Cities across the country, including Seattle, Bellevue, Bothell, Edmonds and others around the region, have been experimenting with repurposing street space to provide more room for socially-distanced movement and outdoor commercial activity. They have provided expanded space for walking and biking to avoid close passing on skinny paths and allowed businesses to expand into road space to provide, for example, outdoor restaurant seating. These efforts attempt to make better use of road space, which occupies an enormous percentage of all public space in a city, to meet the needs of the moment. When indoor customer interactions must be limited to prevent coronavirus transmission, the best use of our outdoor space changes.
In many communities across the state, especially smaller cities and towns, the main commercial street is also a state highway. So while counties and municipalities have a lot of control over local streets, they often do not have jurisdiction over the state highway that serves as their Main Street. And these highways are almost never comfortable for crossing on foot or traveling by bike, two modes that have increased in use as people seek ways to stay active and get around affordably. And businesses on state highways are dealing with the same indoor customer restrictions as everywhere else.
Far too often throughout the past century, the state has put car throughput on state highways above the needs of the communities these highways pass through. The primary commercial streets in so many communities are often very difficult to safely cross on foot, for example, which is bad for businesses. The result is more cars passing by, sure, but also less incentive for people driving those cars to stop.
But the attitude at WSDOT has been changing, and the latest effort is an example of the department seeing its role as not just about moving cars but also about fostering successful business districts and community life in the places built around state highways.
“In most cities, a quarter of all its land is taken up by streets,” Governor Jay Inslee said in a WSDOT press release. “I applaud the agencies’ work to ensure this land has flexible uses that can improve health and safety, and jumpstart the economy.” (more…)