[Talk-us] Stay-Healthy Streets in Seattle do not appear to be Living Streets

[Joseph Eisenberg]

Some mappers have suggested using highway=living_street for streets in
Seattle (and perhaps elsewhere) which temporarily have through-traffic
restricted for motor vehicles. However, this appears to be incorrect usage
of the tag.

According to the announcement by SDOT, the streets in the Stay-Healthy
Streets program have a speed limit of 32 kph (20 mph), much higher than the
maximum for a Living Street (20 kmh to "walking speed"). It appears that
the legal change is that these streets are now motor_vehicle=destination,
with through-traffic prohibited, but they are not Living Streets according
to the description in this page or at Wikipedia:

"designed primarily with the interests of pedestrians and cyclists in mind
and as a social space where people can meet and where children may also be
able to play legally and safely... vehicle parking may be restricted".
"These streets are often built at the same grade as sidewalks, without
curbs. Cars are limited to a speed that does not disrupt other uses of the
streets (usually defined to be pedestrian speed), or through traffic is
eliminated using bollards or circuitous one-way operation. To make this
lower speed natural, the street is normally set up so that a car cannot
drive in a straight line for significant distances, for example by placing
planters at the edge of the street, alternating the side of the street the
parking is on, or curving the street itself. Other traffic calming measures
are also used."

The streets in Seattle have street parking along their whole lengths, and
there are no design changes compared to other highway=residential streets
in the city, except for signage / paint.

While I would personally love to see real Living Streets in the USA, it
doesn't appear that this tag should be used in Seattle (or Portland, where
we have implemented similar short-term policies on "Neighborhood
Greenways") at this time. If the city redesigns these streets and lowers
the speed limit to 5 or 10 mph and legally allows pedestrians to use the
whole street at any times, then we can reconsider.

–Joseph Eisenberg
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