Road diets working on Seattle streets

There was a lot of controversy when the City of Seattle put Nickerson Street on a “road diet” two years ago. Now, the stats are in and the plan has cut down on speeding and accidents.

People complained that reducing Nickerson from four lanes to two lanes would ruin one of the main commuter routes into Ballard, but the Seattle Department of Transportation says the diet hasn’t impacted the number of cars using the street that runs past Seattle Pacific University.

It has cut down speeding and had a major impact on accidents. Crashes on the road are down 23 percent. Speeding in the area is down 60 percent, and the number of people going ten miles an hour over the limit is down over 90 percent.

The city has completed 10 road diets in the last two years.
It has done 27 of them since the early 1970’s.