The in basket: Kay Daling said in an e-mail, “On Silverdale Way in front of Burger King I have witnessed many situations with too many cars trying to use the two-way left turn lane at the same time.
“People pull in, realize someone is blocking their left turn and try to pull back out into traffic to pull around and go back into the left turn lane. Others pull over, but hang out into the go ahead traffic lane because there is not enough room for them due to so many other cars already in the lane.
“The situation just keeps getting worse as more people use Silverdale Way. This is a hazard and I was wondering if the county has any plans to address the issue, like maybe the barrier on Myhre Way blocking left turns into the driving lane next to Pet Smart.
“This area was never as bad as that on Silverdale Way and they put in a barrier. Maybe one is needed on Silverdale Way,” Kay said.
The out basket: Jeff Shea, Kitsap County traffic engineer, says, “We currently don’t have any plans to do anything specifically at this location. There is a proposed plan that is looking at the feasibility of installing a signal with the development of the community campus. This signal would provide access to the community campus onto Silverdale Way and, in some fashion, incorporate access to the shopping center across the street.
“Comparing this location to the location on Myhre, this location had 19 reported collisions in a five-year period (about 3.8 per year), while Myhre had nine collisions in just 13 months, well over twice the rate of Silverdale Way’s.
“That rate is just based on collisions and time. When we do a collision rate analysis we (also) look at the volume of traffic on the road. So the rate on Silverdale drops down dramatically due to the much higher volume of traffic it has compared to Myhre.
“On Myhre, we contacted all the property owners for their input to the decision. Restricting this access did not impact the businesses in this complex too detrimentally. There are two other accesses off Myhre, and RIdgetop and Mickelberry have multiple accesses. Putting restrictions on the shopping center’s access (would) have considerable impact on the stores in the Silverdale Way complex.
“We will continue to monitor the collisions on Silverdale Way through our safety report analysis process,” Jeff said.
The only way to do this is to have a removable barrier in this area. The Barrier would have to be put into a place in such a manner to limit the number of cars turning left onto Kitsap Mall Blvd so that it would not block the left turns onto the business. The only other way to do this is to have road signs telling you how to get to the business.
While your studying it, could you also look into the sychronization of the traffic lights on Silverdale way. They do not synch while driving the speed limit, whether there is traffic or even late at night.
I believe that placing barriers will just move the traffic to alternate routes and will not eliminate it. Silverdale is a major hub and will always be overpopulated as long is it continues to grow. In my opinion accidents occur due to inattention and poor driving. The roads are perfectly usable to those who drive respectfully. (Not to mention Kitsap County needs to STOP spending money on pointless “road decorations”) Kay, if you are so unhappy with the design of the road, go a different route.
Turn Mayor Lent loose on this issue – she has a knack for resticting traffic flow, i.e. Warren Ave., 4th street, 5th Street, Pacific Ave.