This appears to be justified: Seattle pays injured cyclist $9.25 million for poorly designed bike lanes | The Seattle Times
Seattle created a hazardous bike lane structure that led directly to this avid cyclist suffering permanent, life altering injuries, including now being legally blind. A city local to me has made this same design mistake – putting the bike lane next to the curb, with parked cars between the bike lane and the traffic lane, which creates obvious blind spots and turning hazards.
From the article
- In 2024, the University of Washington, in Seattle, paid a $16 million claim over a bicycling crash and the city paid an additional $5 million over another cycling crash.
- In 2019, the city paid over $1 million for another crash victim.
- In 2016, the city paid a $38 million claim.
- Also in 2016, the city of Mercer Island paid $7.25 million and the city of Seattle paid $3.5 million in other crash claims.
In ten years, local Seattle are government has paid over $111 million in liability costs for bicycle related crashes. That’s $11 million per year.
