State Highway City Streets.

Certain city streets are designated as part of the state highway system.  For cities or towns with populations of 32,500 or less, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is responsible for installing and maintaining slope stability, traffic control signals, signs, striping, lane marking, and channelization on these city streets.  Three years after a city or town's population exceeds the 32,500 population threshold, the transfer of installation and maintenance responsibilities from the WSDOT to the city or town takes effect.  The city or town is then responsible for installation and maintenance responsibilities at its own expense, subject to WSDOT approval of the installation and type of traffic control devices used.  For these requirements, "traffic control device" includes striping, lane marking, and channelization.

I2 Safety Program.

The WSDOT's I2 Safety Program (I2 Program) administers projects with the goal of reducing fatal and serious crashes on the state highway system.  The Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) is a federal-aid program administered through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the goal of which is to reduce fatal and serious crashes on all public roads.  Highway Safety Improvement Program funds are divided between the WSDOT and local agencies.  The WSDOT uses HSIP funds to address I2 Program safety needs. 

Federal legislation requires each state to have a Strategic Highway Safety Plan—in Washington, this plan is titled Target Zero.  The I2 Program is developed based on Target Zero emphasis areas, and its priorities and approach are included in the WSDOT's Target Zero Implementation Plan.  The I2 Program uses a network screening process to identify potential locations for further analysis, after which the WSDOT determines crash contributing factors and crash types for the ranked locations provided.  

Within the I2 Program, the state highway system is screened approximately every two years to identify segments and intersections where the expected number of fatal and serious injury crashes are greater than what would be anticipated at a similar site.  The priorities for the safety program are identified in Target Zero and detailed in the HSIP Implementation Plan.

Highway Safety Manual.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) publishes a Highway Safety Manual (HSM) that provides tools to conduct quantitative safety analyses, including:

• methods for developing a roadway safety management program and for evaluating its effects;
• a predictive method to estimate crash frequency and severity; and
• a catalog of crash modification factors by geometric and operational treatment type.

The manual includes suggested steps to monitor and reduce crash frequency and severity on existing roadway networks, and provides a method for estimating expected average crash frequency of a network, facility, or individual site.  

Modification of Speed Limits.

Maximum speed limits by roadway type are set in state law.  When local authorities determine, on the basis of an engineering and traffic investigation, that a maximum speed limit is greater or less than is reasonable and safe, the local authority may determine a reasonable and safe maximum speed limit that:

• decreases the limit at intersections;
• increases the limit, but to no greater than 60 miles per hour (mph); or
• decreases the limit, but to no less than 20 mph.

Local authorities are required to determine by an engineering and traffic investigation the maximum speed for all arterial streets that is no greater than 60 miles per hour, and may establish a maximum speed limit of 20 mph on a non-arterial highway or of 10 mph on a shared street.  "Shared street" means a city street designated by placement of official traffic control devices where pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicular traffic share a portion or all of the same street.

Alternations of maximum speed limits on state highways within incorporated cities or towns by local authorities may not take effect until approved by the WSDOT.

Using a Personal Electronic Device While Driving.

A person who uses a personal electronic device while driving a motor vehicle on a public highway is guilty of a traffic infraction.  The base penalty for use of a personal electronic device for a first infraction is $48, which, inclusive of fees and assessments, brings the total penalty amount to $150.  The base penalty for use of a personal electronic device for second and subsequent infractions is doubled, resulting in a total penalty amount of $248. 

Automated Traffic Safety Cameras.

The use of automated traffic safety cameras (traffic safety cameras) to detect speed violations is permitted:

• at red light intersections that meet minimum yellow change interval requirements;
• at railroad crossings;
• in school speed zones;
• in school walk areas;
• in public park speed zones;
• in hospital speed zones;
• at select locations in cities that are identified as priority locations (1 per 10,000 residents);
• on state routes within city limits that are classified as city streets;
• in work zones on county roads and city streets;
• on bus rapid transit corridors or routes;
• at certain locations for stopping at intersections and crosswalks, stopping when traffic is obstructed, public transportation-only lane use, and stopping or traveling in a restricted lane violations, as well as to detect ferry queue violations; and
• on public transportation vehicle-mounted systems operated by a transit authority within a county with a population of greater than 1.5 million residents.

The local legislative authority with jurisdiction where the traffic safety cameras are to be located must prepare an analysis of the locations within the jurisdiction where traffic safety cameras are proposed to be placed before enacting an ordinance authorizing their use, and before adding additional traffic safety cameras or relocating any existing traffic safety camera.  The location where a traffic safety camera has been installed must be clearly marked at least 30 days prior to activation of the traffic safety camera through the placement of signs at that location that follows federal guidelines as adopted by the WSDOT.

Highway Safety Fund.

Revenues deposited in the Highway Safety Fund are required to be used for carrying out laws related to driver licensing, driver improvement, automobile insurance requirements, the cost of furnishing abstracts of driving records and maintaining driving records, the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, for-hire vehicle regulation, limousine regulation, and the reduction of rural roadway departures.

As compared to the engrossed second substitute bill, the amended bill requires local jurisdictions to use the same five-year time period to examine incidence of collision data for establishing a crash prevention zone as applies to the WSDOT.  It requires local jurisdictions to use the same processes in the HSM published by the AASHTO, that the WSDOT is required to use to establish a crash prevention zone, and clarifies that the provision requiring WSDOT approval for a local jurisdiction to designate a crash prevention zone that includes roads managed by the WSDOT also applies to locations eligible for designation as a crash prevention zone prior to January 1, 2029.

The amended bill removes the WSDOT's authority to create a crash prevention zone in the area specified prior to January 1, 2029, and authorizes local jurisdictions to create a crash prevention zone between designated portions of Highway 12 prior to January 1, 2029.  It also clarifies that crash prevention zones established prior to January 1, 2029 do not have any specific date by when they must be dissolved.

The amended bill exempts the WSDOT from being required to conduct a public hearing prior to establishment of a crash prevention zone.  It mandates that, when local jurisdictions hold a public hearing prior to establishing a crash prevention zone, the WSDOT's regional administrator be invited to attend. 

Finally, the amended bill modifies the scope of an engineering and traffic investigation of public roads that must be conducted prior to establishing a crash prevention zone from the identification of safety improvements to the identification of options for safety improvements, and expands the WSDOT's authorization to use speed reduction methods, approaches, and technologies to reduce speeding within crash prevention zones to apply to all crash prevention zones, rather than solely to those zones it establishes.