Pedestrian safety tops council's list

Pedestrian safety will be this year's top priority for the Seattle City Council, council President Nick Licata said Tuesday during a safety conference at Harborview Medical Center.

The council later voted to create a pedestrian-safety committee.

Later this month, it will consider a public-education campaign, tougher enforcement measures and a pedestrian-safety master plan.

Soon, the city also will have more than $4 million a year to spend on crosswalks, signals, trails, walkways, stairways and safety projects, as part of a property-tax levy that voters passed in November.

About two dozen pedestrians die each year in King County, nearly half of them in Seattle. The issue turned more personal in November, when 29-year-old Tatsuo Nakata, chief of staff to Councilman David Della, was killed crossing Admiral Way Southwest.

The safety conference was in tribute to Nakata, who "was like a son to me," Della said.

Speakers offered a variety of facts and ideas.

Four-lane streets are especially dangerous when one car stops at a crosswalk, then the adjacent car blows past and strikes a pedestrian, local experts said.

Seattle is considering "road diets" that shrink some streets from four lanes to two, plus a left-turn lane.

At downtown intersections, crosswalks could be moved a few yards in from the corners, so that left- and right-turning drivers have more space and time to react to pedestrians, according to Harborview crash investigator Rob Kaufman.

Andrea Okomski, whose teenage son, Joe Robinson, was injured crossing North 85th Street in 2004, called for a ban on cellphone use while driving.

Anne Vernez Moudon, a professor of urban design and planning at the University of Washington, proposed that the two-lane 15th Avenue East on Capitol Hill become a pedestrian zone, where "jaywalking" is legal and cars are expected to move more slowly.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com