Take 21 » Pedestrian Safety

More sidewalks will reduce pedestrian crashes, says Councilmember

george — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:46:35 +0000

On the September 2009 edition of City Inside/Out: Council Edition, a viewer named Rick asked Seattle City Councilmember Nick Licata the following question: “I know we’ve spent millions of dollars in the last few years on pedestrian safety, including better crosswalks, wider sidewalks, more signage, education campaigns, etc. Do we know yet if any of that has had an effect? Are pedestrian accidents actually lower year over year?”

Councilmember Nick Licata, co-chair of the Council’s Pedestrian Safety Committee, says, “We have over 400 pedestrian [-vehicle] crashes per year. It’s still too early to give a positive answer” on whether the City’s pedestrian safety effort is working. Licata went on to cite national studies that show that sidewalks reduce the number of pedestrian/vehicle crashes.

In 2004, the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Research Program released a report that summarized research on pedestrian safety in the United States including the safety effects of various roadway features. According to the FHWA’s summary, “[S]ites with no sidewalks were the most hazardous to pedestrians, and sites where sidewalks were present on both sides of the road were least hazardous.” Surprisingly, the FHWA found that painted crosswalks did not improve pedestrian safety. In fact, on multi-lane roads with a high volume of traffic, more pedestrian-vehicle crashes occur in painted crosswalks than unpainted ones. Researchers conjecture that pedestrians exercise less caution in painted crosswalks.

There are 952 miles (at 16 blocks to a mile, roughly 15,232 blocks) of city streets that do not have sidewalks, according to the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT). Bridging the Gap, a voter-approved transportation levy, provides around $1 million per year for building new sidewalks. With this funding, in 2008, the City built 15 blocks of new sidewalk; in 2009 the City’s goal is to increase that amount to 25 blocks.

Councilmember Licata said, “We are making the improvements…The expectation is, ‘Yes, we will see these changes,’ but we are not going to see them in the next six months. It’s going to take a couple of years.”

In the fall of 2009, the City Council is expected to make a decision on whether to adopt the Pedestrian Master Plan.

cityweb — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:48:59 +0000

According to Washington State law, vehicles must yield to pedestrians at every intersection, whether there is a marked crosswalk or not; and pedestrians must not move into the path of a vehicle in such a way that it is impossible for the driver to stop. The Pedestrian Master Plan notes that there are “approximately 6,000 marked crosswalks in Seattle.” The plan says, “The City has a generally conservative approach to marking crosswalks. In other cities such as Washington, D.C. and Tucson, Arizona, the project team has observed more marked crosswalks at unsignalized intersections, especially in downtown commercial-type settings. In Seattle, crosswalks are not marked on non-arterial streets unless it is a designated school crossing.”

Currently the City of Seattle is experimenting with additional measures at crosswalks such as pedestrian crossing flags, overhead pedestrian crossing signs and signs that direct drivers where to stop for pedestrians.

In the fall of 2009, the City Council is expected to make a decision on whether to adopt the Pedestrian Master Plan.

Will Seattle become the nation’s most walkable city

george — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:40:08 +0000

City Hall has set an ambitious goal — to make Seattle the most walkable city in the nation. On Tuesday, July 21, 2009, the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) delivered a plan with this mission to the City Council. The draft Pedestrian Master Plan lays out the “goals, policies, programs, and improvements for making Seattle a pedestrian-friendly city,” according to the Council’s website. While, the plan notes, Seattle is consistently rated one of the safest cities for pedestrians, there were “1,433 reported pedestrian crashes in the three-year period between 2005 and 2007. Of these, nearly 70% occurred at intersections, while around 30% occurred at mid-block locations.” Currently, the plan notes, Seattle has “approximately 2,256 miles of sidewalks” but the city also has “around 767 miles of potential sidewalk locations in Seattle’s residential zones that do not presently have a sidewalk on one or both sides of the street. This accounts for around 30% of the total sidewalk area in residential zones…”

Send your comments about the plan to the city council. Councilmembers Jan Drago and Nick Licata co-chair the Council’s Pedestrian Safety Committee.