Road Warrior

The in basket: Beverly Romig said it irritates her to see drivers with handicapped parking placards dangling from their rearview mirrors as they drive.

The placards instruct the driver to remove it from the mirror when driving.

She asked about it at a recent AARP driving course, she said, and the instructor didn’t have an answer. He suggested she ask me.

When I asked if it’s an infraction to disregard the instruction, I drew a comparison between that, air fresheners, fuzzy dice and even driving with a dog in your lap, something that isn’t specifically illegal, but can result in a citation if the driver is obviously struggling to control the car.

The out basket: Trooper Russ Winger of the State Patrol here, says, “I am not aware of any specific (law) that prohibits driving with a disabled placard hanging on a mirror.

“I would say that it is a bad idea” Russ said, “to drive with any object – or pet – that might interfere with the driver’s ability to observe other motorists, make appropriate eye contact with other motorists at intersections, or identify hazards to safe driving. Specific items hanging from a mirror are not identified in any RCW.

“Any officer would have to make a judgment call when observing this type of thing,” he said. “If an infraction ticket were issued the officer should be able to articulate why they felt it was a clear hazard. More than likely it would be after the fact, when this situation may have either caused or contributed to a collision.”

The in basket: Robin Jensen wonders when the promised new traffic signal on Ridgetop Boulecard at the southbound off-ramp from Highway 303 will be done.

“This project is still showing on the (county’s Transportation Improvement Plan) for construction beginning this month,” he said. “Because this signal has been needed for so long, Ridgetop residents are looking for signs of construction every day. Can you confirm whether this project is scheduled to start soon?”

The out basket: Quite soon, actually. Doug Bear of Kitsap County Public Works says, “The project is out to bid with bid opening set for June 18. Work is expected to begin in July sometime. We will post more information after we open bids.

For what it’s worth, the bid specs can be seen online at http://www.kitsapgov.com/pw/pdf/CRP_3658/3658_Ridgetop_sr303_bid_inv.pdf)

The county has taken over this work at a state intersection to compensate for congestion on detours when Bucklin Hill Road closes next year for replacement of the Clear Creek bridge.

The in basket: Margaret Hereth asked me at The Willows senior apartments the other day whether a pacemaker scar that makes wearing a seat belt over the shoulder uncomfortable would allow a person to legally were it under her arm rather than over it.

The out basket: State Trooper Russ Winger, my contact for WSP  enforcement issues, replies that RCW 46.61.688 confers that privilege. It reads, “This section does not apply to an operator or passenger who possesses written verification from a licensed physician that the operator or passenger is unable to wear a safety belt for physical or medical reasons.”

The in basket: Claudia Hunt writes, “The Kitsap Way and Marine Drive intersection is one I negotiate frequently. The lane markings have become obliterated so completely that twice in the recent past I’ve met someone turning left from Kitsap Way entering Marine Drive occupying the left turn lane I need to exit Marine Drive.

“In daylight hours, it’s possible to avoid collision but if it should happen at night the potential for an unhappy outcome increases,” she said.

The out basket: The missing lane markings are raised pavement markers, RPMs or “turtles,” rather than stripes. The entire two rows separating the turn lane from the northbound Marine Drive lane are gone, with the mastic that used to secure them still visible.

I often report that street departments restripe their streets, roads and highways each year, but that was before I noticed Bremerton has as many or more RPM lines as stripes.

I asked if they are all replaced annually, and what is planned for Marine Drive at Kitsap Way.

The out basket: Gunnar Fridriksson of the Bremerton street engineers says where the city uses stripes, mostly for edge lines, they will be renewed shortly by Kitsap County paint crews under an agreement between the city and county.

“The city adopted RPMs for roadway delineation quite a few years ago,” he said. “This was done when we started looking at life-cycle costs for an annual painting program, or using RPMs that can easily last 7-10 years before needing replacement.

“Good example – the Manette Bridge.  The fog lines on the bridge need to be painted every year, but the centerline RPM’s are still there and in good shape. Or the Eastpark development and Schley Boulevard.  The City has not had to do any maintenance on either street since the RPM’s where installed several years ago.

“The main contributors to a shorter lifespan on the RPMs are snow plows and heavy traffic,.” Gunnar said. “Plows can literally scrape the RPMs right off of the pavement, which is why the city plows are equipped with a hard rubber edge rather than a straight steel blade.  And traffic, especially in a turning movement, can pop them up as well.

“In years past, we typically would go out with good weather and replace buttons about the same time as the county would go out and paint. The last few years have had us deferring maintenance, as the real issue here is resources.  We are trying to get caught up this year – same as getting the marked crosswalks freshened up a bit.” The street crew may already be replacing missing RPMs, he said.

Marine Drive’s missing RPMS at Kitsap Way are to be replaced this summer, he said

The in basket: Denise Kilkenny-Tittle wrote, “About three months ago, my 7-year-old son Adrian asked whether the temporary electric speed sensor signs tell people to speed up if they are going too slow.

“I told him that I didn’t know, so one evening when nobody was behind me, I went really slow in my car to see what the sign would say.  The sign did not light up at all.  It did not register. So I tried again to determine at what speed the sign is activated. For a 35 mph zone, the sign only registered speeds of 20 mph and higher.

“Well,  my son said we need to tell somebody to fix that and make the electric sign say, ‘Speed Up!’ because cars that are going too slow are a hazard and cause traffic.”

She had Adrian write a letter which read, “Frum Adrian Tittle, age 7, grade 1st. Why don’t electric slowdown signs say speed up when someone is going slow and cases traffic.  That way there’s no traffic. To Road Warrior.”

The out basket: I can’t be sure, but Adrian may be the youngest inquirer ever to seek advice in the Road Warrior’s 2,011 columns (I’ve been keeping track).

Comedian and vegetable mangler Gallagher has a bit about seeing things with new eyes, and Adrian certainly used new eyes when he looked at the speed signs.

I asked the county for an answer.

They sent one to Adrian and copied it to me. County traffic engineer Jeff Shea told him, “That was a great question you asked. Unfortunately our signs are not designed to do what you have asked. We don’t have as many problems with slow cars as we do with cars going too fast. That is why our signs flash at motorists going faster than the speed limit.

“It’s also hard for police officers to write a ticket when motorists go too slowly. Motorists can drive slower than the speed limit; it’s not against the law to go slower than the speed limit. The speed limit is just that, the maximum speed drivers can go.

“On most of our roads, slower cars are not normally a safety problem, but they can be an inconvenience to other motorists.  On high speed highways, slow cars can be a real safety hazard so some highways have a minimum speed limit. Our local roads do not.

“There is a Washington State law that addresses slow moving cars. This state law requires a slower driver to pull off to the side of the road and let traffic get around them when they delay more than five cars.

“So Adrian, it is unlikely that you will see a sign that flashes at cars to make them go faster.  We try very hard to keep county roads as safe as possible.  We focus on cars going too fast.  They are the ones that cause a lot more accidents than slow-moving cars.  The accidents they cause tend to be very serious with injuries and sometimes deaths.

“Thanks again for your interesting question.  It’s great to see the drivers of tomorrow learning about our traffic today.”

The Road Warrior was on McWilliams Road the other day and the bossy sign there (It flashes “Slow Down” if you’re even one mile over the 25 mph limit) appeared to light up at 15 mph.

The in basket: Mention in the recent Road Warrior column about Kitsap Transit policy that its drivers aren’t the use the Opticom emitter system to change traffic signals to green as they approach unless they are behind schedule brought two similar comments.

Jane Rebelowski said, “The buses use it when leaving the transfer station off of Wheaton Way. How could they possibly be late if I just saw them sitting in the parking lot for 10 minutes?”

And Colleen Smidt wrote, “There must be a heck of a lot of buses behind schedule as they are entering and leaving the transfer complex on Auto Center Way. It is easy to watch all of this play out as I am sitting in the backup at the exit light at the end of the southbound ramp trying to make a left onto Kitsap Way around 4:50 in the afternoon.

“Several times a month the backup from the lights being out of rotation from the buses has traffic backed up onto the shoulder of the highway, making for very unsafe traffic conditions.

I asked Transit management to explain.

The out basket: Transit Executive Director John Clauson replies, “I do not have a reason why nor, until now, was I aware that this was going on with the regularity your reader suggests. Have you heard of this problem at this intersection, at this time of day from many others?

“I know that when a person has to travel each day in what is considered heavy traffic, any delay feels like hours and becomes a major concern. I’m sure your reader wonders if it is really needed or fair.

“I will have folks look into what is going on here and deal with it as needed,” John said.

Those wanting to answer John’s question about others seeing this, you can go online at kitsapsun.com and comment at the bottom of this column on the Road Warrior blog.

The in basket; As I drove east on Lund Avenue away from Bethel Road in South Kitsap recently, I noticed fairly severe “alligatoring,”  the irregular cracks that develop in an aging roadway. The roughness in front of Safeway is what caught my eye in the first place, and I noticed it continued to a lesser degree all the way to in front of the West Sound Utility complex.

I looked at the county’s six-year plan for capital improvements, called the TIP and extending out six years, but found nothing that mentioned Lund except a new traffic signal at Lund and Harris Road in 2015. I asked the county if it thought that portion of Lund will last more than six years without being repaved.

The out basket: Paving isn’t a capital project so doesn’t appear on the TIP, said Doug Bear of county public works. There are lists of both repaving and  chip seal projects planned for this year viewable online at the county’s Web site, divided into North, Central and South Kitsap projects.

It’s not shown online yet, but the county’s worn stretch of Lund is due repaving next year, he said, except for the last few hundred yards before one reaches Bethel Road heading west, where the road’s condition first caught my eye. That has been annexed to the city of Port Orchard. Mark Dorsey, city public works director, says they hope to find money for dig-outs and patching work there and along the rest of the Bethel Corridor next year. Anything more substantial is years away, he said.

The county’s six-year-TIP can be seen at www.kitsapgov.com/pw/pdf/2013-2018_TIP.pdf. The 2013 paving and chip seal plans are at www.kitsapgov.com/pw/roadpave.htm and www.kitsapgov.com/pw/roadchipseal.htm, respectively.

I can’t use up a lot of space saying what paving is planned this year, but I  can tease you by saying parts of Clear Creek Road, Angeline Avenue, Suquamish Way, Ridgetop Boulevard, Gold Creek Road, Pioneer Road, Price Road, Harlow Drive, Spruce Road, Collins Road, Converse Avenue and Beach Drive are on the list, along with many others. Look them up if you’re interested.

A couple of definitions to close: Chip seals are pavings done by pouring gravel on hot oil spread on the old pavement. Dig outs involve grinding out a few inches of deteriorated pavement in rectangles, and filling the holes with new asphalt.

The in basket: Sharell Lee read the Road Warrior column about drivers not realizing McWilliams Road in Central Kitsap ends at East Boulevard and crashing into what’s across the T intersection, and she had a suggestion.

“In California they sometimes use stop signs

mounted with a small solar panel,” she said. “The stop sign itself has bright flashing lights around the circumference.  Such stop signs are very noticeable and attention getting.

“I’m wondering if this type of sign is ever used in Washington,” she said. “I realize our climate is less sunny, but small solar panels don’t really require that much sun. Where I work, we run a small electric car with them, which I’m sure requires a lot more power than lights on a sign would.’

The out basket: I’m told there is such a stop sign inside the industrial area at Bangor’s sub base, and Sharell says the one she saw also was on a military base. She wondered if vandalism discourages there use outside a secure area.

Jeff Shea, Kitsap County traffic engineer says, “Yes. The cost of one stop sign with blinking lights and solar panel is $1,700.  A regular stop sign is $80.

“There are over 3,000 stop signs in Kitsap County. Replacing all the stop signs in the county with this type of device would cost more than $5,000,000.

“The challenge,” Jeff said, “is determining which intersections warrant this type of upgrade, so that deploying this device is consistent throughout the county. The Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices does not currently contain a warrant that sets that level.

“We would consider this as another tool in our toolbox for a solution to a problem location.  A tool like this would be used where a documented number of motorists are simply not seeing the sign, and less costly countermeasures have not worked.

“There are other factors considered when installing new signs. Each year we replace about 2,000 signs that are damaged through accidents and vandalism. The more unique the sign, the more likely vandalism occurs. You see this with street name signs that are popular.

“Adding an electric feature to a device requires additional maintenance and inspection to ensure solar panel and batteries operate correctly.

“We also have to consider how this type of application impacts neighbors. After installing flashing devices, we do get complaints from nearby neighbors that the constant flashing is a nuisance,” Jeff said..

The in basket: For a couple of decades, Kitsap Transit buses and police and other emergency vehicles have had the capacity to change red lights to green in Bremerton and around the county as they approach.

But some private citizens have acquired equipment online or otherwise that enables them to do the same thing, though they aren’t supposed to and it’s probably illegal.

Tom Baker of the city of Bremerton electronics shop, told me, “There are emitters available on eBay that will work with the Opticom. I have seen signals pre-empted with no bus near by, so there are non-authorized users out there.”

If you are one of them, you may find yourself frustrated in Bremerton, where new digital controls have been substituted for the old ones this year, intended to prevent unauthorized use of bootleg emitters.

I learned this was afoot from Mike Singson of Advanced Traffic Products, which sold the old Opticom equipment back when it was first installed and was still around to help with the update. I encountered him at a big electronics convention at Sea-Tac in February.

The out basket: Wendy Clark-Getzin, Kitsap Transit’s capital development director (for another week or so) says it kicked in $31,000 to go with in-kind labor and services from the city to go with federal money that added up to the $200,000 project cost. It was finished April 30, she said.

In addition to ending unauthorized use of the signal changing equipment, it will reduce maintenance costs and replace some aging controller equipment,” she said.

She credited Jeff Collins of the city electronics shop with making the money stretch as far as it went, and former city engineer Mike Mecham for getting the money in the first place.

The work stops short of modernizing Opticom to the max, says Mike Singson. It’s capable of using GPS to track the buses and keep track of whether they are on time, taking changing of the lights out of the hands of the bus drivers, he said. They’re not supposed to use Opticom if they aren’t behind schedule.

Kitsap’s system won’t be using GPS any time soon and those behind the wheel of the buses still will be able to change the light to green.

You may wonder why Wendy will remain capital development director for only a short time. She will leave to become general manager of Clallam County Transit July 1, she tells me.

The in basket: Last September, Ann Nardo wrote to say, “The left turn signal to the North Kitsap school bus barn will trip when there is no vehicle in the lane to turn left.

“It does not do it often but seems mostly in the afternoon has been my observance.  With traffic increasing at this intersection, it can be a glitch in the flow of traffic.

“Not a big thing, but could help,” she said.

When I checked back with her in January to see if it was still doing the same thing, (it was, she said), she also put in a good word for the yellow flashing left turn signals she had seen at Kitsap County’s intersections in Silverdale. She called them “the best traffic organizational idea in years.”

The out basket: The signal is behaving as intended, says Jeff Collins of the city of Bremerton electronics shop, which maintains Poulsbo’s signals.

“The signal will only turn green in a direction when a vehicle is on a detector loop (in-pavement traffic detector) except in the main street direction, on  which it should rest,” he said.

“The problem Ann is seeing is most probably caused by the south-to-east left turn vehicles driving over the detection loop for west-to-south,” he said.

Andrzej Kasiniak, Poulsbo city engineer, said he likes the yellow left turn signals too, and one such signal is coming.

“The new signal at the intersection of 10^th Avenue and Lincoln will have a yellow blinking left turn arrow,” he said. Safeway will install the traffic signal this summer as remediation for its new store’s traffic impacts.

Other than that, budget cuts keep him from retrofitting any other city signals, which county employees tell him can be a $6,000 project per signal, he said.