A tale of two speed signs: Spokane expands flashing speed signs while seeking funding for another, less proven design

As the city of Spokane continues to grapple with traffic fatalities and unsafe speeds, it has rolled out a myriad of measures to try to slow down drivers, including reinstating traffic patrol officers and criminalizing right turns at red lights in certain high-traffic intersections.

Following the hit-and-run killing of foster care advocate Janet Mann last year, the city is increasingly focused on projects that can be rolled out quickly, at minimal cost, to try to mitigate risky behavior before permanent solutions can be funded and constructed.

Not every measure is created equally, but city officials argue some measures with little research behind them may still have some value – if only by changing the culture.

City Hall earlier this month asked for the City Council’s blessing to purchase 1,000 plastic yard signs, a draft version of which tell drivers to: “Slow Down Kids and Pets at Play,” for $6,000 that would come from the city’s revenue from ticket-issuing traffic cameras. It would replenish a depleted stock of the informal reminders that started in 2022 with the city’s “Neighbors Drive 25” campaign, distributed to neighborhood councils.

Some see anecdotal value in the bright yellow signs. Elizabeth Goldsmith, vice chair of the Comstock Neighborhood Council, said she has heard from neighbors that the Neighbors Drive 25 signs effectively reduced speeds.

There is little research into whether these kinds of signs do anything to directly improve safety, but the limited findings appear dubious. A 2007 “Effectiveness of ‘Children at Play’ Warning Signs” study from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation seems to be one of the only of its kind, which found these types of signs created no measurable difference in speeds or the rate of collisions.

Almost immediately after The Spokesman-Review requested comment from council members regarding the efficacy of this investment, the item was pulled from the council’s agenda by sponsor Councilman Zack Zappone.

“I wanted more time to look into it,” Zappone explained in a text.

City officials have since noted that they had not previously heard concerns about the yard signs and may continue to modify the design or reconsider the purchase.

A number of jurisdictions across Washington and the country state they will no longer install the signs, arguing they not only aren’t effective but may make things worse, though some of these claims appear equally dubious.

“In fact, ‘Children at Play’ signs can increase the potential for accidents by giving a false sense of protection to children and parents which cannot be guaranteed,” according to a frequently asked questions page on the Pierce County website.

The city of Springfield, Missouri, goes drastically further, suggesting the signs could cause the “potential attraction of child predators.”

Jon Snyder, Spokane’s director of transportation and sustainability, laughed at that insinuation, though he conceded that the signs likely do not directly move the needle on traffic safety. Still, he argues the cost is minimal and that the community outreach they generate could be worthwhile.

“It’s more of an outreach and participation incentive for neighborhoods motivated to create safety awareness,” Snyder said.

“If you give me a billion dollars for traffic safety improvements in the city, I can’t solve all of our safety problems,” he added. “We need a culture shift too. And the signs are part of that. That when you get behind the wheel, we all have to do our part to keep each other safe.”

Rhonda Kae Young, associate dean of faculty affairs and professor of civil engineering for Gonzaga University, suspects they might have some limited impact on speeds, though more likely for the kind of driver who already wants to drive safely.

“They might be more effective for people in the neighborhood who want to be a good neighbor,” she said. “I suspect it’s a nuanced answer, that there are probably some places where it works probably as effectively as basketball hoops (in the street). We drive more safely when we feel like a street is activated.”

Jeff Mergler, chair of the Comstock Neighborhood Council, echoed that the signs may be more impactful for the people who want to be impacted by them.

“The neighbors drive 25 signs are somewhat helpful such that it does remind mindful caring drivers that they might want to slow down when they see the signs,” Mergler wrote in an email. “That said some people drive by and ignore them.”

The city has also redoubled the deployment of tools with considerably more research behind them, including mobile trailers equipped with flashing speed limit signs that can be regularly moved around to areas of concern. The city deployed 11 solar-powered speed feedback trailers near school zones this fall, double the amount in prior years.

There is a wealth of research showing that these flashing signs can reduce speeds in the immediate area where they’re deployed, although even then the effects don’t necessarily last once they’re uninstalled and may wane a few blocks down the road.

But the city is simultaneously using the signs to collect data that can be sent to the Spokane Police Department for targeted enforcement and other city departments for possible infrastructure improvements. The neighborhood councils also receive the data, enabling them to more effectively advocate for permanent investments.

Young and Mergler agree on a different kind of speed sign that would be most effective at changing driver behavior.

“The ever-unpopular automated speed enforcement,” Young quipped.

At around six schools across the city, the speed limit signs don’t just warn drivers to slow down, they send a ticket to the driver’s mailbox if they continue to speed.

They might not be popular, but they’re effective, Young notes: a 2022 report from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission found 89% of drivers in Kirkland and 90% of drivers in Seattle who received a ticket from a traffic camera did not receive a second one, and tickets issued by cameras in Seattle actually fell 67% over the preceding decade.

Spokane seemed poised in 2022 to greatly expand those ticket-issuing speeding cameras, empowered by the state Legislature to place them near parks and hospitals, but those efforts have since slowed to nearly a standstill.

More progress has been made to expand red-light cameras, including two that will be installed imminently at the intersection of Mission Avenue and Greene Street, the most accident-prone intersection in the city. Those cameras had been slated to be installed this summer, but were delayed indirectly by the construction strike that ended Sept. 15, Snyder said.

The revenue from these cameras is used for traffic safety projects across the city, including for the aforementioned yard signs and mobile speed trailers. Four more ticket-issuing red light cameras are slated to be installed at Ash Street and Wellesley Avenue, as well as Division Street and Magnesium Road; two more speeding cameras will be installed near Shaw Middle School on Empire Avenue.