Last week, the three Republican members of the Pierce County Council all voted to reject the county’s newly completed Vision Zero Action Plan, a road map intended to get Pierce County on track to fully eliminate fatal and serious injuries on county roads by 2035. The plan, which was funded by a $400,000 grant from the US Department of Transportation and was fully ready for adoption, only avoided being sent back into a drawer by virtue of a single vote, passing 4-3.
A top priority for incoming Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello, the plan is the type of standard traffic safety plan numerous other jurisdictions around the region have adopted in recent years, in large part to become more competitive for infrastructure grants. But the council’s three GOP members — Dave Morrell, Paul Hererra, and Amy Cruver — all pushed back on the plan, along with Keith Swank, the county’s new Sheriff who previously ran for Congress as a Republican.
Less than three years ago, both Morrell and Hererra both voted in favor of creating the action plan, illustrating the degree to which issues surrounding mobility and traffic safety have become severely polarized across political lines in recent years. Now, Morrell argued that setting a goal of zero fatalities isn’t realistic, while Hererra said the plan shouldn’t move forward without the support of the county sheriff.
Swank’s comments, which veered into right-wing conspiracy theories, came along with criticism of other items on the council’s agenda, including a resolution affirming support for providing county services to immigrants and refugees.
“Vision Zero is founded on a false and dangerous assumption. The assumption is that traffic fatalities in Pierce County are not primarily caused by criminal behavior but instead can be remedied through minor regulatory changes and misdirected extravagant spending that benefits a handful of private interests at the expense of our citizens,” Swank said. He later asserted that Vision Zero has a broader agenda “embedded” into it, with intention of trying to “force our lower income citizens into public transportation, effectively restricting their agency and freedom of movement.”
The adoption of a Vision Zero action plan unlocks potential funding opportunities for the county, including from jurisdictions like the Puget Sound Regional Council, which has prioritized funding in the past for jurisdictions that have adopted the Safe Systems approach embedded in Pierce County’s new plan. The Safe Systems approach takes into account the fact that humans make mistakes, and that safety infrastructure should focus on reducing the severity of crashes rather than eliminating them entirely.
But opponents of the resolution painted the goals as unrealistic, despite success implementing the Safe Systems approach in places like Oslo, Norway and Hoboken, New Jersey.
“I appreciate the goal of reducing accidents, but to say we’re going to be Target Zero by 2030, 2035 it’s not going to happen,” Morrell said. “So for us to put titles like that into these resolutions, I think are totally misleading.”
Speaking in favor of the plan was Amber Weilert, the mother of Michael Weilert, a 13-year-old boy who was killed by a driver while riding his bike across a marked crosswalk on Pacific Avenue (SR 7) in Parkland in 2022. While SR 7 is a state-maintained roadway, the event led to galvanized action for improvements in traffic safety across the county.
“The person who hit my son was not a criminal. It was an unsafe roadway,” Weilert said. “No other mom should have to endure the agony of losing a child. We need road safety.”
Councilmember Robyn Denson, supporting the motion, seemed to express some disbelief that it was facing significant opposition. “We are not discussing whether or not to invest money in creating a plan. The plan has been created,” Denson said. “All it does is open up opportunities for funding so that we can incrementally make improvements in areas like where Michael lived and his family lives, areas in my community, areas that we are densifying, that we are putting more and more people that need infrastructure, like sidewalks.”
“For too long in this county, we have had plans, and the plans have been about how to get a car to move from point A to point B as fast as it can, and that is how we have systems that now allow for people who are not walking or not driving to not feel safe,” Council Chair Jani Hitchen said. “As our population grows, as we add more and more people, we have run out of room to expand roads, and they deserve a safe way to get around. This plan commits that we will actually intentionally think about all the users on our road so that everybody can get from Point A to Point B safely.”
Councilmember Amy Cruver, who was the only vote against creating the action plan in 2022, remained steadfast in her opposition to adopting it now.
“I’m concerned that, in a way, by adopting a plan like this, it may give a false sense of security,” Cruver said, before directly addressing Weilert to say that she wishes her son had stopped to tie his shoes that day in 2022 so he would have avoided getting hit by a driver in a marked and lighted crosswalk. “It would be much more prudent for us to work on focusing on the areas that we know are bad. Having a plan like this doesn’t stop us from doing what’s right. We can do what’s right without having to grab onto something that can add things, more and more, onto the plan.”
Executive Ryan Mello, taking over after 8 years of Republican leadership under Executive Bruce Dammeier, championed the Vision Zero action plan, after co-sponsoring the resolution that moved it forward three years ago when he was on the county council.
“Communities that are safe are communities where you can walk, ride, or roll, drive their car, and arrive at their destination safely,” Mello said. “Between 2018 and 2022, there were 108 fatal crashes and 296 serious injury crashes on Pierce County roads. More than 400 families’ lives were changed forever because someone chose to drive impaired, speed, or simply look at their cell phone and be distracted while driving.”
“Vision Zero takes a ‘safe system approach’ that will save lives,” Mello continued. “It’s a holistic approach to improving enforcement, road and sidewalk design, pedestrian safety and more.”
Despite the best efforts of the county council’s conservative wing, Pierce County’s Vision Zero Action Plan has now been adopted, with a number of potential strategies intended to save lives in active consideration, with potential funding available to do so now available.
Ryan Packer has been writing for The Urbanist since 2015, and currently reports full-time as Contributing Editor. Their beats are transportation, land use, public space, traffic safety, and obscure community meetings. Packer has also reported for other regional outlets including Capitol Hill Seattle, BikePortland, Seattle Met, and PubliCola. They live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.
