Thank you to everyone who joined us on short notice at this morning’s press conference to start a community dialogue about making our roadways safer. This is just the beginning of an important conversation, and we need you to continue to be a part of the change.
More and more people are walking, biking and using transit to navigate the streets of Seattle, which is good for everyone. We — drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists — share the public right of way. We also share the benefits of less congestion, better air quality and healthier people.
Therefore, it is our shared responsibility to create a safe environment and to look out for each other. No traffic fatality is acceptable. We can do better.
Our call to action today is to make our streets safer in two ways: through better conduct and through better infrastructure.
CONDUCT: Every person helps set the tone on the streets. Seattle is a vibrant, urban environment, full of people. We are all trying get where we need to go, safely and efficiently. It is every person’s shared responsibility to look out for each other. Put down the phone. Stop texting. Unplug your ears. We can do better.
Drivers:
- Slow down, and look twice. There are vulnerable users all around you. Look over both shoulders for people crossing the street and for bicycles alongside. The five seconds you might save by driving fast or not stopping can cost a life and irrevocably change your own.
- Be a community pace car. We are in control every time we get behind the wheel. Observe the speed limit, don’t run red lights, and come to complete stops at stop signs. Yield to pedestrians. Expect to see bicycles.
Bicyclists:
- Slow down, and look twice. The minute you’re shaving off your commute by racing down the trail and blowing traffic signals can cost a life, possibly your own.
- Follow the rules of the road. Be an ambassador of best biking conduct. Be predictable, be visible, and be vigilant. Stop at traffic signals.
- Make eye contact and signal your intent. Drivers want to know what you’re doing. Making eye contact will help you see who isn’t looking for you.
- Look for pedestrians. It is a cyclist’s responsibility to yield to pedestrians.
Pedestrians:
- Make eye contact. Pay attention to the environment around you. Communicate with drivers and bicyclists so your intent is known. You are the most vulnerable roadway user out there.
INFRASTRUCTURE: We must improve our roadways for better public safety. That means funding and implementing bicycle, pedestrian and transit enhancements.
We’re asking our elected officials to lead the way by setting policies, allocating funding and implementing plans that encourage and protect all users. Public safety is at stake, and addressing it must be a priority. People should not be dying on our streets due to politics.
People of Seattle are encouraged to get involved in their communities. Join the Neighborhood Greenways movement, for example, to show that your neighborhood wants these improvements.
What do we want to see as a result of today’s event?
- Zero fatalities. We want to see a recommitment from our cities and our state toward the vision of zero traffic fatalities.
- An informed, engaged public. More people who thought they were on the sidelines are coming together and realizing they can do something to make our city better and safer.
- Less rhetoric. We want to hear a decrease the divisive, inflammatory rhetoric so that a civil and responsible conversation can take place about how to make our city streets safer and better.
- Leadership. We call on our elected officials to make protecting our most vulnerable roadway users and improving public safety a top priority.
[...] to improve road safety for cyclists. The group held a press conference Thursday morning where it outlined its call for improving and expanding bike lanes, as well as calling on drivers, cyclists and pedestrians [...]
I do not live in Seattle, but I see problems with cars and bikes. I am an avid motorcycle rider and am very aware of the problems with cars. Cars do not always give room to bikes and bikes do not always follow the rules of the road. This week I was in the U district and 2 times I had to avoid by bicyclist that were weaving in and out of traffic. Hate to say it but, by what I have seen in the Seattle area, bicycles are mostly at fault. They seem to think they do not have to follow traffic laws. I know if I rode my motorcycle like Seattle cyclist, I would receive a Reckless ticket. Wake up and abide by the traffic laws! Quit blaming cars
Mmmm, I would not blame car’s or bikes, but rather the people operating them.
That said, I really don’t want to see this degenerate into another mindless Cars VS Bikes shouting match as the newspaper commenter’s have dropped to.
One life lost is too many, completely right.
If bike riders want all of these improvements done to the roads costing millions of dollars, then why not have them pay for tabs like everyone else who use public roads? If they are concerned with there own safety, shouldn’t they be 16 years old and go through a bicycle road safety class to get a liscence to use our public roads?
Brad, I couldn’t agree more. Bicyclists demand to be treated the same as drivers of motorized vehicles — until it comes to paying their way, and obeying the traffic laws. I find it very hard to take the cyclists very seriously when they display such selfishness in both daily behavior and political agendas.
Fortunately, with both state and city governments short of money and facing even bigger gaps, I don’t think we’ll have to worry too much about a lot of money being spent on the bicycle agenda. Sooner or later, even the activists will realize that the money is simply not available to pay for their unrealistic dreams.
A contagion drifts in…and we all feel sickened.
Mike, Brad, Jake- pls remember the rules of the road out there. Sadly, I can’t control anyon else’s behavior, only my own. Speed limits, traffic signals, and everything else. All good stuff.
See you on the road.
“Be a community pace car. ” — just not in the left lane on the highways
OK, one more time.
Your car tabs do not pay for the roads, they pay for your car tabs or whatever else is tacked on to them.
Your drivers license fee doesn’t pay for the roads, that fee pays for the license and that’s all.
The main source of funding for the roads is from property taxes.
We don’t have user fee’s to use public roads because they are public roads, for use by the public, get it? Americans have the right to use a public road without sufferance (permission) from the state or federal government. It’s a Right that we have, understand?
So. please don’t troll anymore about how cyclists need to pay and pay and pay, WE ALREADY DO!
Now quit driving into us!
The “bikes need to pay” meme is easily countered with facts. Facts are that cyclists already pay for the local roads, but not the freeways. I’m a commuter, I own a condo and a couple of cars, and my wife and I are professionally employed so we pay all kinds of taxes and fees.
Where does the money come from for the local roads I use?
From Publicola: Here’s the SDOT 2009 arterial and non-arterial paving expenditures. They spent $29,377,725 for arterial and $261,000 for non-arterial for a total of $29,638,725. The arterial revenue sources breakdown as follows:
Bonds: $14,748,947 (50.20 percent)
Bridging the Gap Property Tax: $9,693,410 (33 percent)
Bridging the Gap Commercial Parking Tax: $4,801,062 (16.34 percent)
Gas Tax: $129,981 (.44 percent)
Grants: $4,325 (.01 percent)
All of SDOT’s non-arterial paving work was 100 percent funded by the gas tax, but non-arterial work only accounts for .9 percent of total paving expenditures for 2009.
The paving numbers reinforce what the budget numbers already showed: everyone is paying for Seattle’s roads.
Brad and Jake,
Why stop with license fees for bicycle riders? What about pedestrians? They are using an awful lot of the right of way too, and demanding sidewalks, crosswalks, signals and overpasses. License ‘em! And an extra license plate for wheelchairs, to pay for all those curb cuts. And dogs. There could be a surcharge on pet license tags for dogs who are using the sidewalks and fire hydrants and crosswalks. That way, in addition to the property taxes that I pay that actually pay for the city streets, I could pay license tab fees for two motor vehicles, three bikes, my self as a pedestrian, and a dog.
As some one who has, as a pedestrian, been hit by a car over in W. Seattle at Genesee and California, while in a freshly painted crosswalk, with the lights, both traffic and crosswalk, on a sunny day, while wearing bright clothing, and while looking around, I have only one piece of advice: at some level, if you are a pedestrian or bicyclist, cars, busses and some trucks are out to kill you.
Most drivers are are in confrontational mood with each other, and while they might get hurt physically or $$$ by a physical altercation with another car truck or bus, they don’t feel the same about bikes or pedestrians. Bikes and pedestrians barely register as conscious markers, unless in the way of rapid, smooth progress.
So remember, they ARE out to kill or maim you. And, really, the attitude of most people, the state, county and city is that if you are a bicyclist or pedestrian, it’s ok to be hit by a vehicle. Really.
Paul
[...] hope, but hope alone won’t amount to much. If more families are going to get around by bike, we need safer streets. And we need them [...]
[...] Cascade lays out the path to safe streets People of Seattle are encouraged to get involved in their communities. Join the Neighborhood Greenways movement, for example, to show that your neighborhood wants these improvements. [...]
[...] in the news. The PI, the Seattle Times, the Economist, the Stranger, Crosscut, Cascade Bike Club blog, the Sun Break, and the Ballard News Tribune have published articles about safe streets and [...]