Wilson expedites safety projects and prioritizes Vision Zero across departments

Outside Cleveland High School on Friday, Mayor Wilson unveiled her Vision Zero Executive Order. This long-awaited executive order re-prioritizes Vision Zero for the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and for other city agencies. In 2015, Seattle committed to reaching zero serious injuries or fatalities on the city’s roadways by 2030. In the decade since, 280 people have been killed and 31,000 people have been injured while traveling around Seattle. The executive order has five sections with specific deliverables from various city agencies.

Accelerating Project Delivery

Section 1 focuses on speeding up the implementation of road safety projects. Far too often, safety projects are bundled with street repaving or other infrastructure upgrades that take years to design and complete. Rather than wait on those changes, this section directs SDOT to implement safety improvements earlier while the larger projects are designed. This could include lane configurations or parking on arterial streets. In addition, this executive order directs SDOT to deliver following projects earlier than scheduled:

• SW Wildwood Place protected bike lane between Fauntleroy Way SW and 45th Ave SW (by the end of 2026). This is where Maridee BonaDea was killed in June.
• 12th Ave S. Phase 2 Safety Corridor between E Yesler Way and S King St. (by Q3 2027). This is where Christian Salyer was killed in June.
• Traffic calming on high-speed arterial corridors, including Martin Luther King Jr. Way S., Swift Ave S., 15th Ave NE., 1st Ave S., and Dexter Ave N. (by Q2 2027).
• Safety upgrades at 19 identified high-collision locations, including locations on Aurora Ave N., Rainier Ave S., and 5th Ave (by Q3 2026).
• Head-start walk signals (leading pedestrian intervals) at 40 intersections (by Q3 2026).
• Intersection daylighting (an effort to clear sightlines for improved visibility of conflicting movements) at 20 intersections (by Q2 2027).

Section 1 also calls on SDOT to determine ways to accelerate project delivery for different project types, such as expediting community engagement, streamlining project scopes, and improving coordination with Seattle City Light (SCL) and Seattle Public Utilities (SPU). SDOT is also directed to implement intersection daylighting at any intersection that receives other improvements (similar to the No Turn on Red rollout process). Finally, Section 1 calls for an analysis of arterial road lighting conditions to identify areas that need lighting upgrades.

Safer Vehicles

Section 2 focuses on improving city-owned vehicles to include protections for other road users. The Department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS) is tasked with developing a plan to retrofit city vehicles with enhanced safety features or replace vehicles with smaller, lighter weight options. In addition, FAS will need to deliver a report that outlines the impacts of requiring all City-contracted vendors’ and sub-vendors’ large vehicles to be equipped with convex mirrors, cross-over mirrors, blind-spot awareness decals, side guards, vulnerable road user detection, automatic emergency braking, and Intelligent Speed Assistance.

Safer Speeds

Section 3 calls on SDOT and the Seattle Police Department to rollout speed cameras at ten locations around Seattle by March 31, 2029. SDOT is also tasked with identifying roads where signal timings can be adjusted to reduce vehicle speeds or increase pedestrian crossing times.

Team Effort

Reducing traffic injuries and deaths requires coordination from several city agencies. Section 4 of the executive order tasks SDOT with creating an interdepartmental team that will meet monthly on Vision Zero progress. This team will include representatives from SDOT, SPD, SFD, SCL, SPU, the City Attorney’s office, City Budget Office, and the Mayor’s Office. This section also calls on the expansion of the School Streets program to include 40% of eligible public schools.

State Legislative

The fifth and final section of Wilson’s executive order sets the priorities for the Office of Intergovernmental Relations (OIR) on a few key issues: reducing liability following street improvement projects, increasing dollar value limits on City crew projects, legislative best practices around Vision Zero, supporting local control on No Right on Red policies, supporting efforts to lower the blood-alcohol content limit to 0.05%, and increasing the maximum weight of certain vehicles subject to transportation benefit district vehicle fees.

The changes outlined in this executive order will expedite the City’s efforts to reach Vision Zero by 2030. This strong initiative has largely been missing from political leaders for the past decade. SDOT has implemented a few city-wide policies as part of the effort to achieve Vision Zero. In 2019, leading pedestrian intervals became the default option for all new or updated traffic signals. The following year, the City reduced the speed limit on almost all arterial roads to 25mph. Since 2023, No Turn on Red signs have been added to hundreds of intersections and will be applied to all new or modified intersections. This policies have seen positive results, but are not sufficient to reach zero serious injuries and fatalities by 2030. With the addition of Mayor Wilson’s policies introduced yesterday, Seattle may be able to reach its goal in the next four years.