Head of Seattle’s Department of Transportation to depart after 2 1/2 years

Greg Spotts, director of the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) for more than two years, informed Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell he will step down from his post, effective Feb. 12, 2025.

“I am grateful to you for the opportunity to serve Seattle by leading a team of 1,100 smart, dedicated and caring city employees,” Spotts wrote in the letter to Harrell, which was obtained by KIRO Newsradio.

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Spotts was previously the executive officer and chief sustainability officer for the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services. He cited wanting to spend more time with his family and refocusing his work-life balance as reasons for his sudden departure.

“In the month since the election, I’ve been reflecting on my work/life balance. Early 2025 seems like a good moment to pass the baton to the next leader of SDOT, an agency which now has the plans and the resources to maintain and modernize Seattle’s streets and bridges,” Spotts wrote. “Throughout my time as Director, I’ve been thrilled by pursuing SDOT’s goals, but I’ve been yearning for more time with family and friends.

“On a personal level, moving to a new city alone has been difficult, particularly living so far away from my mother in California and father in New York,” Spotts continued. “In 2025, I will prioritize spending more time with family and friends, pursuing professional opportunities closer to my loved ones.”

When Spotts became the head of SDOT, he inherited an immediate crisis regarding the safety of Seattle pedestrians. 2022, his first year on the job, was considered the deadliest year on Seattle roads since 2006.

“When I stepped into the role in September 2022, two imperatives were crystal clear,” Spotts wrote. “First, we needed to strengthen the safety program at SDOT because the number of people killed and seriously injured on Seattle streets had increased during the pandemic.”

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Seattle launched an initiative, dubbed Vision Zero, in 2015 that was intended to eliminate all traffic-related deaths by 2030. Seattle has averaged approximately 28 traffic deaths per year since 2015.

According to the 2024 Vision Zero Action Plan, there has been an overall decrease in police-reported collisions in Seattle over the last nine years, with the biggest drop coming in 2020 — when the pandemic halted many from being on the roads as much as they were previously.

Despite the positive trends, there has been an overall rise in crashes that have resulted in people either losing their lives or being seriously injured. More than 250 people were injured last year in some sort of traffic collision within Seattle, according to data provided by SDOT.

“Two themes emerged: Folks want a safer and more pleasant experience walking, biking and riding transit in their neighborhood and around the city, and communities were fond of SDOT’s projects and wanted to see projects implemented much more quickly,” Spotts wrote.

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SDOT broke ground on nearly 150 streetscape improvements alongside 15 bridge maintenance and multiple seismic retrofit projects under Spotts. By 2024, SDOT officially logged 31 contracted construction starts, a sizeable difference from the average of 12 contracted construction starts per year SDOT averaged before Spotts tenure.

In his resignation letter, Spotts cited the passing of the Seattle Transportation Plan as one of his career highlights in Seattle, a 20-year plan to help maintain Seattle’s streets, sidewalks and public spaces. After more than 1,300 public comments were heard, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed the plan on April 26. It was the first transportation plan passed in a decade for Seattle.

Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.