What if you heard about a way to improve our quality of life, make our neighborhood streets safer, save taxpayer money, and cut red tape all in one swoop?
And all that it would take to achieve this is for our state lawmakers to let it happen?
With careful design and safety engineering, we can create great neighborhood streets for all residents; elderly people out for a walk, children bicycling to school, college kids on their way to hop a bus, and workers heading to their home driveway.
A bill known as SHB 1217 - the Neighborhood Safe Streets bill - is under consideration in Olympia this week. This proposed change to state law would remove a barrier to better neighborhood planning, by letting local city leaders and traffic engineers decide when it is a good idea to set a speed limit to 20 mph instead of 25 mph on non-arterial streets.
Did you know that the chances of dying from a collision with a car at 20 mph is only 1-in-20, compared to a near 50/50 likelihood of death from a similar impact at 30 mph? A little reduction in speed can make a big difference in safety.
Right now, Washington cities are required to perform costly engineering and traffic studies to satisfy outside officials, using both time and money, before cities are allowed to adjust speed limits to create safer neighborhood streets. SHB 1217 puts control back in local hands, to choose when, where, and if lowering neighborhood speed limits is a good idea.
Bellingham residents do not need to be told the value of safe, walkable routes within and among our neighborhoods. We have supported the Greenways open space and trail program not just once, but three times at the ballot box.
Like these greenways, neighborhood streets can be as important and as heavily enjoyed, connecting neighbor to neighbor and adding to a healthier lifestyle. One key to making this happen is good rules for cars, pedestrians and cyclists to exist alongside each other. SHB 1217 gives us one more tool.
In this time of tight budgets, SHB 1217 would remove a bureaucratic hurdle that costs money and scarce staff time, especially for cities smaller than Bellingham. The new law would keep the same high standards of design and safety, but put control back into our own hands. SHB 1217 cuts red tape, not corners.
SHB 1217 is a common sense reform, and is supported by a growing number of medical associations, PTAs, health departments and city governments across the state. But decisions in the state Senate may happen as early as this Thursday, Feb. 16, and this support needs to grow.
Letting local governments decide safer maximum speeds in neighborhoods has worked in Idaho and British Columbia, among other places. It can work in Washington State, too.
Please call or write your legislators in Olympia today, and let them know you support passage of the Neighborhood Safe Streets bill.
Michael Lilliquist currently serves on the Bellingham City Council, which has voted to support SHB 1217.
