Healthy Streets

How do Healthy Streets work? 

• Healthy Streets can incorporate safety features like easier crossings at busy streets, speed humps to slow down drivers, and sign and pavement markings to help people find their way
• Healthy Streets have fixtures like concrete block bases and new painted curb bulbs at each intersection of permanent healthy streets
• In some cases, SDOT may install traffic calming, street murals, and additional pedestrian design elements
• Street Closed signage is installed in the space directly adjacent to the intersection where parking is already not authorized, so no legal street parking spaces are removed

What this means for Healthy Street Neighborhoods: 

• People driving who need to get to homes and destinations along Healthy Streets can still drive on these streets
• Drivers should use extra caution and yield to people
• People enjoying the street should be mindful of drivers trying to get to homes and destinations
• Healthy streets can be used for neighborhood activities (like hopscotch and basketball) that you would otherwise need to get a street closure permit for 
• Healthy Streets can also be used to host Play Streets and block Parties without needing a permits
• Planters for Healthy Streets can be requested, and neighbors are responsible for maintaining them. 

How Healthy Streets Started

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 we upgraded 25 miles of existing Neighborhood Greenways to ‘Stay Healthy Streets’, by closing them to pass through traffic.  Later, this program was renamed to simply ‘Healthy Streets’.

We selected streets by working from the 45-mile Neighborhood Greenway network and avoiding impacts to businesses, fire response routes, transit operations and layover, and COVID19 response efforts like healthcare provider parking.

What's Next for Healthy Streets

We’ve heard from the people of Seattle that Healthy Streets are a valued part of many neighborhoods and there is a strong desire to add more locations. In 2022 Mayor Harrell signed the Executive Order on Climate Change and confirmed Seattle’s commitment to make 20 miles of Healthy Streets permanent.

As a first step towards that goal, we’re focused on evaluating and upgrading locations that were installed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. People across Seattle are also sharing their vision for how Healthy Streets can be a part of the People Streets and Public Spaces component of the Seattle Transportation Plan. You can learn more and engage in sharing your thoughts on the Seattle Transportation Plan page. 

The Healthy Streets program currently focuses on Neighborhood Greenways, and we do not have an open application process. If future funding is identified to make this an ongoing program, we will develop a process to identify and prioritize future locations.

Community Feedback 

When Healthy Streets started, we chose which neighborhoods to focus on using the Race and Social Equity Index. We also considered neighborhoods that already had greenways in areas with dense housing or not much public open space. This way, more people could have places to go outside and enjoy nature without having to go far from their homes. We also made sure to include neighborhoods that had access to important services and businesses that people need in their daily lives. This way, everyone in those neighborhoods could have better opportunities to live healthy and active lives.

Since the program began, we’ve regularly talked to communities and distributed surveys to understand how Healthy Streets are working, where they can be improved and expanded, and where it might make sense to go back to a Neighborhood Greenway. We also observed and reviewed each Healthy Street to help inform our decision-making.  For more information about how community feedback was used, please review our Healthy Street Evaluations in the materials section below.