Seattle, WA
Seattle has a long road ahead to meet Vision Zero by 2030
Seattle city leaders say they want to end traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030. But with some collisions still on the rise, it’s unclear if the city can make that goal.
At Tuesday’s Seattle City Council Transportation Committee meeting, the Seattle Department of Transportation’s chief safety officer opened with a moment of silence.
“To recognize those people who have been impacted by deaths and serious injuries on our streets,” Venu Nemani said.
Even with Vision Zero, traffic fatalities remain high in Seattle
More than 250 people in Seattle were injured last year in some sort of traffic collision, SDOT data shows. Nemani and his department are charged with bringing that number down to zero in less than six years.
Seattle launched that effort, called Vision Zero, in 2015 and since then the city has averaged about 28 traffic deaths per year.
There are some signs of hope. Car driver fatalities, for example, are down overall in Seattle after peaking in 2021.
The challenges of designing safer Seattle streets
“But the story is slightly different on serious injury collisions,” Nemani said. “Across all categories, our serious injury collisions are going up.”
Car violence varies widely depending on where you live in Seattle. Between 2018 and 2022, 8% of collisions occurred in the northwest neighborhoods of the University District, Ravenna, and Laurelhurst. But southeast communities like West Seattle, Fauntleroy, and White Center experienced 22% of crashes.
About a quarter of all city streets are missing any form of sidewalk. The blocks most in need of a safe walkway are in south Seattle and north of Green Lake, according to SDOT.
Nemani told the committee Tuesday that SDOT is working on a three-year action plan to, hopefully, meet Vision Zero’s goals. He didn’t share too many specifics as the plan is still being finalized, but SDOT’s presentation said it will likely include “continuing speed limit reductions with safety corridor projects and implementing arterial traffic calming.”
Nemani said he anticipates the 2024-2026 action plan will be published within the next month.
Pedestrian deaths fell modestly last year, but there’s still a safety ‘crisis’
That’s likely good news for anyone who’s been concerned for their safety on Seattle streets, including members of the Seattle City Council.
Councilmember Dan Strauss shared his experience of healing after being hit on his bike by a driver in 2004. Strauss told Nemani he wants to see SDOT do more and move faster to keep cyclists and pedestrians safe.
“The charge that I’m giving you today is that there are twice as many people as your data shows that are living with serious and chronic pain from being hit on our roadways,” he said.
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The department highlighted some bright spots in the city’s collision data. Crosswalk signals that give people more time to cross the street, for example, have helped reduce some turning crashes.
“These trends, while give us hope, also indicate that we have a lot more work ahead of us,” Nemani said.
Tuesday’s Round of 16 action saw both teams pick up wins versus marquee opposition.
Seattle’s Under-15s powered past Bundesliga giants FC Bayern, 4-0, to advance to the quarterfinals.
Kyle Iwamoto put Seattle out in front in the 19th minute. Cristopher Batiz and Gian Hurtado-Martinez tacked on second-half goals. After Bayern had a man sent off, Batiz added his second of the game.
Seattle’s Under-16 team knocked off a previously unbeaten Boca Juniors squad, 1-0. An 18th-minute goal from Adin Fikic accounted for the offense as the two Seattle sides progressed.
Here’s a roundup of the rest of the Round of 16 action from IMG Academy as penalty kick shootouts dominated the day.
Up next for Seattle in this age group are FC Cincinnati, who beat Red Bull New York by a 2-0 score. Familiar faces found the back of the net once again, as Hassan Sakr and Grant Choi scored in the second stanza to secure progress.
It took Cedar Stars Academy-Bergen 40 minutes to finally break through the Nashville SC back line, securing progress with a 2-0 victory over the MLS side. Emmanuel Gavela finally broke the deadlock, and with the game stretched, Christopher Fitanidis added his side’s second goal.
Charlotte FC sent Toulouse FC out of the competition, winning a penalty shootout by a 4-3 margin after the two sides drew 0-0. New York City FC did the same to Orlando City, winning 3-1 on spot kicks after neither side found the back of the net in the 60-minute game. LAFC and CF Montréal were the third 0-0 matchup of the day, with the SoCal side advancing via a 4-1 victory in the shootout.
Another matchup was decided from the spot between D.C. United and Atlanta United. Joey Rubio put United up in the 30th minute, only for Colin O’Neil to answer six minutes later. Michael Emoghene’s 52nd-minute goal put Atlanta up, before a stoppage-time equalizer by Bakary Kante. Atlanta converted all five penalties to survive.
Chicago Fire homegrown signing Robert Turdean slotted into the starting lineup, helping fire them to a 2-1 win over Slavia Prague. He scored in the 18th and 39th minutes as Chicago punched their ticket to the quarterfinals against LA Galaxy.
In an epic tussle between two MLS sides, the Galaxy defeated the Philadelphia Union in a penalty shootout after a 2-2 draw. U.S. youth national team veterans Abdoulaye Diop (Union) and Ikenna Chidebe (Galaxy) traded early goals in the first 16 minutes of the game. Alessio Benedetti put the Galaxy in front for the first time with a 34th-minute goal. After the Galaxy went down a man later in the half, Christopher Thompson equalized. LA converted four of its five attempts to move on.
Trailing 3-1 to Club América in the second half, it appeared the Vancouver Whitecaps were on the way out of the tournament. However, the offense came to life at the right time. Henry Hudspith narrowed the margin to 3-2, setting the table for Simeon Cruickshank to score again to tie it. Riding the momentum, the Whitecaps nailed all four spot kicks to advance.
Real Salt Lake bested Toronto FC thanks to two second-half goals in three minutes. Eric Saavedra and Elliott Jo accounted for the tallies in the 2-0 victory.
It’s already been a strong week for New England Revolution forward Matthew Jean Baptiste. With a goal and assist in a previous match, his second-minute winner knocked out Orlando City by a 1-0 score. The Sounders await in the quarterfinals.
Niko Price’s retirement didn’t go as planned in every sense.
Price (16-11 MMA, 8-11 UFC) made his last MMA walkout this past Saturday on the main card of UFC Fight Night 271 in Seattle. He stepped in on short notice to fight Michael Chiesa, who is from Washington, and was also entering the last fight of his career. Price, like any retiring fighter, wanted to close out his career on a high, but unfortunately, he was quickly submitted by Chiesa in the first round. The loss wasn’t the only thing that didn’t go Price’s way.
After the fight, Price took off his gloves and laid them on the canvas – a tradition most fighters follow in their final bout. Yet, despite letting the UFC beforehand that he was retiring and making it known in the cage after the fight, he was passed over for an interview. The post-fight production focused on Chiesa, and was the only fighter to get time on the microphone.
“I had to stand there and watch his whole thing, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, you’re going to get mic time.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, cool.’ Then I’m like, ‘Why am I not getting mic time?’” Price recalled speaking to Inside Fighting. “Then, I was like, ‘Whatever, don’t worry, but can I leave? I don’t want to stay here no more.’ Then I told my coach because they didn’t even send me off at all. They went to my gloves, and then they took a picture of him with my gloves. I was like, ‘Nooo, I wanted to do that picture with my gloves.’ He has his gloves on in the picture.”
It was an awkward moment. Many online criticized the UFC production team and Daniel Cormier for not acknowledging Price’s retirement.
Although Price didn’t get his ideal send-off, he’s happy with his decision to walk away from MMA. It was something he planned on doing, even before accepting the fight with Chiesa.
“It was mentioned probably like 10 days before the fight, ‘Would this be a possibility?’” Price said. “I said, ‘I have to talk to my team.’ At first I was like, ‘No,’ but then me and my wife started talking, and I was like, ‘I’m getting old, man. Everything hurts. I want to spend time with my kids and stop being so selfish and spending so much time with myself.’ She goes, ‘I don’t really want you to do it anymore and it’s getting really hard on my daughters.’ I mean, it’s hard on me too, man. Even though it was on seven days’ notice, still, losing sucks.”
Price debuted for the UFC in December 2016. He did so by pulling a big upset over then prospect Brandon Thatch at UFC 207. Price went on to fight in the UFC for a decade, compiling a record of 8-11. During his best stretch, which came early in his UFC run, Price was 4-1 with one victory getting overturned to a no contest due to a positive marijuana test. The Floridaman shared the cage with many notable names, including Robbie Lawler, Donald Cerrone, Vicente Luque, and Geoff Neal.
Moving forward, Price, 36, plans to focus on his fishing business, along with other things.
“Well, we already have the bait mobile, so I’m going to put a lot of time into that, the mobile bait,” Price explained. “So if you’re going fishing in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Naples, call us up; we’ll bring you some shiners. Yeah, we’re pushing that. I have a couple of other things I’m pushing with my cousins. They own a couple of businesses, so I’m going to jump in with them and do some things. I’m definitely going to be coaching and teaching the stuff I’ve done.”
The James Beard Awards Foundation announced its official 2026 slate of award nominees on Tuesday, March 31, and two Seattle names are among them.
Johnny Courtney of the classic-feeling Atoma and Aaron Tekulve of the celebratory Surrell were among the whittled-down names of nominees, each in the Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific category.
The news comes after 15 Seattle restaurants and bars were originally under consideration when the long list of semifinalists was revealed back in January. The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Lyric Opera of Chicago on Monday, June 15.
Considered one of the restaurant industry’s most coveted awards, the honors span categories such as Restaurant and Chef Awards, Media Awards (Book, Broadcast Media, Journalism), and Achievement Awards. Last year, the foundation introduced the new category of Impact Awards, which it describes as recognizing “achievement by individuals and/or organizations who are actively working to push for standards that create a more equitable, sustainable, and economically viable restaurant industry.”
The full list of nominations can be found here.
Disclosure: Some Vox Media staff members are part of the voting body for the James Beard Awards.
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