Road Warrior

The in basket: Jon Godfrey Sr. writes to say, “A problem that has been going on for years, and seems not to be getting any better has to do with the constant flow of drivers who think they can get ahead of the line by exiting Highway 3 (in Bremerton), southbound at Loxie Eagan, then dart across Loxie Eagan and enter the on-ramp south bound. 

“This last week produced another accident,” he said in October. “All can understand the frustration caused by the pinch placed upon them at this section of road. I’ve heard of no movement from the highway folks to rectify that problem, or the one I’m referring to. 

“Would the placement of a sign in the left lane of the ramp stating that it is for ‘Left Turn Only’, with an arrow, have a positive impact on the situation? “The right lane has a right turn arrow,” Jon said. “I think if it were made illegal to cross straight over to the south on-ramp, driving through this area would be safer.”

The out basket: Steve Bennett, traffic operations engineer for the Olympic Region of state highways, says accident history doesn’t warrant making it hard for a driver who gets off at the wrong exit by mistake to correct his error.

“In looking at the last three years (2006 through July of this year) of collision history at the intersection,” Steve said, “it does not appear that the behavior described is causing a problem.  “The history shows that there may have been one collision that could possibly be attributed to this movement during this period.   

“While this movement may aggravate people stuck on Highway 3, … we do not want to limit motorists that may have made a mistake by getting off at this ramp or simply changed their minds.  As such we have no plans at this time to limit this movement.”

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The in basket Lynn Hammond, who runs a salon in Kingston, wrote in July to ask, “When traveling northbound off the ferry in Kingston and you are stopped at the signal on Lindvog Road turning left, and there are no cars coming toward you going south toward the ferry, why doesn’t the light change for cars to turn left? 

“I know it has to do with the timing of the lights for the off-loading traffic, but if you are in line to turn, it takes forever for the light to change to go left.  The light at the corner of the motel in town has the same problem. I usually experience this in the evening when I am leaving town and there isn’t  a lot of traffic at that time of night.”

She claims to have waited five minutes for the light to change at times and seen exasperated drivers run it. She also told me this week nothing has changed since July.

The out basket: Jim Johnstone of the Olympic Region signal shop says, “During ferry offloads, the signals are in coordination in order to flush the ferry traffic out of Kingston.”

Two possible solutions that might help Lynn are not workable either technologically or for safety reasons, he said. 

Making the outbound left turn light at Lindvog work independently from the rest of the signal to provide just that movement in reaction to a waiting car is beyond that signal’s capabilities, he said. Once it is green, it will stay green until the adjacent through lane has used up its guaranteed 42 seconds of green and turns red, or traffic on Lindvog or the opposite left turn lane is detected. Inbound Highway 104 traffic within the 42-second cycle won’t trip the light, making those drivers wonder the same thing Lynn does about why it takes so long to get a green.

With an average of 470 inbound cars on Highway 104 during the afternoon comparing to only 92 left turners onto Lindvog, more traffic would be disadvantaged by such a change than is now, Jim said. 

Besides, he added, when the system is in coordination, the left turn signal won’t respond to detected traffic.

“It’s a painful lesson we have learned a couple of times,” he said, “including the Highway 303/Bentley (the Wal-Mart) signal (in east Bremerton,) which is not in coordination to allow us to conditionally reserve the left turn into Wal-Mart.”

Allowing left turns whenever incoming or cross-traffic permits, a so-called permissive signal, isn’t a good idea, he said. Once the state decides to allow left turns only when a green arrow permits, it doesn’t want to make the control less restrictive. Their high accident locations tend to be where drivers have the opportunity to turn left when the opposing green light for through traffic also is green, he said.

Kingston’s traffic signals go into coordination whenever a burst of traffic crosses detectors at the ferry terminal during off-loads, he said. The signals then all work on 80-second cycles, of which at least 42 seconds serves the main line. 

So no one should ever have to wait more than 80 seconds for a green light at Lindvog, he said. And an 80-second wait would occur only if the driver arrived at the light just as it goes red for his or her movement.

Outside ferry off-load times, the signals work independently of one another, reacting to the traffic the in-pavement detectors say is waiting.

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The in basket: The traffic signal at Westbay in Port Orchard went dark for perhaps an entire day the day after Thanksgiving, State signal shop trucks and employees have been there many days since. 

I don’t recall the last time I’d seem a signal go dark except during a widespread power outage. Usually they go to red and yellow flashing mode when there’s a problem just with the light. I asked the state’s Olympic Region signal shop what happened.

The out basket: Don Anders, head of the shop, said the wire that feeds electricity to the controller box failed. He agreed it was rare, and surmised that the wire might even have been damaged when first installed years and years ago, and finally shorted out. His crew since has made a temporary arrangement that got the signal working on Saturday, and permanent repairs since. 

Friday night I noticed that some drivers were going through the intersection without stopping. It’s a complicated intersection with off-set side streets, so it was a good place for drivers to know and remember the rules at darkened traffic lights. They must be treated as all-way stops, and proceeding through them without stopping is illegal.

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 The in basket: Ken Luzbetak of Bremerton said in an e-mail, “The other night I saw a Washington State Patrol running with lights and sirens across the old Tacoma Narrows bridge toward Gig Harbor in the HOV lane. There was a car ahead of him. I couldn’t see how it turned out, but should the driver ahead of him changed lanes on the bridge (despite it’s being prohibited) or fail to yield (against the law) and make the WSP change lanes?”

The out basket: A driver in the HOV lane on the old bridge should proceed until he or she is past the grates that separate the lanes and then pull over for the officer, says Trooper Krista Hedstrom of the Bremerton detachment. 

“The troopers that work in the Gig Harbor detachments will usually shut off lights and sirens as they cross the bridge for (this) very reason,” she said.  “However, there may be times that a trooper will continue with lights and sirens across the old bridge. The recommendation – wait until you are safely across the bridge, then move out of the way.”

The difference in traction between the grates and the pavement is the main reason lane changes are forbidden on the old bridge.

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The in basket: Marsha Bradshaw prefaces her complaint about the new interchange at the Burley-Olalla Road on Highway 16 by calling it “wonderful”

“I lost the year to construction but it is so worth it.  The contractor did an excellent job on our wee little overpass and so timely, too!

“But….when one is headed towards Gig Harbor from the Burley-Olalla road on the new on-ramp…those of us with small cars cannot see to merge until the last teeth-grinding seconds of the ramp and the freeway travelers cannot see us to help us merge because the Jersey barriers block our approach all the more. (There’ve) been some fearful moments for a lot of us!

“Side mirrors, twisted necks and rear views are of little help if all one can see is the cement barrier.

I drive a Corolla sedan,” she said. “There are a lot of us short cars around using the on-ramp as well as the taller, more  visible SUV’s and semi’s….please help.”

The out basket: State Project Engineer Brenden Clarke says it’s the first complaint he’s heard about this and there are no plans to modify what is there.

“The distance between the end of the barrier and the beginning of merge area into Highway 16 (the end of acceleration length) is approximately 1,025 feet.  Based upon the average driver and automobile, a 1,025-foot acceleration length would take a driver from 25 mph up to 60 mph.  

“Assuming that a motorist is traveling at 60 mph when they enter into the ‘merge area,’ they will then have adequate distance to merge into Highway 16 traffic and they will be a thousand feet from the barrier so it will not block their line of sight.  

“Difficulties could arise if a motorist does not accelerate up to 60 mph while traveling on the ramp, but this would be true at any interchange.  

“I understand that it does feel more comfortable for motorists to be able to see mainline traffic for the entire duration of the on-ramp, but again, there is sufficient distance in what we call the ‘merge area’ for motorists to look over their shoulder and in their mirrors to identify traffic and make adjustments in order to safely merge into mainline Highway 16.

“The concrete barriers are a permanent feature,” he said. ”The reason this interchange makes use of so many concrete barriers is that there are retaining walls between the on- and off-ramps with substantial differences in elevation.  The retaining walls allow the ramps to be closer to mainline Highway 16, reducing the amount of right-of-way necessary for the interchange foot print.

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The in basket: Dorothy Cokelet of Sunnyhill Road in the West Hills area just outside the Bremerton city limits wonders why the county didn’t restore the yellow centerline on her road after paving it this summer. 

There’s a lot of traffic on the road, she said. 

The out basket: And so the county discovered after another resident protested the same thing, says Traffic Engineer Jeff Shea.

Sunnyhill will get its stripe back, but not right away.

The county had decided to no longer put a center stripe on Sunnyhill as it standardized which roads get a center stripe and which don’t, he said.

“We now evaluate all roads when overlayed or chip–sealed for striping requirements,” he said. “The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices only mandates striping on paved urban arterials and collectors with daily traffic greater than 6,000 vehicles per day.

Sunnyhill, with about 600 vehicles a day, was among 15 roads chosen to be added to the list of those without a center stripe, he said. 

“At the request of a resident living along the road, we conducted an investigation of the street,” Jeff said. We found many non-residents use it as a cut-through to get between Harlow and Werner.  The officially classified collector which runs parallel to Sunnyhill (Broad, O and Ida roads) does not really work as a collector due to the narrowness of the road and the turns involved in getting from Harlow to Werner.” Also, they noted that the truck volumes on Sunnyhill were much higher than most roads, 10-15 percent.

 ”For these reasons we made the decision to restripe the road,” he said. “The problem we’ve encountered since making this decision is the weather. 

“We cannot stripe with our environmentally friendly water-based paint if there is even a hint of rain,” Jeff said. “It will not dry. The air and surface temperature must be above 50 degrees or warmer also.  We are hoping we get a chance to stripe it this year, though the window of opportunity may be very limited.”

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The in basket: I was alarmed Thursday night when I suddenly ran over something in westbound Mile Hill Drive right at the Long Lake Road traffic signal. 

Neither my wife nor I had seen anything in the road. The sudden bump didn’t seem severe enough to have been a person, or even an animal, though it was more than a speed hump would have caused. We didn’t see anything in the road when we came back the other way. 

By Friday morning daylight, though, a large swell in the pavement was visible. The county had posted one of those “Motorcycles Use Extreme Caution” signs, one of the rare times they seemed to be helpful. By the next day, the lump was barely noticeable. 

I’ve seen many slumps and even washouts after the kind of rain we had Thursday. But a swelling was new to me. I would think a rise like that supported only by water would have made the asphalt break up. I asked what was going on.

The out basket: Doug Bear of Kitsap County Public Works said it was, indeed, caused by water. 

“We have found that water is infiltrating under the roadway causing the portion you saw to raise up. We did some preliminary work to minimize the bump and plan additional work in the next week or two to determine what is happening. 

“We are going to use our video pipe inspection system to look at the drainage there to determine where the problem is. Once we identify that we will develop a permanent solution.”

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The in basket: Robert Campbell says, “I travel by bus and sometimes by car to and from PSNS.  I have noticed that the new lights after the tunnel project was completed at Burwell and Warren are slowing commuter traffic eastbound. 

“For some reason,” he said, “the engineers felt that westbound traffic on Burwell needed a left-turn signal to enter a Diamond parking lot at the south end of Warren. Not only does this seem odd, the left hand light is very long. Eastbound drivers going to the ferry terminal stack up at the light in the mornings and during peak ferry loading times, while no one ever turns left. 

“I have not timed this light, but few people turn left into the parking lot.  And the time it delays eastbound traffic towards the terminal seems unwarranted.

 ”I would submit that this light is totally unnecessary,” Robert said. “And certainly it should stay green for a very short time.  It is a back route into an alley that could access the back of the new police station, but the police station has a much shorter access just west of it.”

Also Bill Throm of South Kitsap told me many months ago he got the impression the light stayed green way too long for cars EXITING that parking lot.

The out basket: Brenden Clarke, project engineer on the tunnel, who also holds sway over the changes made to accommodate the tunnel, says the problem is kind of collateral damage from serving the main traffic flows.

“Due to the through and left movement on Burwell heading eastbound, the east and westbound directions of Burwell must have separate phases,” he said.  “As a result, when westbound comes up green the eastbound direction must receive a red so that the eastbound lefts are not in conflict.  

As long as they have to be stopping eastbound Burwell traffic while the westbound is flowing, they might as well leave the turn arrow into the parking lot on green even if traffic rarely demands it, he said. No other movement would be permissible during that time.

They tried splitting the left turns onto northbound Warren from the through eastbound traffic, giving the latter a green light while the inside lane from which turns must now be made stayed red. 

“Despite pavement markings and the signal displays, motorists who have been used to turning left only for two years did not take well to the new configuration,” he said. “People were turning left on red, or turning left from the right lane when left lane motorists were going through.” 

“The signal is currently set up as efficiently and safely as possible considering the constraints,” he said. ”(The state)  and the city of Bremerton worked together to come up with the signal timing that is currently being used.  Without major (and costly) modifications to the signal, we feel that it is operating as well as it can be.” 

As for traffic leaving the parking lot, I can’t say what the case may have been back when Bill mentioned it, but it’s green only long enough to serve waiting cars now.

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The in basket: Once again, my wife, TheJudyBaker, is the source of a question. She was in a new car dealership the other day, making a preliminary inquiry about buying a new car, and she believes the salesman told her a change was coming in sales tax on car purchases after the first of the year. 

She got the impression that the practice of deducting the value of a trade-in from the price of a new car and applying the sales tax rate to the difference was about to end. It used to be that way, that the sales tax rate was applied to the total purchase price of the new car, but it was changed by voter initiative in 1984.

That’s a big deal, if true, I told her. 

The out basket: Fortunately for car buyers and sellers, it’s not true. 

Mike Gowrylow, spokesman for the state Department of Revenue tells me, “No legislation was passed to eliminate the trade-in deduction, and none has been proposed.  

“If anything, legislators have been sympathetic to the fiscal plight of car dealers and bills were introduced during the 2009 session to give them tax breaks such as a lower B&O tax rate, though none passed. Eliminating the sales tax deduction on the value of trade-ins would be a tax hike and increase the total cost to buyers and discourage sales.

Mike added, “I can only assume the salesperson was misinformed, or auto dealers may be fearful that the trade-in law might be repealed.  Or it was just a way to encourage someone to buy now.”

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The in basket: Sandy, who kept her last name to herself, was upset to find a $101 ticket on the car she had left in the Agate Pass park & ride lot with a “for sale” sign on it Oct. 4. 

As far as she was concerned, that lot is “a known place in the county, as far back as anyone can remember, to sell your vehicle. My husband bought his truck last February from seeing it on this same lot,” she said.

“When I dropped my car off at 9 a.m. that Sunday the row next to the highway was filled. I had to park mine in the back row. I believe there were at least 20 cars with ‘for sale’ signs at that time.  When I came back at 5:30 to pick up my car, every car that was still on the lot with a ‘for sale’ sign, had a ticket.  For sure I saw eight cars with tickets.

“What irks me is that for many year’s this park and ride IS a well-known place to leave your car.  I had even checked with a long time resident of Bainbridge Island and he had not heard/saw that cars are being ticketed/forbidden to be left there. 

“Has something happened that the rules have been changed, the laws are going to be enforced and vehicles ticketed?  Why had violators not been consistently ticketed and laws enforced in the past?  Why now, why the change?” 

The out basket: I don’t know if it was infrequent enforcement or what that led the community to believe that weekend display of “for sale” signs on cars in that lot was permissible. But there certainly is no such exemption stated on the big official sign near the entrance to the lot. It says no unauthorized cars or cars with ‘for sale’ signs are allowed there. The sign is surrounded by brambles, so obviously is not new.

Since Sandy wrote, I’ve checked park & ride lots at McWilliams and Mullenix roads and in Purdy, and all have the identical sign forbidding the practice.

The signs all say such cars are subject to being impounded, which can cost a lot more than $101. So it could have been worse for those who were ticketed at Agate Pass.

WSP Sgt. Ken Przygocki told me “The Agate Pass Park & Ride … is intended for motorists who carpool, vanpool, ride bicycles and utilize the transit system and is clearly posted advising everyone of this intent. The … posted rules are in effect 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

“I encourage your readers to make themselves aware of all posted signs on state property before leaving their vehicles unattended,” he said.

He said enforcement at the Agate Pass lot has been stepped up since 1999, when a commuter complained about not being able to find a space while many vehicles for sale took up spots. Another complaint was received in October about a weekend shortage of spaces. “Therefore a trooper went to investigate and citations were issued,” Ken said. 

“A study was done of the park & ride and vehicles were observed parked there with large amounts of pine needles and other debris covering the vehicles (which indicated they had been there for some time).

“(There were) boats on trailers for sale and that were not attached to vehicles, and vans and other larger vehicles that took up 4-6 parking spaces. I myself (while off-duty) have observed numerous types of vehicles, boats, trailers, motor homes, jet skies, trucks and motorcycles parked at this lot with ‘for sale’ signs on many occasions.

“Calls for service that are more of a priority prevent us from checking the lot daily or weekly,” he said. “However, when time allows, troopers will continue to check the lot for violations. It is up to the trooper’s judgment if the vehicle is ticketed, towed or if the owner is called to remove it.”

It’s not easy to find a well-traveled spot to leave a car with a for-sale sign on it. You can get away with one or two of your own cars on your own property, but if on someone else’s property, or if it’s a succession of different cars, it becomes a zoning violation that will get county code enforcement involved.

John Clauson of Kitsap Transit said his agency also doesn’t want the park& ride lots it maintains on its own without state partnership to be used for selling cars.

County code enforcement officer Steve Mount’s best advice? Get a classified ad. 

Epilog:: 

Sandy says she went to court in November and won her case.

“I took pictures of every car with a For-Sale sign the Sunday following my ticket and the Sunday preceding my court date,” she said. “I also took a pic of the DOT sign posted at the lot.  Between the sign’s posted RCW’s, what I was sited for on the ticket and the reason for the siting – Abandonded Vehicle – the judge said the ticket was confusing and found I did not commit the offense.  He said the pictures helped to tell the story that ticketing was not happening consistently. 

“The authorities know the lot is being used as a used car lot on the weekends and the community, in a large sense, supports it,” she asserted. 

“Everyone I spoke to has been surprised that ticketing was occurring,” she said. “Would I ever try to sell a car there again? No way.  I sold my car one week later, using a national auto listing site.”  

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