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Act Now to support walk/bike/transit in the 2020 City Budget!
We care about making every neighborhood in Seattle a great place to walk, bike, and live, and Seattle has fallen far behind on it's promises and goals.
We're calling on the Mayor and City Council to go beyond general statements of support for transportation and environmental issues, and act now to align our city budget with Seattle's values.
Act now to ask City Council to support these budget priorities, and join us on Thursday, October 22 at the City Council budget hearing.
Seattle Neighborhood Greenways has a huge slate of budget asks this year!
Safe spaces for people to walk and roll: We're pushing for a long-term, sustainable source of funding for new sidewalks, as well as continued funding for our successful Home Zone Pilot, a vibrant pedestrian space for Thomas St, and a safe crossing for the Duwamish Longhouse.
Safe spaces for people to bike: We're asking for funding for the currently unfunded routes in the 2019-2024 Bicycle Master Plan (BMP) Implementation Plan, including the Georgetown to South Park Trail and Beacon Ave Trail, among others. We're also asking for funding for proactive Bike Infrastructure Maintenance to take care of the infrastructure that we do have. We're also asking for funding for in-street bike and scooter parking corrals.
Other Transportation Improvements: Including Safe Routes to School Funding, transit priority, SDOT's Transportation Equity Agenda, and asking SDOT to develop alternative evaluation methods that effectively measure people, rather than just cars.
See below for more details on these important issues! These priorities include those in the MASS Transportation Package set by the Move All Seattle Sustainably (MASS) Coalition.
More details about our budget advocacy this Fall:
Safe spaces for people to walk and roll: We applaud the $4 million increase in funding for new sidewalks in the Mayor's budget, and also recognize the need for a long-term sustainable source of funding to address the 26% of Seattle streets that don't currently have safe places to walk. In addition, we're pushing for:
Home Zones: Thanks to last year's advocacy, our successful Home Zone Pilot is currently partially funding the construction of home zones in South Park and Broadview. We're pushing to continue the pilot program creating low-cost, neighborhood solutions for non-arterial streets with no sidewalks.
Thomas St: We're leading the effort to create a vibrant pedestrian space on Thomas St connecting South Lake Union and Uptown. Getting Thomas St. right will reconnect our neighborhoods, retain talented employees, connect our cultural and civic assets, and get people to the new arena at Seattle Center.
Duwamish Longhouse Crossing: People on foot are currently crossing 5 lanes with a 40 mph posted speed limit on a major truck route, without a crosswalk, to get to the Duwamish Longhouse from Herring House Park and parking lots, and from the Duwamish Trail. We're supporting the Duwamish Tribe's request for the $2 million needed so that people can safely access this important cultural and community center.
Safe spaces for people to bike:
We're asking the City to fully fund the bike routes included in the 2019-2024 Bicycle Master Plan (BMP) Implementation Plan, as unanimously supported by City Council RES 31894 and the Mayor's cover letter to the plan. The total funding gap is between $25 and $50 million, spread out over 4 years. The currently unfunded routes include the Georgetown to South Park Trail, Beacon Ave Trail, MLK, Georgetown to Downtown Connection, 4th Ave, and Alaskan Way to Elliott Bay Trail Connection, among others.
Proactive Bike Infrastructure Maintenance standards to take care of the infrastructure that we do have. We're asking for an additional $1.5 million per year to cover re-painting, pavement marking updates, bollard replacement, lane-sweeping, storm drainage, and clearing of debris, foliage, and snow in existing on-street bike infrastructure.
Expand SDOT's installation of In-Street Bike Parking. We're asking for an additional $1.4 million as noted in the SDOT response to RES 31898. These funds would be used to hire a term-limited team of planning, design, and construction employees for the sole purpose of installing 3000 new off-sidewalk parking spaces for bikes and scooters, which would have the added benefit of increasing visibility for pedestrians at intersections.
Other Transportation Improvements:
Safe Routes to School: We're asking for a full-time Active Transportation Coordinator to help kids get safely to school, and for the City to restore funding to Safe Routes to School that was siphoned off into the general fund last year, and ensure that this kind of siphoning doesn't happen again. Find out more about our Safe Routes to School work here.
Transit Priority: We applaud the 30 blocks of bus lanes SDOT rolled out this fall and the 60 blocks planned for next year. Still, we aren't doing enough to grapple with the Seattle Squeeze and the climate crisis. We're working with allies in the MASS Coalition to push for SDOT to double bus lane mileage and implement signal priority in key locations.
Transportation Equity Agenda: SDOT's Transportation Equity Agenda and the Workgroup it formed have only temporary funding. We're pushing for continued funding to ensure that this work is sufficiently staffed and resourced to be implemented department-wide.
Measure What Matters: SDOT currently measures the success of an intersection with what's called a "level of service," which measures delay for vehicle traffic. We're pushing for SDOT to develop alternative evaluation methods.
Act now to ask City Council to support these priorities, and join us on Thursday, October 22 at the City Council budget hearing.
Get involved in Seattle Neighborhood Greenways by volunteering with us or donating to support our work.
Thank you for your continued advocacy!
Clara Cantor
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