The School Traffic Safety Committee works closely with our Safe Routes to School program to make it easier and safer for students to walk and bike to school.
The committee has 11 board members and includes representatives of Seattle Public Schools, Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle Police Department, King County Metro, and 5 volunteer positions filled by pedestrian advocates, bicycle advocates, parents, grandparents, and neighbors, representing both public and private schools. The committee aims to:
- Provide a mechanism for any community member to raise school traffic safety issues
- Improve walking and bicycling options for transportation to schools
- Recommend new school crosswalk locations and crossing guard assignments using intersection safety data provided by SDOT
- Strengthen working relationships between various stakeholders
- Review traffic circulation plans for new and renovated school buildings
- Review and respond to traffic concerns raised by parents and school staff
- Update elementary school walk boundary maps
- Help distribute information about transportation resources to parents and educators
- Improve crossing guard recruitment
Each year, the School Traffic Safety Committee produces an Annual Report to highlight the school traffic safety gains made in the past year and to outline recommendations for where more work still needs to be done.
Committee accomplishments from the past school year include:
- New Safe Routes to School Coordinator position: Based on School Traffic Safety Committee recommendations, a new position housed in the Seattle Public Schools was created to support students who walk, bike and carpool to get to school each day.
- More school crossing guards: In 2019 the committee worked with Seattle Department of Transportation and Seattle Public Schools to reduce the crossing guard vacancy rate so that more schools would have hired crossing guards managing traffic and helping students arrive at school safely, although there is still more work to do.
This year a few topics that the committee is advocating for include updates to our crosswalk policy and changes in City codes related to schools parking requirements. Read the full 2020 Annual Report for more information.
Interested in learning more about the School Traffic Safety Committee? Listen in to a committee meeting.
The committee meetings are open to the public and are on the second Friday of each month. Right now the Committee is meeting virtually. Check the Committee’s webpage or the City’s Boards and Commissions calendar for updated links and call-in numbers to the monthly meeting.
Contact stsc@seattle.gov with any questions regarding the 2020 Annual Report or about attending a STSC meeting.