‘Gambling with our safety.’ Neighbors want safety fixes on busy Tacoma roadway
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- 1,336 residents petition Tacoma and WSDOT to add barriers, roundabouts, cameras.
- City plans speed cameras next year; council seeks traffic redesign and state funding.
- Residents and lawsuit plaintiffs press for long-term fixes as crashes and deaths persist.
Residents in Northeast Tacoma are sounding the alarm about Marine View Drive – a stretch of road adjacent to the Tideflats that has seen hundreds of crashes over the years.
As of Oct. 17, 1,336 people signed a petition calling for the city of Tacoma and Washington State Department of Transportation to install protective measures to prevent crashes and deaths on the roadway. South Sound 911 in 2025 received 43 calls regarding collisions on Marine View Drive and Norpoint Way, a local road that feeds into Marine View Drive, according to documents obtained by The News Tribune.
The petition also calls for the installation of jersey barriers, roundabouts, speed humps and red-light cameras throughout the roadway.
“This crucial step not only promises to decrease risk but also emphasizes a commitment to protecting the lives of Tacoma’s citizens,” the petition states.
District 2 City Council member Sarah Rumbaugh, whose district includes Marine View Drive, said the city plans to install speed cameras “in the coming year” in an effort to address some of the safety concerns.
“I think traffic cameras will help slow traffic down, which we think is a good short-term fix, but I think looking at how we redesign that with a traffic engineer is what we need to do,” she told The News Tribune.
Rumbaugh said she has also connected residents in the area with state officials, including state Rep. Jake Fey, a Democrat representing Washington’s 27th district, to explore the possibility of securing state funding for a larger effort to make Marine View Drive safer. Fey, whose district includes Northeast Tacoma, did not return a request for comment.
“It’s something that I’ve cared about for a long time, and I understand the concerns,” Rumbaugh said. “It seems like every week there’s some accident, and I believe they’re all speed related.”
Rumbaugh is running for re-election to the District 2 seat against Tacoma resident Ben Lackey.
Rumbaugh resides in Northeast Tacoma and agreed that the roadway is particularly dangerous. She said when traffic backs up on I-5, Marine View Drive often sees cut-through traffic – drivers who aren’t from the area who detour onto Marine View Drive to save time on their commute.
“I live out there, so I am impacted by anything that happens out in Northeast Tacoma, and I care about every single accident or fatality that has happened on my street, and I don’t think we’re not doing something. I think we’re actively working on solutions,” she said.
Residents demand action from city
Some residents said the city could be doing more.
Amanda Nelson, who has lived in Northeast Tacoma for over 20 years, said in addition to high-speed driving, city and state officials should address the condition of the road, which has declined over the years and needs to be repaved.
“They’re gambling with our safety, is what they’re doing, by not fixing the road,” Nelson told The News Tribune. “They’ve been neglected and deteriorated for years. It puts our community at risk. We’ve been patient long enough.”
Marine View Drive has also been a source of litigation. The family of Hannah Lindemeier, who in 2020 died in a crash on the road, filed in 2023 a wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Tacoma, Pierce County and WSDOT. The lawsuit alleged that the three government organizations didn’t do enough to regulate speed and address safety concerns on the road. The suit is ongoing, and a trial is scheduled for Feb. 23, 2026.
The city of Tacoma is also working to replace temporary “no parking” signs along Marine View Drive with permanent ones to deter roadside homeless encampments.
“While the city cannot directly control driver behavior, it is fully committed to creating a safer transportation environment for everyone,” Tacoma spokesperson Maria Lee wrote to The News Tribune in an email.
“The city is committed to working with WSDOT on all state routes in the city, including Marine View Drive,” Lee added.
WSDOT says no current plans for safety fixes
WSDOT spokesperson Cara Mitchell said the agency does not have any future projects planned to improve safety on Marine View Drive beyond the Puget Sound Gateway Program, an effort to build expressways and bridges to “complete critical missing links in Washington state’s highway and freight network.”
“Excessive speed is a concern we share and one that is best addressed through working with Washington State Patrol and other law enforcement partners such as Tacoma Police Department who have oversight in the area,” Mitchell wrote to The News Tribune.
Nelson said speed cameras would be a temporary solution and hopes to see a long-term solution in the form of roundabouts, jersey barriers or speed humps.
A handful of residents from Northeast Tacoma turned out to a City Council meeting last month to urge the city during public comment to take action to make the roadway safer.
“It’s getting worse,” a resident said at the meeting. “We just need to do something – anything.”
Mayor Victoria Woodards at the council’s Sept. 9 meeting thanked the neighbors for attending and sharing their stories, and Rumbaugh said the council has been supportive of working towards a long-term solution.
“It took the residents of my neighborhood of Northeast Tacoma coming to a meeting to have the rest of my council realize what an issue this is,” Rumbaugh said.
This story was originally published October 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
