next phase of the North Spokane Corridor highway expansion. Those projects have all been approved by the legislature in previous sessions- and that’s just the big ticket items. It’s likely the legislature will seek to add to that list in the upcoming session.
In October, the Washington Traffic Safety Commission received a presentation on WSDOT’s Safety Implementation Plan. The agency’s Target Zero goal is the same as Seattle’s- zero serious injuries or fatalities on Washington’s roadways by 2030- and the update for the safety commission was pretty blunt. “WSDOT failed to meet targets and did not make significant progress” said one slide, which included a chart showing how much Washington is off-track.
WSDOT’s Target Zero goals as presented to the WA Traffic Safety Commission.
One reason Washington is not making progress on traffic safety is likely the fact that it continues to underfund these valuable safety programs that also happen to further the climate goals that Governor Inslee’s budget is centered around. The funding boost here is welcome, but it’s clearly not enough.
