Seattle Times' Vision Zero criticism is misleading - safety projects work when implemented
Source: "Seattle Bike Blog." May 23, 2026. www.seattlebikeblog.com
The Gist
The author argues that a Seattle Times article wrongly claims safety projects don't work. In reality, safety projects do work very well when they're actually built, but Seattle hasn't built them on the most dangerous streets where most deaths happen.
Conclusion
The Seattle Times opinion piece falsely claims that Vision Zero safety spending isn't making Seattle streets safer, when in fact safety projects consistently work but haven't been implemented on the most dangerous streets
Premises
- The vast majority of Seattle's traffic deaths and injuries occur on wide multi-lane streets where the city has not yet invested in significant safety projects
- 80% of Seattle's pedestrian deaths occur on streets with multiple lanes traveling in the same direction
- When SDOT does implement Vision Zero corridor projects on multi-lane streets, they consistently reduce and often nearly eliminate injuries and deaths
- The Rainier Avenue redesign project prevented an estimated 80 serious injuries and 10 deaths over its operational period
- Seattle has a huge backlog of dangerous streets that remain unaddressed due to lack of political will, not ineffective safety measures
- The city has been talking about the same dangerous streets since Vision Zero began in 2015 without making necessary changes
Assumptions
- Past performance of safety projects predicts future effectiveness
- The correlation between safety project implementation and reduced casualties indicates causation
- Political will is the primary barrier to implementing effective safety measures
- Multi-lane arterial streets are inherently more dangerous than other street designs