Seattle Mayor: “More Choices Means Fewer Cars on Our Streets”

11:44 AM EST on March 4, 2015

Move Seattle calls for putting almost every resident of Seattle within frequent transit. Image: City of Seattle — Move Seattle calls for expanding frequent transit service to reach more of the city. Image: City of Seattle

On Monday, Mayor Ed Murray unveiled "Move Seattle" -- a 10-year vision for transportation that synthesizes planning for street safety, transit, and bicycling.

“More choices means fewer cars on our streets," Murray said when announcing the plan. "That means, when you do need to drive, you’ll be up against less traffic. And with roads less clogged, freight deliveries can make it to their destination on-time, supporting jobs and growing our economy."

Streetsblog Network members in the region are giving it pretty rave reviews. Martin Duke at Seattle Transit Blog says the projects in the plan line up very closely with his "wish list" for the city. Seattle Bike Blog's Tom Fucoloro says the bike routing isn't perfect but believes "there’s a lot to like in this plan." And at The Urbanist, Stephen Fesler is enthusiastic too:

The plan is focused around five central pillars: safety, interconnectedness, vibrancy, affordability, and innovation. The Mayor wants the transportation department (SDOT) to use every tool in their arsenal to deliver comprehensive projects that put the City’s public right-of-ways to their best use. That doesn’t mean that every street will meet every modal need. Instead, in the spirit of Complete Streets, SDOT will look at corridors as whole systems -- something the agency has been doing for a long time -- to provide for all modes in city projects. Ultimately, the city will rapidly see a change from one primary mode to a wide variety of modes to drive equity and balance needs.

Here are the major 10-year transit goals in the plan, via Seattle Transit Blog:

Provide 72% of Seattle residents with 10-minute all-day transit service within a 10-minute walk of their homes.
Provide RapidRide levels of investment and service on 7 new corridors (for a total of 10 overall).
Increase transit service and improve our streets to make transit more reliable
Provide real-time travel information to the public.

Elsewhere on the Network today: ATL Urbanist explains Atlanta's newly announced plans for bike-share. Streets.mn ponders the transportation costs of school choice policies. And Bike SD says a mandatory helmet law would hurt San Diego's bike-share plans.

Angie Schmitt @

Angie is a Cleveland-based writer with a background in planning and newspaper reporting. She has been writing about cities for Streetsblog for six years.

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