Seattle Mobility Advocates Say City Should Triple Transportation Levy

A coalition of Seattle mobility advocates are calling on the city to seek a transportation levy package worth $3 billion, a number much larger than is currently being considered.

As Doug Trumm explains in The Urbanist, “Move Seattle, the nine-year transportation levy approved in 2015 and set to expire at year’s end, was a $930 million package. However, with the City falling behind on key climate goals and actually going backward recently on its pledge to end traffic deaths by 2030, the coalition argues now is the time to accelerate investment rather than coast.”

The coalition claims that the city needs the $3 billion investment to redesign its most dangerous streets, add sidewalks to streets lacking them, build new dedicated transit lanes, add new bike lanes, and make pedestrian safety upgrades to intersections.

Trumm points out that “Tripling the size of the levy may be seen as a dramatic step, but it is one the Harrell administration just took when renewing the Seattle Housing Levy in 2023. Voters supported that decision to the tune of a landslide 69% victory.”

According to Trumm, “Mayor Bruce Harrell is expected to unveil his proposal for the levy package this spring, and it should go to the city council for approval by the summer so that it can appear on November ballots.”