Yakima Traffic Maps

Traffic Safety Maps

Traffic safety is a measure of both a community’s quality of life and infrastructure. Maps indicating the location and characteristics of vehicle collisions provide a primary source of information for traffic safety studies and identification of corrective measures to improve streets and intersections. Comparative information about different locations within the city is imperative in prioritizing construction and enhancement projects. Enforcement efforts from the police department are assisted by the quantitative and qualitative information shown on these maps.

These maps illustrate the traffic collisions within Yakima, Washington, during a five-year period—1998 through 2002. Data for these maps was collected from the Yakima Police Traffic Accident Field Reports. Yakima uses a software reporting tool, Intersection Magic, by Pd’ Programming Products.

Priority Street Project—Future Capacity and Severe Pavement Conditions

This map identifies arterial streets that require future improvement based on two separate conditions—future capacity constraints or severe pavement deficiencies. Projects identified on this map, as well as others submitted by the public participation process, require financial analysis and a needs assessment.

Yakima, Washington, is currently updating its Transportation Plan as required by the Washington State Growth Management Act. The ability of public streets to support future traffic is a basic guideline of the growth management process called “concurrency,” meaning that street capacity must be concurrent with development. To plan for future capacity needs, each city establishes and adopts the state standards for concurrency.

The street segments identified on this map are critical improvement projects for Yakima. The public participation process will help to prioritize these projects and could identify other areas of concern. Each project must also be analyzed for economic and possible environmental impacts. Future capacity-constrained streets may require additional travel lanes or other measures to reduce congestion. In some cases, improving alternate routes could relieve the congestion on certain street segments. Significant public investment is required when a street’s structural surface has failed or is near the failure point. Sometimes the street segment can be rehabilitated. Others need a complete rebuild of the road base and surface.