"Slow the flock down," urges Seattle traffic safety campaign

Seattle is leaning hard into bird metaphors to try to get you to drive safely.

Driving the news: The city transportation department unveiled an advertising campaign this week telling people to "Slow the flock down."

• It's part of a push to get drivers to obey the 25-mile-per-hour speed limits that now apply to most of Seattle's arterial streets.

Why it matters: Traffic fatalities have been on the rise lately.

• By slowing to 25 miles per hour, drivers are significantly less likely to kill pedestrians in a collision, according to SDOT.

What they're saying: "We're all members of the larger flock when we travel, and we want everyone to drive slowly and safely so we can all get home to our nests at the end of each day, period," SDOT officials wrote on the agency's blog.

The bottom line: Yes, it's corny.

But Portland is doing it too, so at least our neighbors to the south can't make fun of us.