Slow down ... please. Tacoma asks drivers to reduce speed during COVID-19 crisis
When Seattle city leaders announced plans to close 15 miles of residential streets to vehicle access to give pedestrians and bikers more room to social distance safely, some wanted Tacoma to follow suit.
Transportation advocate Downtown on the Go (DOTG) was one of them.
“We have heard from loads of people that the city needs to open more spaces for walking and biking,” DTOG community partnership manager Hally Bert said in an email.
That’s unlikely to happen as the city grapples with a $40 million general fund budget deficit. Staff has already cut programs and temporarily laid off 270 workers.
City staff told The News Tribune earlier this month they explored full and partial street closures on both residential and arterial streets, in addition to a program to encourage local traffic only on residential streets.
“While the Public Works Department did begin evaluating some of these measures, other emerging issues were prioritized over elective temporary roadway closures,” Josh Diekmann, assistant manager from the city’s traffic engineering division, said in an email.
Staff determined the city “did not have the resources to purchase, deploy and monitor the traffic control devices that would be required to ensure safe facilities at this time,” Diekmann added.
When asked how much it would cost to close a street, Diekmann said a cost estimate was not fully developed.
The Seattle Department of Transportation estimates the permanent closure of 20 streets to vehicle access would cost between $100,000 and $200,000, according to The Seattle Times.
City Council member Chris Beale would have liked to do more, but he took what action he could on May 8 to address street safety, introducing a resolution directing City Manager Elizabeth Pauli to create public service announcements to improve public awareness of the impacts of speeding on city roads. It was approved by the council.
The resolution encourages people to drive 20 miles per hour on residential roads rather than the current 25 miles per hour standard. No ramped-up enforcement comes with the resolution; it asks for drivers to voluntarily comply.
“A lot of our park spaces and a lot of our trails have reduced capacity, so people are walking in our neighborhoods,” Beale said at May 15’s meeting.
In Tacoma, police noticed people taking advantage of emptier streets to speed, TPD spokesperson Wendy Haddow said.
In February, there were 71 speeding violations issued in Tacoma, according to the Tacoma Municipal Court. That increased to 76 in March. Gov. Jay Inslee implemented the stay-home order on March 23 to slow the spread of COVID-19. In April, violations dropped to 61.
Despite the decreased number of recorded violations, speeding is still a problem, Haddow said, especially as more people take to walking and biking to get out of the house.
The city will lead a public service announcement and will use in-house resources at no extra cost to the city, said staff. The announcements will be made over the summer using social media and other tools.
Downtown on the Go appreciates the resolution and understands budget constraints are preventing the city from doing more, Bert said, but it’s by no means the end of the conversation. Bert said some residents still want to see more tangible changes, whether that’s creating Open Streets, a nationwide movement to close streets to cars and open them to people, or implementing traffic calming techniques like speed bumps.
“This kind of resolution, even though its a good gesture, skims the surface,” Bert said.
Prior to the spread of COVID-19, the city approved a resolution to launch a Vision Zero campaign calling to end deaths and serious injuries caused by vehicles by 2035.
Between 2014 and 2018, there were approximately 17,000 reported collisions on Tacoma’s streets, resulting in over 400 serious injuries or fatalities, according to the city.
VIsion Zero includes policy recommendations like lowering the speed limit to 25 miles per hour for arterials and 20 miles per hour for residential streets and bolstering street crossings and bike lanes.
The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic upended the council’s ability to move ahead with those policy changes in a timely manner, Beale said.
For now, leaders ask people to be aware while they’re out driving, walking or biking.
“As they call it, 20 (MPH) is plenty,” said Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards. “It’s a new normal that we’re in and we’re asking people to be mindful that people are out and walking.”
