by Ethan Bancroft on October 10, 2024
Students walking and biking to school in Seattle. Photos: SDOT
Blog stats: 1,000 words | 5-minute read
With the new school year underway, we’re continuing our work to support safe travel for Seattle’s students of all ages.
In September, Mayor Harrell announced the One Seattle Budget Proposal for the next two years. This proposal includes funding to install traffic safety cameras in 19 new school safety zones by the end of 2025, doubling the current count across Seattle. Installation of these new cameras would need to be approved by the Seattle City Council as part of the City’s budget process this fall.
Meanwhile, our Safe Routes to School program is delivering a wide range of projects to support Seattle students who walk, bike, and roll to school. This includes building sidewalks, crosswalks, and speed cushions around dozens of schools this year. Since 2016, we’ve constructed about 200 street and sidewalk enhancement projects. You can find more details in this recent blog post.
Speed is a factor in hundreds of collisions on our streets each year. Illegally driving above the speed limit makes crashes more likely to occur and do more severe harm. Enforcing the speed limit in school zones helps protect kids and their guardians walking or biking to school. The ticket revenue collected helps to fund the Safe Routes to School program.
This work is part of Seattle’s Vision Zero goal to end traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030. You can learn more about our Vision Zero Action Plan, which was updated in May 2024, or read this blog post.
What school zone speed cameras do and how the program works
- Safety cameras enforce the speed limit in school zones and help protect our youngest residents.
- Yellow flashing lights called beacons are mounted on the school zone speed limit signs and are turned on at certain times based on when students are most likely to be present.
- The speed limit in Seattle is 20 MPH around all schools anytime children are present and when yellow flashing beacons are active.
- Speed cameras only operate when the yellow beacons are flashing.
When the cameras would be installed
- Pending approval of the budget, the cameras would be located in 19 new school zone locations and be implemented in two phases in 2025 (see full list further below).
- Phase 1: Cameras will be added near these public and private schools by mid-2025.
- Phase 2: Cameras will be added near these schools by the end of 2025.
How the new school safety zone locations were selected
- Locations were identified through a system-wide analysis of speeding trends and prioritizing equitable distribution of new enforcement locations using the Composite Racial and Social Equity Index (RSEI) in all school speed zones. Locations where flashing beacons were not sufficiently slowing speeds were prioritized for safety camera implementation.
- We will continue to monitor Seattle Public Schools’ Well-Resourced Schools planning as our installation work moves forward.
List of planned new cameras near schools in Seattle (Phases 1 and 2)
| Phase | School | Street | Morning Schedule* | Afternoon Schedule* |
| Phase 1 | Rainier Valley Leadership Academy | Rainier Ave S (S Spencer St to S Kenny St) | 7:50AM-8:40AM | 3:20PM-4:00PM |
| Phase 1 | Bertschi Elementary School | 10th Ave E (E Boston St to E Lynn St) | 7:35AM-8:30AM | 2:35PM-3:35PM |
| Phase 1 | St Matthew School K-8 | 15th Ave NE (NE 125th St to NE 130th St) | 7:45AM-8:35AM | 2:50PM-3:30PM |
| Phase 1 | Our Lady of the Lake School K-8 | 35th Ave NE (NE 88th St to NE 91st St) | 7:55AM-8:35AM | 2:50PM-3:30PM |
| Phase 1 | West Seattle High School | California Ave SW (SW Hanford St to SW Stevens St) | 7:15AM-8:05AM 8:10AM-9:00AM | 2:15PM-2:55PM 3:30PM-4:10PM |
| Phase 1 | Nathan Hale High School | 35th Ave NE (NE 105th St to NE 113th St) | 8:10AM-9:00AM 8:15AM-9:05AM | 3:30PM-4:10PM 3:35PM-4:15PM |
| Phase 1 | Hamilton Middle School | Wallingford Ave N (N 40th St to N 42nd St) | 8:15AM-9:05AM | 3:35PM-4:15PM |
| Phase 1 | Hazel Wolf K-8 | Roosevelt Way NE (NE 115th St to NE 117th St) | 8:15AM-9:05AM | 3:15PM-3:55PM |
| Phase 2 | West Woodland Elementary | NW Market St (NW 55th St to 7th Ave NW) | 8:15AM-9:05AM | 3:15PM-3:55PM |
| Phase 2 | West Woodland Elementary | 3rd Ave NW (NW 55th St to NW 60th St) | 8:15AM-9:05AM | 3:15PM-3:55PM |
| Phase 2 | Alki Elementary | SW Admiral Way (60th Ave SW to 57th Ave SW) | N/A – 2025 Interim Site | N/A – 2025 Interim Site |
| Phase 2 | Bryant Elementary | 35th Ave NE (NE 57th St to NE 62nd St) | 7:15AM-8:40AM | 2:15PM-3:30PM |
| Phase 2 | View Ridge Elementary | NE 70th St (45th Ave NE to 50th Ave NE) | 8:15AM-9:05AM | 3:15PM-3:55PM |
| Phase 2 | View Ridge Elementary | NE 75th St (45th Ave NE to 50th Ave NE) | 8:15AM-9:05AM | 3:15PM-3:55PM |
| Phase 2 | Viewlands Elementary | 3rd Ave NW (NW 103rd St to NW 110th St) | 7:15AM-8:05AM | 2:15PM-2:55PM |
| Phase 2 | Greenwood Elementary | 3rd Ave NW (NW 83rd St to NW 79th St) | 7:15AM-8:05AM | 2:15PM-2:55PM |
| Phase 2 | John Rogers Elementary | NE 110th St (38th Ave NE to Alton Ave NE) | N/A – 2025 Interim Site | N/A – 2025 Interim Site |
| Phase 2 | BF Day Elementary | Fremont Ave N (N 38th St to N 41st St) | 7:15AM-8:05AM | 2:15PM-2:55PM |
| Phase 2 | TOPS K-8 | Boylston Ave E (E Lynn St to E Roanoke St) | 7:15AM-8:05AM | 2:15PM-2:55PM |
Next steps and where to find more information
- Funding to install these new cameras would need to be approved by the Seattle City Council as part of the City’s budget process this fall.
- Next steps include completing final design and conducting outreach to schools and residents where cameras would be installed, as well as the installation of the cameras. More information will be provided as this work moves forward.
- You can read more about the City of Seattle’s School Speed Zone Safety Camera program or see our previous blog post which describes automated traffic cameras in Seattle more generally.
Thank you for doing your part to travel at safe speeds to help keep our students safe around schools and whenever you travel.
