Bellingham removes parking on these streets to add bike lanes
Bellingham City Council unanimously approved removal of parking spaces from several streets and add protected bicycle lanes as part of long-range plans to connect neighborhoods under a “multimodal” approach that focuses on people who walk, bike and ride the bus just as much as those who drive cars.
Councilman Michael Lilliquist was unable to vote Monday, Oct. 24, because of difficulties with his remote connection.
Removal of parking spaces drew strong opposition from some residents of Eldridge Avenue in the Columbia neighborhood at an Oct. 3 public hearing on the proposal.
Several Eldridge Avenue residents told the council that they have little or no off-street parking and they feared that delivery drivers, service technicians and visitors would have no place to park.
Further, several residents said that removing parking — even to add bike lanes — would do little to decrease speeding on the two-lane street that’s designated an “arterial” because it brings drivers into the downtown core from areas north and west of Bellingham.
As such, Public Works Director Eric Johnston proposed a trial for parking removal, with quarterly assessments of progress regarding speed, because traffic engineers think that adding bike lanes will have a “narrowing effect” on the road, which has a 25 mph speed limit but sees an average speed of 30 to 32 mph, according to city data.
“We’ve seen that on other streets in town and we expect to see that on Eldridge,” Johnston said during a council committee session Monday afternoon, when the proposal was discussed.
In addition to the protected bike lanes, the city will add four crosswalks with flashing lights on Eldridge from the city limits to Broadway.
That safety measure has been sought for several years, and some residents went as far as to build their own “rogue” crosswalks last spring, in an effort to prioritize them.
Construction is slated to start in summer 2023, with completion by fall, Johnston told the council on Monday.
Council members also considered a request to retain parking on the south end of Cornwall Avenue, a mostly industrial area where a dozen or so RVs used as housing are parked regularly.
But council members said the bike lanes were needed because of a beachfront park that’s being developed nearby, as well as an alternative bicycle commuting route.
These streets will lose some or all parking under the measure approved Monday:
▪ West Illinois Street from Sunset to Lynn.
▪ Meridian Street from East Victor to West Illinois.
▪ Girard Street from Broadway to Young.
▪ Eldridge Avenue from Broadway to Nequalicum.
▪ Cornwall Avenue from Laurel to Pine.
Each project is part of the Transportation Improvement Program that the Bellingham City Council approved recently for the next six years.
