Spokane leaders announce ban on right turns on red lights at some downtown intersections and other safety initiatives

Noting a rising rate of traffic fatalities and serious injuries in Spokane, Mayor Lisa Brown, members of her cabinet and several City Council members announced a slate of initiatives aimed at making the city’s streets safer for pedestrians and drivers.

The city will soon roll out a pilot program banning right turns during red lights on Main Avenue downtown between Monroe and Division, as well as reprogramming crosswalk signals to give pedestrians a head start before vehicles get a green light.

The Spokane Police Department will rebrand its traffic enforcement unit as the Traffic Safety and Education Unit, a four-officer unit on motorcycles focused broadly on traffic safety and another three officers focused on DUI patrols.

Information from the unit and crash data will inform a new Traffic Fatality Review Team, which will have members from various city departments who will evaluate contributing factors to fatal crashes within the city and make recommendations to reduce the risks of further fatalities.

Spokane Police Chief Kevin Hall also reiterated ongoing efforts to expand the city’s use of red light and speeding cameras. The first of these new cameras, which will be installed on two approaches to the city’s most dangerous intersection, Mission and Greene, are expected to roll out this summer. Additional locations will be chosen later this year.

These initiatives are “aimed at taking even more decisive action to protect everyone who uses our streets, including walkers, bicyclists, drivers, people who are in wheelchairs, the kids on their way from child care,” Brown said Wednesday.

The Spokane City Council also will soon consider rolling out a program to make it easier for neighborhoods to request to shut down a non-arterial street for community events, such as block parties, called the “Play Streets Program.” The program is expected to start in June and run through the end of October.

“Whether it’s neighbors wanting to come together and close our street to allow kids to play on the street, do a spontaneous chalk art festival, close down the street and have a barbecue … this is an opportunity for people in your neighborhoods to come out, meet your neighbors, have that connection and bring back that life to our neighborhoods,” said Councilman Zack Zappone.

There are already several intersections where right turns on red lights were recently banned, including at 29th and Perry, Cincinnati and Mission, and North River Drive and Washington Street. Those intersections also give pedestrians that head start on crossing ahead of a green light for cars, as do Desmet and Hamilton, 44th and Regal, and Main and Post.

That head start also will be implemented this year at Monroe and Summit Parkway, various locations along Riverside Avenue, and where Howard intersects with Spokane Falls Boulevard, Main and Sprague.

Interest in restricting right turns on red lights on Main Avenue grew after the death of 78-year-old author and foster advocate Janet Mann, who was killed in a hit-and-run at the intersection of Main and Browne as she was crossing the street by 42-year-old Gary Burns. Burns had made a right turn onto Browne Street during a red light before striking Mann, Zappone said Wednesday.