Vision Zero

WSDOT Secretary Roger Millar is asking for a dedicated funding source to fix the most dangerous state highways in Washington, laying down a $150 million per year benchmark.

The Seattle Department of Transportation has wrapped up work on a new bike connection between Judkins Park and Mount Baker. Its roots can be traced back to a vision the Seattle City Council moved forward in 2019.

It had looked like the idea of reallocating street space to bike lanes was off the table in Bellevue, but a city council discussion last week restarted the debate.

Seattle Councilmember Bob Kettle has asserted that projects intended to improve traffic safety can negatively impact emergency response. The data to back it up is not there.

With the loss of the SoDo Busway for Sound Transit light rail expansion, 4th Avenue S in SoDo will have to accommodate dozens of additional buses per hour. The Seattle Department of Transportation is pushing for a plan that won't worsen safety on the street.

A "Safe Systems" motion from King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci would prompt county government to harness the power of every department to help reduce deadly and serious-injury traffic crashes.

Safety-focused changes to busy Bel-Red Road, an unavoidable corridor for many Bellevue residents, were taken off the table by a 3-2 vote of the Bellevue Transportation Commission last week.

With Bellevue backsliding on many of its prior commitments to improve safety and multimodal connectivity, a coalition of advocates are trying to get things back on track. The group is seeking bigger investments in the city's next biennial budget.