Published December 12 2024
On Tuesday, the City Council accepted three grants totaling more than $2 million that will support the Transportation Department’s Vision Zero efforts to make Bellevue streets safer for all users, particularly people walking and rolling.
The Federal Highway Administration issued two grants through its Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). A $628,000 grant will fund protected bike lanes, improved mid-block crossings and lane reconfigurations to reduce speeding along Northeast Eighth Street between 156th and 164th avenues. A $1 million grant will fund design and construction of high-visibility crosswalk markings at 56 intersections controlled by traffic signals or stop signs.
Both HSIP grants advance projects originating from road safety assessments conducted from 2021 to 2023. The assessments incorporate technical analysis with community engagement to identify safety concerns and potential solutions for segments of the city’s high-injury network – a relatively small number of streets where most fatal and serious-injury collisions occur.
In the city’s first road safety assessment in 2021, community members and staff noted limited crossing opportunities for people walking and rolling, lack of bike facilities and high vehicle speeds along Northeast Eighth Street between 156th and 164th Avenues.
The improvements for Northeast Eighth were evaluated as part of Bellevue’s Safe Streets Corridor program, which analyzes the findings from the road safety assessments as well as the feasibility and traffic impacts of proposed solutions. You can learn more about Northeast Eight Complete Streets Improvements too.
The Federal Highway Administration recognizes high-visibility crosswalk markings as a proven safety countermeasure that can reduce injury crashes for people walking by up to 40%. The locations in the high-visibility crosswalk grant were identified during eight road safety assessments conducted between 2021 and 2023.
Bellevue also received a $540,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation to collect data about traffic volumes and road user behavior at 79 intersections that will inform the city’s implementation of safety projects.
For the WSDOT-funded project, video data collected one week this winter and one week in the summer will document volumes of vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians, as well as near-miss conflicts and speed patterns. The city will use the data to inform upcoming road safety assessments funded by the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program.
"We thank WSDOT and FHWA for providing us funds to implement crucial safety improvements," said Transportation Director Andrew Singelakis. "Awards like these are a direct result of city staff’s commitment to ensuring our streets become safer for all users and are crucial for achieving our Vision Zero goal."
Visit Vision Zero to learn about city projects and programs intended to eliminate traffic deaths and serious-injury collisions on city streets by 2030.