The in basket: Susan Cook e-mailed to say, “As a (state) ferry employee, I witness on a daily basis car/pedestrian near-misses outside of the main gate of the (Bremerton) shipyard. Obviously, vehicles with that ‘I must catch the ferry’ syndrome cannot or will not see the stop sign (poorly posted) at the crosswalk. About one in three cars blows right through it, as it is not visible in the right lane.
“Pedestrians exiting the shipyard also fail to follow the usual ‘look both ways’ policy,” she said. “I feel it’s an accident waiting to happen. Also, with all the grand remodel and tunnel construction, why was no thought given to the absolute shutdown of traffic during the 7:20 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. sailing due to the flow of pedestrians out of the shipyard?! This will continue to happen even after the construction, as there is no evidence of any control being initiated at this intersection. (i.e. crosswalk light, pedestrian overpass, relocation of crosswalk,etc.)
“I have seen several close calls, and now that the beautiful park they made is open, our weekend pedestrians have increased,” she said.
The out basket: It probably won’t help much from Susan’s perspective, but Larry Matel of the city of Bremerton street engineers says the stop sign will be removed when the final striping of the street and crosswalks is complete when the tunnel opens.
As for the conflict between pedestrians and cars heading for the ferry, he said, “We … will observe the situation at that time to see if there is a need for any changes.”
Won’t the problem be solved when the tunnel opens and no traffic spills onto Washington Avenue?
Or have I misunderstood the purpose of the tunnel?
Sharon O’Hara
The only way to get to the ferry is via the booths just outside the shipyard gate. When the stop sign is removed those who want to get to the ferry will zip past the gate to reach the ferry booth. The only other path is the road that now runs in front of places like the South Pacific and passes the new ferry office, but bypasses the booths. It will be interesting to see how the State Ferries, the shipyard, Kitsap Transit, and the City of Bremerton handle the vehicle vs transit bus vs worker driver bus vs pedestrian in that small corner of the city. I guess the pedestrians will win, that is why $40,000,000.00 was spent to make downtown pedestrian friendly and cater to the condo owners. Then again, maybe only the lawyers will benefit. The way it is going if you want to drop someone off at the ferry dock it may be easier to get a cab from Callow, at least the cab gets you closer, or does it?
Roger Gay
South Kitsap