# Seattle votes to limit historic districts' traffic control power > Seattle City Council votes to strip historic districts of traffic authority for safety upgrades. - Title: Seattle votes to limit historic districts' traffic control… - Summary: Seattle City Council votes to strip historic districts of traffic authority for safety upgrades. Seattle City Council voted to remove historic districts'… - Keywords: seattle, city council, vision zero, historic districts, pioneer square, pike place market, traffic safety, transportation committee, rob saka, alexis mercedes rinck, katie wilson, news - Source: Seattletimes — https://seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/vote-on-seattle-traffic-safety-bills-aims-at-historic-districts - Read time: 1 min - Topics: seattle, city council, vision zero, historic districts, pioneer square, pike place market, traffic safety, transportation committee, rob saka, alexis mercedes rinck, katie wilson, news ## Seattle City Council votes on traffic safety bills Seattle City Council voted to strip historic districts of some authority over city streets for traffic safety improvements. > A relatively benign slate of traffic safety bills heard at Seattle City Hall this week led to heated discord and a vote to strip historic districts of some of their authority on city streets ## Vision Zero policy aims for zero traffic deaths by 2030 Councilmember Rob Saka introduced bills to make Vision Zero policy permanent, targeting zero traffic deaths and major injuries by 2030. > Councilmember Rob Saka, who leads the council’s Transportation Committee, introduced the original series of bills as a way to make permanent the Vision Zero policy, created to eliminate fatalities and major injuries on Seattle’s roads, that’s been on city books since 2015 ## Saka seeks quick action on traffic safety Saka called his bills 'low-hanging fruit, consensus items' to act quickly on Vision Zero goals before the council hears the mayor’s budget proposal. > Saka said he intended the bills to be 'low-hanging fruit, consensus items' to codify the city’s goal to stop all deaths and major injuries on city streets by 2030. He wanted them acted on quickly ## Rinck's amendment challenges historic district authority Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck proposed giving city traffic engineers power to install traffic controls in historic districts. > Rinck’s amendment would give the city’s traffic engineer explicit power to install traffic control devices, such as markers, signs and signal devices, to guide and control where people drive ## Saka rejects Rinck's amendment for now Saka refused to include Rinck’s amendment, saying he wanted to build broad support for Vision Zero without conflicting with historic district concerns. > Saka said he intentionally didn’t include a bill that would’ve done the same things as Rinck’s amendment. Wilson and advocates had pushed him to do so when he was crafting the bills, he said, and he rejected their requests ## Historic districts face traffic safety debates Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market have been sites of recent traffic safety conflicts with historic preservation groups. > Pioneer Square fought changes to its intersections ahead of the World Cup that the Seattle Department of Transportation sought for safety improvements ## Saka delays final vote on bills Saka postponed final voting on the bills until after the council meets on October 31 to address historic district concerns. > After the meeting, Saka said he was not wholly opposed to Rinck’s amendment. He just believed more engagement with representatives in the city’s eight historic Landmark Districts was needed ## Bills to be voted on by end of October The amended traffic safety bills will be voted on by the end of October after Saka delayed final voting until the council meets next week. > The amended set of bills is now due to be voted on by the end of October ## Key takeaway Seattle City Council voted to remove historic districts' authority over street safety rules to implement Vision Zero traffic safety goals by 2030.