A bridge for walkers and bicyclists over Highway 305 was just one of many ideas shared at a recent Bainbridge Island Sustainable Transportation Task Force meeting.

A main goal of the meeting was for task force members to discuss gaps they see in the island’s transportation system.

Robert Weschler said stakeholders like the Suquamish Tribe and state ferry system are “not at the table. “We need to take pressure off of (Highway) 305,” he said.

Don Willott said their advisory group needs to have better communication with city staff to make sure their ideas are feasible in the bigger picture.

Christy Carr, who is also a city councilmember, said senior housing needs to be looked at more broadly. With one-quarter of island residents over 65, many don’t live in senior facilities. “They’re spread out” all over the island, and they need to have connections with transportation, she said.

Ratings

Consultant Jennifer Wieland, who facilitated the Zoom meeting, led the task force through a rating process on some of the tradeoff possibilities dealing with transportation.

For example, they prioritized building new systems over maintaining old ones. “Maintaining is not working,” Ruth Flanagan said; that’s what necessitated the need for the task force.

The group also voted to preserve rural character of the island over supporting growth, but Alyse Nelson was in the minority. “We need to build the city where we can get where we want without a car,” she said.

Also favored was safety over convenience. “I’m willing to do almost anything if I feel safe,” Barbara Zimmer said.

Split right down the middle was access to parks or schools.

Kirk Robinson theorized that more votes would go to schools if students were encouraged to use alternative transportation, like biking or walking or riding the school bus, rather than driving their own cars.

“There are a lot of climate change issues there,” he said.

Group work

City engineer Mark Epstein broke up the task force into groups to spur discussion on the six overall goals.

Representing one group, Kim Leatham said trails should not be thought of just as recreation, but as transportation routes so they need to be better connected to get “people to places they need to go.”

Robinson said there needs to be better access to get from north to south, connections to get all over the island walking or biking.

Flanagan was the one who brought up the idea of a bridge over Highway 305 because there is no place to cross that busy road safely while biking or walking. Robinson added later, “Traffic gets worse and worse every year.”

Zimmer mentioned working on projects first that could be done quickly to improve safety, such as at intersections and making trails wider. Carr suggested putting together an app similar to the one the city has to target potholes to help with transportation fixes.

Prioritizing goals

Task force members were also asked to prioritize their six main goals.

Susan Loftus suggested thinking of it as phases of a network rather than individual projects. For example, she might think a certain crosswalk might not be that important until she looked at the entire island transportation network.

The results of the task force prioritizing the six goals were:

1. Safety and comfort

2. Connectivity and convenience

3. Climate action and resilience.

4. Natural systems and rural character.

5. Implementation and funding.

6. Equity and accessibility.

Other issues

Another gap in transportation on the island was brought up by Weschler. He wondered why Uber and Lyft services are missing. Wieland surmised that they make better money with more riders on shorter trips, while the island offers fewer riders on longer trips. Loftus added that may not be desirable anyway because that would encourage more single-vehicle trips.

There was also some discussion about electronic bikes, which may not be used that much yet, but because of the island’s topography could be more in demand in the future, Wieland said. Brenda Fantroy-Johnson, a newly named councilmember, said charging stations for those and electric cars need to be part of the overall discussion.

Willot reminded everyone of the importance of equity and mass transit. He said people should be able to come across on the ferry, headed for a destination like the pool, and be able to do it “without bringing a car.”