Bainbridge Island can’t just lower speed limits to get drivers to slow down.

Calming devices are needed, City Council members agreed at last week’s meeting.

“We have to do things to cause people to lower their speed,” Councilmember Leslie Schneider said.

Councilmember Christy Carr added, “They’ll only slow down if it’s harder to maneuver.”

The council was talking to Public Works director Chris Wierzbicki about the neighborhood traffic calming program.

He said the city asked for public input and received 249 responses that cited 50 locations for calming devices and 20 more for speed limit revisions. The city will now monitor those sites to their traffic volume, speed and use of bicycles. The council will review that data in December.

As part of the input, the public was asked if it was interested in a 25 mph speed limit islandwide, except for Highway 305. The answer was no 60% to 40%. The public did support the use of more median islands, along with increased safety for walkers and bikers. There are many other traffic calming devices, such as pinch points and narrowing lanes, Wierzbicki said.

The city safe evaluated the projects and came up with four priority projects.

The project that scored the highest was one-way traffic on Grow and Lovell with full lanes for walkers and bicyclists. It would include speed tables and small traffic circles. The cost would be $100,000 to $225,000.

Carr asked why the council didn’t have any input on the criteria for scoring. She also questioned the project that received the highest score.

“Why is there so much redundancy” with Madison being just a few blocks away, she asked.

The second-ranked project was stop control at the intersection of Finch and Sportsman Club Road. That would cost from $20,000 to $85,000.

Ranked third was a project at Grand Forest and Miller Road that would cost from $40,000 to $150,000. It would include flashing beacons and signage, protected shoulders, three median islands and a crosswalk at the parking lot.

The final project is at Lynwood Center at Schel Chelb Park. It would cost $30,000 to $40,000, have flashing beacons and signage, along with a new crossing at the park.

It also would include an advisory lane, which would be a pilot project because it’s never been used before on BI. It’s a dotted lane on the side of the road for bicyclists.

Final project selection and funding will be determined in early 2022. The city has approximately $425,000 available through the Transportation Benefits District Fund to spend on traffic calming in 2021-22.