Crusade against downtown parking ignores needs of elderly, disabled | Opinion

Regarding The Bellingham Herald’s April 28 article “Bellingham bike, walk advocacy group pushes back on waterfront parking plan,” I looked up the Walk and Roll Bellingham website to view its mission and get some background:

The group’s mission statement reads: “Our mission is to create safer, healthier, and more livable communities by improving and expanding our active transportation system through policy, infrastructure, and awareness. Walk and Roll Bellingham envisions a future where everyone in Bellingham can comfortably walk, pedal, and roll anywhere they want to go.

“Among other things, we focus on Bellingham’s Bicycle & Pedestrian Master Plans, which can help ensure safe, well-connected, networks that provide access for all ages and abilities — with infrastructure that is inviting to use.”

I have lived in Bellingham since 1973. At one time, I was athletic. I had several bicycles, including an electric one. I rode my bike for fun in the three months of Bellingham sun, and it sat in the garage the rest of the year. You may have noticed Bellingham is very hilly. My brakes would burn out coming down our hill. Because my hill is so steep, I had to transport my bike on the back of my Jeep to get to level ground. My son rode his bike to Sehome High until he broke his collarbone coming down Puget Street.

I owned numerous businesses, including the Colophon Cafe. I was active politically in the Fairhaven District and in Bellingham city government. Now at age 70, I am disabled after two knee replacements, ankle and foot pain, fibromyalgia, and arthritis. This is not a life I chose or created. I am discovering that the handicapped are completely ignored in the planning process of this new car-free “utopia” you are proposing.

As I have watched bike lanes replace car lanes, parking spaces reduced, and many areas without convenient handicapped parking, my options for travel have been severely reduced. I left my hair stylist at the Granary because there was no nearby handicapped parking.

Walk and Roll Bellingham’s letter to the Port of Bellingham argues that the investment being made for parking could alternatively be used to fund: Hundreds of secure bike parking stalls; improved pedestrian lighting and wayfinding; a more inviting Granary Building patio or retail experience; protected bike connections from downtown to the waterfront; and programming that makes arriving by bus, bike or foot a rewarding experience.

Years ago, I sat in city meetings listening to healthy young adults demand that Bellingham prioritize bike riding and walking. Not one disabled person was at those meetings. I don’t have the energy to sit through any more arguments or proposals about this issue. They are just lucky for their current abilities and family situations. Things can change any time for anyone. Get a clue. Twenty percent of our population is over 65.

Even when I was healthy and active, I had a stressful full-time job, a kid, two dogs and groceries to transport. Hearing how great it would be if everyone walked, biked and took buses to save the environment was completely untenable. It wasn’t even an option for my family. I could just imagine the hassles of waiting in the December rain for a slow bus to get home. The city bus doesn’t even come near my street. At the top of Puget Street, you might as well be in the Himalayas. Perhaps I could call Uber and let their emissions soothe my guilt. Or buy an electric car and have nowhere to park it.

Bike riding is a fun sport. It is not an effective mode of transportation for many of us.

I am as concerned about climate change as anyone. That isn’t the point. Your mission excludes those of us who cannot participate in the fantasy city you are promoting. Do some research about how my car is going to make a difference, when pollution from other sources is killing us even faster.

According to NASA, the top five contributors to climate change are primarily sectors driven by fossil fuel combustion and industrial activity. Globally, the leading sources are electricity/heat production (25%), followed by food and land use (24%), industry (21%), transportation (14%), and other energy-related sources. These activities release the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide.

Please ride your bike if it helps you feel better about the environment, but don’t plan an entire city around your personal desires, ignoring a segment of population who will be stuck at home due to your policies. Someday, you may find yourself in that position, too.

Taimi Dunn Gorman resides in Bellingham.

Editor’s note: The author did not provide a link to the NASA citation in this guest column.