Mayor Harrell’s One Seatle Budget proposal would double school safety zone cameras to support safer travel for Seattle students

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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

*Flashing beacon schedules are adjusted for holidays, early release days, summer school, and other events.[Link]Map of potential new locations throughout Seattle in Phases 1 and 2. Graphic: SDOT

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.

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