Newport Hills Community Club

My name is John Murphy.  I’m an assistant planner in the City of Bellevue’s Neighborhood Traffic Safety Services (NTSS) group.  I just wanted to let you know that my group recently launched a traffic safety blog—Streets are for Everyone (SAFE)—to help connect residents with City staff and to address traffic safety concerns throughout the city.

Neighborhood Traffic Safety Services (NTSS) has undergone some changes in the last year including process improvements intended to better serve our residents and changing our name from the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program to NTSS.  The process improvements and name change better reflect the full range of services we offer from educational outreach, parking management, and working with schools in addition to the traditional traffic calming techniques.

An exciting new feature of NTSS is the introduction of our traffic safety blog, Streets are for Everyone (SAFE) — created and maintained by NTSS.  The blog is primarily an educational tool aimed at proactively communicating traffic safety and project information to residents.  The blog is also an opportunity to provide a venue for dialog between residents and the City and amongst themselves.  Blog visitors can comment on each story, alert us to traffic safety concerns via an online form, and share content with others using a variety of sharing mechanisms.

The blog contains information that is otherwise not included on the City of Bellevue website. The blog is more outreach than mere information sharing resulting in a more relaxed, informal tone compared to regular website content.

A story on why the City does not install Children at Play signs and a story debunking the notion that stop signs are effective speed control devices have already been published.  Future stories include information on the overlay program, how to drive sharrows, what chicanes are, and more.  We also hope to include project-specific information providing residents with an interactive space to comment and respond to projects that impact their neighborhood/City.

Stories are published every other Monday with the opportunity to publish more frequently if there is time-sensitive information that needs to reach a wide audience.  We encourage you to share the blog with your customers.  Help us build an audience, foster open communication, and educate residents with this new, innovative platform.

Streets are for Everyone—http://bellevuentss.wordpress.com

Thanks and please let me know if you have any questions!