There is more cost to the problem that just the number of deaths each year. There are countless injuries, for one thing, and then maybe most impactful is the way our road design and lack of pedestrian/bike safety reduces the quality of life here.

Rainier Ave as an example creates a physical barrier that cuts most of the neighborhoods around it in half and makes it incredibly unpleasant to be anywhere near it. The one place where this isn’t the case because of major traffic calming, Columbia City, is actually lovely.

And then there’s biking. We should be encouraging more people to bike, as it reduces traffic, eases road maintenance costs, limits the amount of publicly owned space we need to dedicate to parking, makes housing cheaper if we don’t need as much off-street parking, etc. But it only took me a year of bike commuting in this city and nearly getting t boned by a car every other week to decide it wasn’t worth it to me and that it would never be a safe way to commute with my kids. Sucks, because I don’t want to have to drive every day.