Community Highlights

Kenmore is a Bronze-level Walk Friendly Community based in large part on the City’s efforts to comprehensively address walkability and safety through its plans and neighborhood-specific initiatives.

• The City frames its efforts under a Target Zero approach, which calls for eliminating fatalities and serious injuries. The initiative promotes collaboration between various City departments and has resulted in some early successes, including the creation of a new traffic engineer position and safety improvements at key pedestrian crossing locations.
• The Neighborhood Transportation Plan Program showcases the City’s efforts to respond to the unique needs of each neighborhood within the City. After developing a tailored plan for each neighborhood, the City began implementing “quick-build” projects to respond to safety concerns—from edge line striping and marked crosswalks to lighting improvements and traffic calming.
• The City used a sidewalk inventory and prioritization scheme, along with bond measures and other grant funds, to fill gaps in its existing network of sidewalks. These improvements were targeted in locations to facilitate connections between parks, schools and residential areas.
• Guided by their Complete Streets Ordinance, City staff have worked proactively to implement changes to the transportation system that support safe walking and bicycling. Signal timing adjustment has decreased signal cycle lengths, and signals near schools and other priority locations use 2.5 feet per second as the standard walking speed, allowing more time for pedestrians to cross. Road diets have been implemented across the City, where lanes are narrowed and reduced to reallocate space for non-motorized road users.