Q13 News invited me on their morning news show today to talk about traffic violence downtown, which I described a few weeks ago as “a public health emergency we haven’t been treating.”
We also talked about SW Admiral Way, where the city is currently working to make safety improvements and add bike lanes (here’s our original post, though some details have evolved due to public feedback. Stay tuned for an update).
Q13 followed up with SDOT about my claim that the city is dragging its feet on making downtown safer, and here’s how Spokesperson Rick Sheridan responded:
“I think he makes our case that the City is moving forward on a number of fronts (Center City bike network, Vision Zero) to make downtown safer,” Sheridan said. “No one would want us to build a downtown protected bike lane network without appropriate time spent on data collection and analysis, public outreach and thoughtful design.”
The big point I wish I had made was that passing the Move Seattle levy is vital if we want to accelerate the kinds of safety projects we need to take a serious bite out of downtown traffic deaths and injuries in the next decade. The goal is to reach Vision Zero by 2030, and Move Seattle is our best chance to meet that goal.
To learn more or get engaged in the campaign to pass the levy, check out LetsMoveSeattle.com.
Watch the Q13 segment:
Comments
8 responses to “Chatting with Q13 about downtown’s traffic violence emergency”
Hopefully we will move forward with this plan. For example I was in a cycle track that was one city block long and ended at a parking space and against traffic, not that safe. I think the hills around here are one the reasons were behind other cities as far as bike safety. Flat roads are a lot easier to stop on than steep hills. We need more signs pointing to routes that avoid steep hills. We also need drivers to slow down, respect bicycles and pedestrians and put the phones down!!!!! If no one respects bicycles and pedestrians, no amount of infrastructure is going to matter( like people throwing glass bottles on sidewalks and bike lanes and paths). I have had plenty of experience with that happening.
well done, tom! especially love your calm words and re-framing as the anchors attempt to end the interview a us-vs-them cars-vs-bikes note. thank you.
Well said, Tom! Love the closing statement, not going for the “war on cars” bait.
Agree with Don – you did a great job not falling into the war on cars trap.
Also, these quotes are fantastic:
“We have this transportation system that is seriously injuring people, and sometimes killing people and we need to change that.”
“The point of redesigning streets so that they are safer and easier to use is that you have fewer opportunities to make those mistakes. It’s not really about who’s mad at who… it’s about keeping people safe.”
Nice job, Tom! Thank you for representing the bike community and for focusing on the right messages.
Really well done! It’s so great to see some non-sound bite information for once on the news. I really appreciate how you were able to steer the conversation back to solving problems. Well done.
It is a serious issue. Every time I ride (almost) I can count at least one situation where a driver would’ve seriously injured or killed me due to poor driving had I not foreseen what was coming. The level of driving skills, attentiveness, care for others, lack of patience, etc. out there is a major issue.
Good job, Tom! They were trying really hard to turn the segment into a cars vs. bikes debate — kudos for keeping the conversation focused on the broader transportation and public health issues.