Is the city of Bainbridge Island serious about climate action? We will know soon.

The promise is there. In the City Council’s statement of priorities for 2025, climate action is at the top. It is a central goal in the Sustainable Transportation Plan, and in the draft Island Wide Mobility Plan, which will be a major part of the city’s updated Comprehensive Plan. The City Connects newsletter says that reducing transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions is the first goal of the IWMP.

Is this a genuine commitment? The track record is not good. In 2018, STP proponents claimed it would have a bigger climate benefit than the simple road safety improvements of the “Core 40” plan. After the Core 40 was abandoned, STP proponents declared that any improvements must follow the style of the Sound to Olympics Trail, no matter how expensive they would be, how little transportation they would provide, and how long this would take. These improvements await state or federal grants, now remote at best. In the meantime, the city recently spent available STP funding on the Farm Trail between Day and Lovgreen roads, which has no use for transportation. In these seven years, island traffic has continued to increase, safety for cycling and walking has continued to decline, and the STP has had zero impact on greenhouse gas emissions.

Nonetheless, the draft IWMP calls for implementing the core element of the STP called the Connecting Centers plan. Connecting Centers was adopted as a plan with no comparison of performance to an alternative that would have increased safety for cyclists and pedestrians on roads across the island with five times the mileage at the same cost. The city’s Climate Change Advisory Committee was not allowed to analyze these alternatives. According to the draft IWMP, the implementation of Connecting Centers would proceed with no evaluation of its costs and benefits, despite changes in critical assumptions about growth in the underlying land use plan. Beyond this, for the rest of the IWMP, the supposed priority of climate action is buried well behind undefined “access,” apparently chosen by a group of stakeholders with undefined interests.

All in all, there is no reason to expect the city’s updated Comprehensive Plan to deliver significant climate action in transportation. This can be fixed. First, ask the CCAC to thoroughly review the draft IWMP and the update to the transportation element of the Comprehensive Plan.

Second, recognize the importance of island-wide connections in non-motorized transportation. The basic measure of successful climate action in transportation is reducing vehicle miles traveled. In general, the longer a trip from home to work, school or store by means other than driving a car, the fewer vehicle miles traveled and the lower the greenhouse gas emissions.

Third, recognize that a route from home to work, school or store is only as safe as the least safe link. A beautiful, wide paved trail is no good to anyone who must walk or bike in a busy road’s auto lane to get there.

Fourth, recognize that the time for climate action is now, not twenty years from now. The world’s heat is increasing even faster than predicted. The more we can do with the resources we have today, the better.

Together, these imply that the IWMP would be most effective for climate action if it focused on lifting the floor of minimum road safety across the island. This would be the least expensive way to reduce transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible now, with the resources we have available.

This is just a start in theory for the CCAC’s review and advice. Perhaps more important than these elements is recognizing that effective climate action is not for recreation or enjoyment. It does not satisfy everybody in all ways for all reasons. It is not for cartoon illustration. It either makes a difference in global warming, and does so soon, or it is ineffective. The island is a small place, and the difference we can make in a transportation plan is small. It is one of the myriad local actions that the state and country need, especially with the insane federal denial of climate change. We are either serious in our effort to help the climate, or we are not.

Peter K. Harris of Bainbridge Island was a planner, budget analyst and legislative analyst for Seattle for 30 years. As such he was involved with transportation plans for environmental quality and public safety.