City misinformation

To the editor:

The city of Bainbridge Island’s Sustainable Transportation Plan is a masterpiece of misinformation intended to fundamentally change our lives in favor of a small group of highly vocal activists with a social engineering agenda.

Reduced speed limits throughout BI have now gone into effect, with severe unintended consequences. Ostensibly to advance climate goals and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, it does the opposite in the near term, in addition to forcing a cost and time burden.

To meet the STP goals, it would be necessary to ban all fossil fuel vehicles on BI. They don’t tell you that. The speed reductions result in lesser efficiency and greater emissions by forcing engines to operate sub-optimally.

Additionally, where time is money, the reductions increase the time required to go almost anywhere. Two and a half minutes were added to a single trip on the Miller/Fletcher Bay corridor — five minutes if you use the original speed limit of 40 mph. That adds up quickly, but is not mentioned in the STP.

We were not asked to vote on this plan. It would not have passed.

Varon Mullis

Bainbridge Island

Pollination facts

To the editor:

In your recent bee pollination article, the statement was made that the mason bees were unable to pollinate the Asian plums last spring due them freezing/starving. However, mason bees require around 60 degrees or higher to become active. Unfortunately, most stone fruits (such as plums) bloom far earlier than when the mason bees can be useful. Putting mason bees out to pollinate plums almost ensures they will be die (as they might come out briefly during a temporary warm snap, then die when the temperature drops, and they become inactive/starve).

Mason bees, therefore are not used for plum pollination…better suited for apples and pears. Instead, there are a wide range of wasps and other pollinators that step in and do the plum pollination in the spring. Last year’s poor pollination was due not so much to the lack of pollinators as the wet weather we experienced…that limited their access/activity when the plums were blooming.

Darren Murphy

Bainbridge Island