Tonight, the Bremerton City Council will discuss the four
options for the
$1.7 million in pedestrian and bicycle improvements for
Washington Avenue.
We’ll follow the discussion live below, starting at 5 p.m. There are several topics to be tackled before the Washington Avenue portion of the meeting, but I will keep you posted along the way.
1. The original option: City engineers envisioned a simple road “diet” for the stretch of Washington between Sixth Street and the Manette Bridge, in which a four lane road would become a two lane one. That will make room for wider sidewalks and bike lanes on both sides of the road, as well as additional lighting, but it would cut vehicular capacity in half.
2. The modified option: Following the road test, in which angry commuters gave public works crews an earful about traffic backups, public works crews came up with a modified proposal. Under this option, the waterside (or east side) of the road’s dated concrete median would still be reduced to one lane to make room for the pedestrian and bicycle improvements. But the upper (or west side) portion of the median would become a two way street, with minimal bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements being installed on that side (a combined bike-pedestrian lane would be added).
3. The one-way option: Also dreamed up after the road test, the option sees the road cut down from four lanes to two, but all lanes would be one-way northbound, with southbound drivers having to go to Pacific Avenue to get downtown.
4. The do nothing option: The city could just give the money back and forgo the improvements altogether.
Josh:
It was already preannounced at the PW meeting a while back which option the city was going to select. It’s option #1. Everything after that date is just a show for the public and an illusion presented to give the public the perception of having a say.
Thought you were at the meeting with me but if you weren’t, pull the audio as it’s already decided.
What happened to the live feed Josh?
Richard: I wish I knew. Were you watching at the time, too?
I was. My confusion came when I thought there was a simulcast on CBUT. Instead it was a recording of the 6/18 meeting, so when I came back to your blog, everything had stopped. Did anything get decided?
Options 2 and 4 (the “do nothing” option) were nixed. I’ll have a story up shortly!
Sorry for the technical glitches — no idea why it cut off the live blog.
-Josh