Seattle Neighborhood Greenway Evaluation

Abstract

Seattle’s neighborhood greenways are calm, non-arterial streets that are prioritized for people walking and biking. Using traffic-calming and pedestrian and bicycle friendly design elements, they provide safe and pleasant neighborhood connections, so that people can reach their local parks, schools, libraries, shops, cafés and transit options without needing to use a car. The goal of this study is to determine if the existing neighborhood greenways in Seattle are sufficiently calming traffic to create family-friendly walking and biking routes. From that evaluation, this study recommends four tiers of potential upgrades to the routes, as well as overall design recommendations. Before and after comparisons of vehicle speeds, vehicle volumes, bicycle volumes, and pedestrian volumes along the routes show that the neighborhood greenways are working to create better routes for people walking and biking. Installation of these routes lowered vehicle speeds, dramatically lowered the number of high-end speeders, and lowered car volumes, while increasing the number of people walking and biking. Individual evaluations show where improvements can still be made, and what lessons can be incorporated as Seattle continues to build neighborhood greenways.