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Seattle Transportation Plan | Mayor Bruce Harrell’s Recommended Seattle Transportation Plan goes to City Council for adoption 

by on February 28, 2024
People walking in the U District neighborhood.

Editor’s Note (April 26, 2024): The Seattle City Council unanimously voted to adopt the Seattle Transportation Plan on April 23. This makes the Seattle Transportation Plan the City of Seattle’s official 20-year vision for the future of transportation in Seattle.

Click here to go to the English version of this blog post.

Summary 

  • We’ve completed the Seattle Transportation Plan (STP) after two years of public engagement and shared it with the City Council today! You can learn about the plan quickly here and see the full plan:
  • In fall 2023, we asked for public feedback on the draft STP. We took this feedback and we made important changes to the plan to reflect it.  
  • The City Council will now consider Mayor Harrell’s recommended plan for adoption. 
  • Once adopted, the Seattle Transportation Plan will become Seattle’s vision for the future of transportation in the city. 
  • Importantly, we also thank our community-based organization partners for their leadership and partnership in developing the Seattle Transportation Plan. 
  • To continue to stay informed about the Seattle Transportation Plan, please sign up for email updates by clicking here and checking the box titled, “SDOT Newsletter.” 

After two years of public engagement, we have developed a recommended Seattle Transportation Plan and shared it with City Council today. 

The Seattle Transportation Plan is one important piece of our city’s long-term vision for the future. Together with the One Seattle Comprehensive Plan Update, we are looking at every neighborhood across our city to shape the next 20 years of Seattle’s streets and public spaces. We are creating the Seattle we want to see, where families, workers, neighbors, and visitors can safely get where they need to go, no matter how they travel. From safer routes to schools, parks, transit, and community gathering spaces to proactively maintaining our streets, sidewalks, and bridges, we are laying out a comprehensive vision for a transportation system that serves everyone. – Mayor Bruce Harrell 

The Seattle Transportation Plan is a 20-year vision for the future of Seattle’s streets, sidewalks, and public spaces informed by thousands of people who live, work, and play in Seattle. The Seattle Transportation Plan establishes a vision, goals, key moves, and recommendations for a transportation system that works for our city now and in the future. The plan will inform and help shape everything from future transportation funding to projects and programs that enhance the way we enjoy public space and move through the city. 

The Seattle Transportation Plan identifies six key goals for Seattle: 

Goals for Seattle: SAFETY Prioritize safety for travelers in Seattle, with no serious injury or fatal crashes MAINTENANCE & MODERNIZATION Improve city transportation infrastructure and ready it for the future LIVABILITY Reimagine city streets as inviting places to linger and play MOBILITY & ECONOMIC VITALITY Provide reliable and affordable travel options that help people and goods get where they need to go SUSTAINABILITY Respond to climate change through innovation and a lens of climate justice EQUITY Co-create with community and implement restorative practices to address transportation-related inequities

Learn about plan in the Seattle Transportation Plan At-A-Glance.

In fall 2023, we asked for public feedback on the draft Seattle Transportation Plan.  

In person STP outreach event.
In-person STP outreach event.

This included citywide online engagement, attending in-person events, and working with Department of Neighborhood’s Community Liaisons to conduct focused outreach to the following communities: BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and Other People of Color), low-income, immigrant and refugee, aging adults, women, people experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, and people living with disabilities.  

Many government processes take place at a table—whether in-person or online. Creating the STP was different because our staff was determined to bring the table to people who didn’t know there was an opportunity to participate. Using innovative methods from our Transportation Equity Framework, we convened conversations in multiple locations and languages with a diverse set of residents, community members, and businesses who hadn’t previously been involved in such a process. We were honored to meet with community members across social identities, languages, and cultural experiences. We held focus groups with our city’s indigenous and immigrant communities, hearing themes that included honoring the city’s ecosystem, improving safety for our most vulnerable travelers, and repairing past transportation planning decisions that have separated communities rather than bringing people together. – SDOT Director Greg Spotts 

We thank those who have helped us shape the plan by providing over 1,300 comments on the plan, and over 1,000 comments on projects and programs. 

Here is some of what we heard:  

  • The STP should be bold and easy to act upon. 
  • Safety should be our main focus and something we prioritize. 
  • Let’s work on addressing climate change. 
  • We want to make sure our streets and public spaces support a robust local economy. 
  • We need to consider all the factors and tradeoffs involved in deciding how we use our streets. 
  • Let’s make the implementation specific and clearly define how we measure progress. 
  • We need to give you more opportunities to participate and have your voice heard. 
  • You would like us to make quick changes to improve our transportation system while still keeping what we already have in good shape. 

Read more about what we heard from you in the STP Phase 3 Engagement Summary.

Importantly, we also thank our community-based organization partners for their leadership and partnership in developing the Seattle Transportation Plan. 

Climate change is a sad reality and it has been strongly affecting us, especially those of us who live in the Duwamish Valley. But we are also aware that the City of Seattle has been making enormous efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions in the city’s transportation sector. And this is reflected in the projects that we have and have been carrying out together where we communicate to our community the public policies for the fulfillment of said objective as well as educating our youth, as in the case of the electromobile project that we are currently executing. –  Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association (DVSA)

As a community that has often felt invisible in Seattle, this project was a chance to elevate Khmer voices and the voices of those in our community to inform key planning and decision-making around anti-displacement, housing, and transportation policies. We appreciate the opportunity for our community to weigh-in on a planning process that they may have never been involved in otherwise. – Khmer Community of Seattle King County in partnership with Noio Pathways & Kim Yu Consulting  

Informed by the voices of our diverse community, we embrace the Seattle Transportation Plan’s vision for a future where every step, pedal, or wheel turns toward safety, equity, sustainability, mobility, and economic vitality in the Central Area neighborhoods. We champion equity, advocating for transportation solutions that bridge divides and uplift underserved voices, creating pathways for all to thrive. With sustainability at the core, we embrace initiatives that reduce our carbon footprint, foster cleaner air, and preserve the beauty of our environment for generations to come. We celebrate mobility as a cornerstone of our community, striving for seamless connections that empower residents to reach their destinations efficiently and affordably. Through collaborative efforts, we believe this plan will help pave the way for safer streets, ensuring all residents, regardless of background, can navigate our neighborhood without fear. – Central Area Collaborative

Below is the full list of community-based organization partners in this work: 

We invite you to read more about these organizations and their work on the Seattle Transportation Plan and One Seattle Comprehensive Plan in this summary.

We listened to community feedback and made some important changes to the Seattle Transportation Plan.  

Here are the new key strategies we’ve added. 

  • Safety: We want to make sure our transportation networks are resilient and ready for emergencies. 
  • Non-punitive enforcement: We’re supporting a change to how traffic laws are applied. We do not want to focus on punishment. This helps make our streets safer while reducing harm to communities.  

We expanded our goal on mobility to include economic vitality, emphasizing the importance of getting people and goods to where they need to go.  

We expanded our Implementation Strategy to give more details on how we will bring this future vision to life. We added nearly 30 concrete actions, called “implementing actions,” to help make key steps happen. This section explains how we’ll pick projects and programs to work on. We share how we will organize tasks based on available resources and identify how we might pay for the work. Finally, we outline how we will make important decisions in the future. 

Next, the City Council will consider the plan for adoption. 

We hope you will continue to see your and your neighbors’ voices reflected in this plan. 

You can communicate with City Council and make your voice heard about the Seattle Transportation Plan by sending written comments or by participating in the public comment period during the upcoming City Council meeting on March 5. You can also email City Council directly. You can learn how to join these meetings when the agenda is made available on March 1 on this webpage.

Once adopted, the Seattle Transportation Plan will formally become Seattle’s vision for the future of transportation in the City. 

An Implementation Plan for the Seattle Transportation Plan will be created by the end of 2025, and updated every 4 years, which will allow us to make adjustments to adapt to changing financial conditions, community priorities, and emerging issues.

The Levy to Move Seattle expires at the end of 2024. Mayor Harrell and SDOT are currently working on a levy renewal proposal, which is expected to be presented to the public and City Council this spring. Renewing the levy will ensure the continuation of essential transportation services and funding. Stay tuned for more on this in the coming months! 

Filed Under: Community Involvement, Funding & Levies, Move Seattle, Safety, SDOT Tagged With: ,