CITY OF SEATTLE
ORDINANCE __________________
COUNCIL BILL __________________
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AN ORDINANCE establishing additional uses for automated traffic safety cameras to increase safety; amending Sections 11.31.090, 11.31.121, and 11.50.570 of the Seattle Municipal Code.
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WHEREAS, it is often not safe, practical, or desirable to use police officers to enforce traffic laws, including speed limit violations; and
WHEREAS, excessive speeding by drivers is a root cause of many crashes, including crashes that result in death or serious injury of vulnerable travelers within City rights-of-way, including pedestrians, bicyclists, people with disabilities, children, and seniors; and
WHEREAS, serious crashes often result in lifelong injuries, chronic pain, permanent disabilities, chronic depression, and shortened lifespans, while serious and fatal crashes impact the victims, their families and other loved ones, co-workers, and the greater communities; and
WHEREAS, Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill (ESSB) 5974 (Chapter 182, Laws of 2022), also known as the Move Ahead Washington spending bill, amended Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 46.63.170, authorizing cities to implement new and expanded forms of camera-based enforcement of speeding violations in school walk areas as defined by RCW 28A.160.160, public park speed zones, hospital speed zones; and, subject to an equity analysis, on streets either: (1) identified as priority locations in a local road safety plan submitted to WSDOT; or (2) where the location has a significantly higher rate of collisions than the city average for a period of at least three years, and where other speed reduction methods have not been effective at reducing speeds; or (3) where a local ordinance has designated the area as a racing zone subject to specified restriction and penalties; and
WHEREAS, numerous studies, including a 2016 Insurance Institute of Highway Safety study of speed camera enforcement in Montgomery County, Maryland over the span o...
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