Main street highways: Washington’s most dangerous roads
Check out our one-pager about a Megaproject for Safety!
Everyone knows the main street highway in their Washington community. Whether it’s the roar of traffic speeding by on Highway 2 in Monroe, a bus stuck in traffic on Pacific Avenue in Tacoma, or the sidewalk-less stretches of Highway 101 in Port Angeles, the main street highway is the road that doesn’t work.
Our state highway department built these roadways in the 20th century to connect our communities, not be the main street for them. Yet, businesses, homes, and apartments grew up along these roadways as our cities grew.
Main street highways are typically wide, busy roadways with many driveways and few intersections, and they often lack comfortable places to walk or bike. They were designed to move cars quickly, not for people to walk to their homes or jobs. Yet today’s main street highways are busy. They often carry the busiest bus lines in the state. They are where many Washington cities are planning to put dense housing in their comprehensive plan updates.
And sadly, they are some of the most dangerous places in our communities. Forty-seven percent of fatal pedestrian collisions in Washington occur on state-owned roadways like our main street highways. People are twice as likely to be killed in a crash and three times as likely to be seriously injured on these roadways when compared to other state roads, like freeways or state roads outside of cities. Washington State is currently in a traffic safety crisis. In 2023, Washington had the highest number of people killed walking ever recorded.
How we can transform main street highways
We can address road safety like the crisis it is, while leaving a legacy of great main streets for our growing neighborhoods. Luckily, we know how to do that. Rebuilding these streets with accessible sidewalks will allow more people to walk and roll, especially in areas that currently lack sidewalks. More intersections and crossings will make it easier for pedestrians to cross the street and encourage people not to cross mid-block. Medians with traffic islands and trees will slow traffic and provide a refuge for seniors or people with disabilities who need more time to cross the street. Narrower lanes will encourage people driving to slow down. Bus lanes will speed up busy buses, and improved bus stops with clean and safe shelters with ample lighting will make a more comfortable place to wait for the bus. We’ve seen how these investments make a difference on state-owned roadways already, like the stretch of Aurora in Shoreline, Alaska Way in Seattle, or 7th Avenue in Seattle.
A Megaproject for Safety
Washington’s main street highways are 1,100 miles long, and these improvements will take money. But we know that when the state puts its mind, money, and might toward solving a problem, it can do big things. Washington State has megaprojects for floating bridges and freight. These are decades-long commitments of billions of funds. It’s time we had a Megaproject for Safety that addresses the crisis and leaves us with a legacy of great main streets in Washington’s communities.
Washington would be a nationwide leader if it took on this challenge and made its main street highways safer.
Transportation Choices Coalition is prioritizing these investments because they address the needs of our coalition. These big projects would put our labor partners to work, speed up our transit agencies’ buses, build bustling main streets for our businesses, address the thorniest streets for our elected leaders, and, most importantly, make our communities safer for people who walk, bike, and take transit.
WSDOT’s outgoing Secretary, Roger Millar, has emphasized the need for increased funding for road safety — with a standalone annual allocation of $150 million needed to maintain and modernize state-owned roadways that run through population centers. We want Washington State leaders to fund Secretary Millar’s stated annual need and secure $1.5 billion over the next 10 years to address safety on main street highways. This would be in addition to safety and Complete Streets upgrades during routine maintenance on all state roadways.
But we can’t do this alone. We’ll need your support. If you want to raise your voice to address the traffic safety crisis on our most dangerous roads and build main streets we can be proud of, please fill out this interest form.
