The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is a municipal

government agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington that is responsible for the maintenance of the city's transportation systems, including roads, bridges, and public transportation. The agency is funded primarily by

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

es that are supplemented by voter-approved levies from other sources; its budget in 2017 was $450 million.

History

The Seattle Transportation Department was formed in 1996, as part of the re-organization and eventual dissolution of the Seattle Engineering Department. The division was renamed to the "Seattle Department of Transportation" in 2004.

Administration and management

Director

The department is managed by the Director of Transportation, a position appointed by the Mayor of Seattle and confirmed by a majority vote from the

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-larg ...

. The position is subject to re-appointment and re-confirmation every four years. Since 1997, nine people have held the office of Director of Transportation. Greg Spotts was nominated in 2022 for the position.

Funding

In 2015, SDOT had an adopted budget of $429 million. The largest portion of the budget, approximately $186 million, is allocated to major capital projects, including collaborations with regional and state agencies.

Transportation levies

Much of SDOT's long-term funding comes from voter-approved funding levies and other taxes. In 2006, the $365 million "Bridging the Gap" levy was approved by Seattle voters, using property taxes and parking fees to fund nine years of transportation improvements. The levy was replaced in 2015 by the voter-approved "Move Seattle" levy, funded by a new property tax, that will provide $930 million over a nine-year period.

Programs

Seattle Streetcar

SDOT maintains the citywide

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

network, which consists of two lines, : the South Lake Union Streetcar, opened in 2007; and the First Hill Streetcar, opened in 2016.

Transit funding

In addition to road funding, SDOT also provides funding for

public transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of wh ...

improvements through partner agencies. The 2015 "Move Seattle" levy includes funding for expansion of

King County Metro King County Metro, officially the King County Metro Transit Department and often shortened to Metro, is the public transit authority of King County, Washington, which includes the city of Seattle. It is the eighth-largest transit bus agency in t ...

's RapidRide system into Seattle, replacing existing bus routes.

Cycling infrastructure

Since the passage of "Bridging the Gap" levy in 2006, SDOT has funded $36 million in bicycle infrastructure, including of bicycle lanes and sharrows, of signed bicycle routes, and 2,230 bicycle parking spaces. A bikeshare system,

Pronto Cycle Share Pronto Cycle Share, branded as Pronto!, was a public bicycle-sharing system in Seattle, Washington, that operated from 2014 to 2017. The system, initially owned by a non-profit and later by the Seattle Department of Transportation, included 54 ...

, debuted in 2014 and was initially operated by a non-profit organization until it ran into financial issues a year later. SDOT took over operations until the system was shut down in early 2017. It was replaced with a permitting system for private companies operating dockless bikeshare that launched in 2017. The permitting system was expanded beyond its initial pilot to several companies with bicycles distributed across the city; dockless scooter-sharing was allowed beginning in 2019.

Autonomous vehicles

In November 2022, SDOT introduced a permitting system for autonomous vehicle operators in the city that would allow them to use public streets with a driver. Zoox,

Nvidia Nvidia Corporation ( ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and incorporated in Delaware. Founded in 1993 by Jensen Huang (president and CEO), Chris Malachowsky, and Curti ...

, and Cruise have since begun testing their vehicles in the city.

Facilities

, SDOT has an estimated $20 billion in transportation assets within the city of Seattle. It maintains of streets, 122 bridges, 609 stairways, 158 traffic cameras, 1,061 signalized intersections, and 29,073 curb ramps. The Urban Forestry division maintains over 41,000 street trees, as well as of managed landscape areas.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Government of Seattle Transportation in Seattle Transit agencies in Washington (state) Government agencies established in 1996 1996 establishments in Washington (state)