Where you can find out what roads are county-owned

The in basket: Ward Starring of Chico Way asks, “Is there a website, phone number, or map I can reference to find out if a road is maintained by the county or is privately maintained?  I notice a lot of gravel roads in unincorporated Kitsap County that appear to be well maintained and I’m curious if they are county owned or maintained by private road maintenance agreement.
“I’ve lived here the majority of my life and have never really understood who owns or maintains what. It’s just a curiosity thing… maybe would make me sound knowledgeable when discussing the road network around this area.”

The out basket: Yes, the county Road Log, viewable online,  makes those distinctions in how each road is portrayed on the maps.

The categories are county maintained road, private road, city road, state road, and unmaintained road. Doug Bear says the difference between a private road and an unmaintained road is that “private roads are just that – privately-owned roadways outside the county right-of-way. Unmaintained roads are defined as a road within county right-of-way which is accessible to public travel but is not maintained by the county.

Law enforcement can’t write speeding and other tickets on private roads, with one exception, but can on maintained and unmaintained county roads.

Deputy Scott Wilson of Kitsap County Sheriff’s Department says, “However… we may (and do) investigate criminal driving offenses that occur on privately owned roads, such as reckless driving, DUI, negligent driving (1st degree), etc.”

The exception to the no-traffic-tickets rule is driving without proof of insurance.

In the course of investigating a criminal driving offense that occurs on a privately owned road – say reckless driving, for example – and the driver has no vehicle liability insurance in effect (or isn’t able to produce proof of insurance), then a deputy could write a $550 ticket for that, Scott said.

You can see the Road log online at www.kitsapgov.com/pw/roadlog.htm.