$4 million to build for past, not for future

Published 1:30 am Friday, February 10, 2023

Reaching our goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions requires creating appealing options beyond driving. Safe biking is an important part of that plan for Bainbridge Island, given that most of our trips are under three miles.

The city’s Sustainable Transportation Plan developed a concept to start with a small number of priority bike infrastructure projects that meet the safety needs of children. Once you meet the needs of children, you have met them for the whole community. This would enable the community to first experience high-quality bike facilities before choosing whether to fund additional projects at this level of quality.

Studies indicate that about 60% of the population would like to bike, but they don’t now because they don’t feel safe. Those people require a barrier or a separation from cars, not just a shoulder and a white stripe of paint. A minority (8%-12%) is willing to bike on a shoulder, and an even smaller group (1-4%) prefers shoulders over a protected bike lane to maximize their speed.

The quality of bike lanes— and not a lack of interest— explains why only 28% of current bikers are female, and few children and elderly are biking. Countries with a network of safe bike lanes have women, children and elders biking at higher rates than middle-aged men. They bike more slowly and more casually.

Cutting-edge cities have bike infrastructure that addresses the needs of athletic and vehicular cyclists, without overriding the needs of the greater community. However, those are not the designs provided by BI’s Public Works Department for the last several bike projects.

Sportsman’s and New Brooklyn intersection

City Council directed Public Works to optimize biking and walking facilities for students at the Sportsman’s and New Brooklyn intersection. Unfortunately, the $1 million completed project functions poorly for that goal, with crossings at inconvenient locations, sidewalks ending in narrow shoulders without protection, and no delineated bike lanes. Athletic cyclists don’t use it, and it isn’t inviting to new student cyclists. Thoughtful design at a similar price tag would have provided protected bike lanes connecting to a protected crossing (called a Protected Intersection) for both biking and walking.

Madison Avenue

Current plans for Madison don’t fit the design standards for children. A raised bike shoulder is the current plan in front of three schools, and there’s little protection along most of the west side. The raised shoulder is higher cost than other solutions that would be safer for children. The design prioritizes speed over safety to allow speedier cyclists to exit the bike lane to avoid slowing down for other cyclists. Yet that could be accomplished with specific exit locations.

Eagle Harbor Drive to Wyatt

The current $4 million planned project from Eagle Harbor drive to Wyatt consists mostly of adding shoulders: a high-cost project with low and inequitable usability. At a city-sponsored open house Jan. 25, participants presented a recommendation for a 10-foot Multi-Use Path on one side of the road. After a citizen engineer explained the benefits of this design –usable for both bikers and walkers, requiring less right of way, a lower-stress experience, mid-range cost, and being safe enough for children— the room erupted in applause, with nearly unanimous votes of support. It solved for connections and road crossings that were earlier concerns.

Public funds for bike facilities have been used for decades to benefit only a few, with the rationale that including children and others costs too much. Yet, this narrow lens distorts the full financial picture. Cost and value can’t be disconnected. Facilities for all citizens are a far higher value than shoulders; they meet the needs of most of the population while costing an average of 20% more (depending on the specific context). Conversely, shoulders meet the needs of only an inequitable minority of the population.

In addition, road shoulders cannot easily be improved incrementally. Upgrading projects later to work for the whole community would be prohibitively more expensive. Assuming funding for these projects is finite, building low-quality facilities is a poor solution and not “a step in the right direction.”

Current plans for bike infrastructure on BI ensure that most of our current and future generations will be designed out of biking. It will not be possible to make meaningful progress toward the goals of the Sustainable Transportation Plan if these plans are implemented.

The verbalized goals in our Sustainable Transportation Plan will amount to greenwashing if they have little impact on implementation.

Susan Loftus is a master’s of Sustainable Transportation candidate