All new or upgraded traffic signals in Seattle will feature “No Turn On Red” restrictions by default while also retrofitting dozens of existing signals with the signs. So even though a turn on red ban did not make it through the Washington legislature this year, Seattle is not waiting for the state. In fact, perhaps Seattle’s experience will help create more momentum for a turn on red ban in the next session.
The SDOT memo (PDF) announcing the department’s new policy notes a couple very troubling facts:
Until 1959 the City of Seattle prohibited right turns on red. In 1975, the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) required all states to permit right turns on red to reduce fuel consumption and estimated a travel time savings of 1–5 seconds for vehicles turning at signals. Studies following the 1975 EPCA showed that right turn on red crashes with people walking increased by 60 to 70 percent.
There are times when the total disregard for basic ethics by the traffic engineering profession is truly astounding, and this is one of them. There is no amount of time savings for people driving cars that would ever be worth increasing right turn on red crashes with people walking by 60 to 70 percent. Yet U.S. federal policy essentially required all states to permit turns on red in the 1970s, and Washington was at the forefront of that movement. It shouldn’t require stating, but people’s lives are more important than drivers maybe saving a few seconds. Like, we all agree on that, right?
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