Bicyclists of the world rejoice: a PBL that connects to another PBL (Ravenna Boulevard).
Seattle Neighborhood Greenways is gearing up to push the City to increase investments in street safety improvements. Citing a spate of deaths and serious injuries in North Seattle which number 30 since 2015, Seattle Neighbhood Greenways is asking that the City put $3 million in the City budget for 2017. Mayor Ed Murray’s proposed budget recommends spending $2.4 million for safety improves, a difference of $600,000 from Seattle Neighborhood Greenway’s request. Seattle Neighborhood Greenways plans to hold a “Remembrance and Rally for Safer Northeast Seattle Streets” on Sunday in North Seattle with many of their constituent neighborhood advocacy groups, but also is encouraging all members of the public to stand with them. The event will take place at the Northgate Community Center from noon to 2pm on Sunday (October 9th).
Serious injuries and fatalities on Northeast Seattle streets since 2015. (Seattle Neighborhood Greenways)
Call on Seattle City Council to fund $3 million in street safety improvements in 2017.
A rash of serious injuries and fatalities on the streets of north Seattle has galvanized people to demand swift action. From 2015 to the present, there have been 24 serious injury collisions in north Seattle, six of them fatal.
In a normal year, two people lose their lives riding bikes in all of Seattle. In northeast Seattle, two people have been killed riding their bikes just in the past month.
Join Lake City Greenways, NE Seattle Greenways, Green Lake Greenways, Licton-Haller Greenways,Greenwood-Phinney Greenways, Maple Leaf Greenways and many other community groups and neighbors to highlight these unsettlingly incidents. They will gather on Sunday, October 9 at noon in front of the Northgate Community Center to remember the people whose lives have been altered by or lost to traffic violence. The gathering will raise awareness and ask city leaders to put money in the budget to construct street safety improvements.
“Northeast Seattle is experiencing a shocking level of traffic violence,” said Cathy Tuttle, director of the traffic safety organization Seattle Neighborhood Greenways. “We’ve mapped where collisions have happened in the northeast and believe many streets could be fixed with modest but effective safety engineering. The City has identified 100 places that could use spot improvements, and people throughout Seattle have documented another 300 street safety concerns. Let’s get the funding in place so we can fix these places. Waiting longer to improve our streets has deadly consequences.”
Map of serious injuries (orange circles) and fatalities (red circles) in Northeast Seattle since 2015. (Seattle Neighborhood Greenways)
Seattle has committed to Vision Zero (zero serious injuries or fatalities by 2030), but the $2.4 million budgeted for a life-saving agenda is not sufficient. Neighbors are gathering to say #WeCantWait for more serious injuries and fatalities to spur City action.
Stephen is a professional urban planner in Puget Sound with a passion for sustainable, livable, and diverse cities. He is especially interested in how policies, regulations, and programs can promote positive outcomes for communities. With stints in great cities like Bellingham and Cork, Stephen currently lives in Seattle. He primarily covers land use and transportation issues and has been with The Urbanist since 2014.
