The Kitsap Sun’s transportation blogger Travis Baker gets some questions and some answers about whether riders can or should pedal over to the mainland.

Here’s the initial question, sent in from an island resident:

“My husband and I moved to Bainbridge Island over 34 years ago. At that time, the Agate Pass Bridge was posted ‘Bike Riders Must Walk Over the Bridge.’

That sign disappeared long ago and many times we have had to watch carefully for bike riders that insist upon riding over the bridge. We are considerate with our driving, especially where they are no bike lanes, but it is an accident waiting to happen with the heavy commuter traffic traveling north from Bainbridge.

What will it take to have the sign posted?”

Read a state transportation planner’s response in Baker’s blog here.

Short answer: There was no legal basis for the sign. Cyclists have just as much right to pedal the bridge as motorists have to drive it.

My two cents: Hitting a cyclist brings a curse on your house for eight generations. Be careful.

Islander columnist Becky Fox Marshall writes this month about the last days spent at her father’s side.

I am memorizing the room like my life depends on it.

The walls are buttery yellow. Cheerful, but not too much so. Warm and calming, like a sunrise.

Hardwood floors and modern, halogen lighting, a handmade quilt over the loveseat. It reminds me of a four-star hotel room. My sister is doing a puzzle on a small, round pedestal table in the corner under a flat-screen TV cantilevered from the wall. CNN is on, but it’s muted. Blagojevich has been unanimously ousted by Illinois lawmakers. His mouth is moving but there is no sound.

My dad takes a breath and then is silent. We both look at him, wondering if that was his last. Long, agonizing seconds go by. Then another breath. My sister goes back to the puzzle, and I to my memorization. The sink is sparkling stainless steel and a new Sunbeam coffee maker sits on the shiny granite counter, next to a package of mouth swabs and dad’s single-coffee bags.

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If you missed the Bainbridge Island press forum last weekend, you can still catch it on BITV (Channels 12 and 22) starting tomorrow.

Channel 12:
Tues., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Channel 22:
Mon., Fri. and Sat. at 12 a.m. and 7 a.m.

For those that don’t get cable but have high-speed Internet, BITV streams all their shows on the web: BITV.org. (Mac users have to download a doohickey to watch)

Crosscut columnist and former Seattle Weekly editor Knute Berger moderated the event, which included representivives from Bainbridge Island’s print, web and TV-based media. Here’s the recap Berger wrote in his blog:

Last Sunday (Feb.8) I moderated a panel on the future of media at the Bainbridge Island Library. The focus was, naturally, on local, Bainbridge and Kitsap County media, and the panel participants were Dennis Anstine, editor of the Bainbridge Review, David Nelson, editor of the Kitsap Sun, Althea Paulson, island blogger, Selina Shearer, news director of the island’s cable TV program BNews, and Crosscut.com’s media reporter Bill Richards. The highlight for me was the turnout. It’s a good sign when a library parking lot is full on a Sunday. The room was packed and the audience Q&A alone lasted an hour and could have gone longer. People are incredibly concerned about where the news is going to come from in these times of big media change. Technology, the collapse of old advertising models, the recession, all are taking a huge toll on traditional newspapers and radio and TV as well. No one is immune. And it’s not as if people were happy with the media’s overall performance even in good times.

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