Details are on the city website for the meeting which considers the proposed initiative to put all transportation safety issues involving bike lanes to a vote. You can show up, speak, or send your comments to city hall by noon tomorrow. I will be there and deliver my thoughts:
I don’t support making public safety optional by putting it on the ballot. I want safe travel for all, so while I’m all in favor of asking citizens for our opinions, I want professionals to make the decisions.
To encourage us to speak up and offer feedback is a strong point and also the norm in Vancouver with repeated online and in person opportunities.
To confuse opinion with professional planning, however, confuses me. Let's compare the two. Look at the timelines for projects on the city website. Months of research gathering are involved. Outreach to the public with project options are presented at each step of the process and include mailings and even door-knocking to residents of involved streets. Projects are chosen by need and scheduled to coincide with other improvements for efficiency and funding realities. Bike lanes now are often referred to as mobility lanes because so many people are rolling at different speeds on analog bikes, electrified skateboards, scooters, and e-bikes. Planners consider the growing diversity of all road users, not just those who drive.
Contrast the planner’s job with the process involved if we put every transportation safety issue involving a bike lane on the ballot. The person in charge of our safety in that case, needs no professional background or knowledge of our street networks. They don’t need insights into the needs of vulnerable road users. They need only a pen and less than 30 seconds to color in the dot to send their obsolete transportation ideas to be tallied and perhaps become municipal code.
How does that make people safer?
Some of you may know Tyler Chavers. He served in law enforcement for almost 30 years from SWAT Team member to neighborhood police officer to the HART team. Recently, he made a statement about homelessness that caught my attention. He said. “You know, behind every statistic, every number, there's a real person.” A stunningly simple insight with the capacity for profound effects on people’s lives.
If we apply the “real people” focus to the question tonight, we realize that it’s the real people behind the stats that we put at risk if we decide safety is optional. Almost 30% of Washingtonians don’t drive. Some have a choice, but others may be too old, too young, too poor --or have a disability. They walk, roll, take buses, or ask others for a ride. Let’s make streets safe for all, not just those in cars.