The following is what I provided during the public comment period of Thursday’s meeting for the “Transportation, Waterfront, and Seattle Center” committee at the Seattle City Council.
I helped run a neighborhood walk along Sand Point Way along these same concerns last weekend as part of volunteering with NESS, and we had a great turnout! Next edition will be on October 4th. https://beyondsr513.org
Good morning committee, my name is Alper Sarikaya and I am a resident in Seattle.
I appreciate the effort here to codify some of the urgency of Vision Zero practices into code to help unblock quick, practical application of street infrastructure upgrades to reduce traffic deaths and injury. I especially want to thank Councilmember Rinck for introducing Amendment 16 that would eliminate red tape surrounding the practical implementation of proven strategies for safer streets for all.
SDOT already does outreach at a level far beyond other cities’ traffic departments. I want to clarify for all that SDOT is ultimately responsible for the public right-of-way, and is also responsible for the safety of all road users. This isn’t design review, land use, neighborhoods, or anything else.
My general comment for you all is that the goal of all this legislation should be to make city staff’s job easier to make safer streets, and that this committee should know what roadblocks currently exist for SDOT to react quickly when our friends and neighbors are taken from us due to our road infrastructure. I wasn’t able to see this work in the agenda packet today.
Thanks for your time.