Sightline's Eric de Place rolls out the data to make the case (a case that should be self-evident, but apparently is not) that lower speed limits on residential streets are safer for pedestrians and shouldn't be a controversial issue.

Earlier this week, local right-wing talk jock Dori Monson argued that Mayor Mike McGinn's support for a measure in Olympia that would merely allow  local governments to set speed limits lower than 30 mph on residential streets showed a "pathological ... hatred of cars and drivers." Never mind that the measure that so offended Monson passed the state House unanimously last year, with both Democratic and Republican support.

Here's de Place:

For the record, there’s nothing partisan—much less “pathological”—about reducing red tape for cities that want to reduce traffic speeds to protect their citizens, especially when it’s children and the elderly who are disproportionately killed by speeding cars.

So here’s my own modest proposal: instead of ranting like lunatics about an imaginary “war on cars,” maybe Washington’s commentator class could spend some time with this interactive map of pedestrian fatalities in the state. And then study the city and county statistics. And then read Alan’s thorough and judicious case for why local speed limit-setting is a good idea.

In Seattle, 18.1 percent of all traffic deaths between 2000 and 2009 were pedestrians---the highest percentage of any metropolitan area in the state. Sounds like we should be decrying the war on walkers.