SEATTLE — Seattle is no stranger to traffic when it comes to a busy summer weekend or commuter backups, and here at KIRO 7, we wanted to see if back-to-school traffic impacts your drive times as well.
Seattle Department of Transportation officials say it does, but likely not in the way you’re expecting.
When you think of “back to school,” you might imagine long car lines and crowded school zones.
SDOT Safe Routes to School Program Manager Sara Colling said there is a small uptick in traffic in general, but not as much as other cities.
“Seattle’s average for the number of kids walking to school is about triple the national average,” Colling said.
That means back-to-school traffic looks a little different here.
“Our most recent data showed 30% of our elementary students are walking or biking, that is 7,000 kids, or 1 in 3, and that is really good,” Colling said.
Because of that, she tells us many school traffic patterns are set up with pedestrians in mind via the “Safe Routes to School Program”.
For example, deeming those zones “school streets”, which means only walkers, bikers, and buses are allowed down that street.
“It disperses that car traffic, now we don’t have the drop-off line, you don’t have so many people driving right up next to the school mixing with kids trying to get in,” Colling said.
Right now, three schools have permanent “school streets,” and soon there will be two more. In total, 19 schools have temporary “school streets” in place.
She tells us that if there is a problem zone, like Ingraham High School, it quickly gets attention.
“It used to be two lanes in each direction, and people were driving too fast and so we changed that to one lane in each direction and added protective bike lanes,” she said.
She tells us that car traffic impacts are minimal for back to school, and that is because of prioritizing a walking and biking culture instead.
SDOT tells us the Safe Routes program also puts speed bumps, speed detection cameras, and flashing beacons in school zones across Seattle to keep students safe as well.
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