Alabama Traffic and Bike Lane Update

The Alabama Street Corridor project official plan will be released to the public in February 2015 according to Anthony Freeman, the head engineer for the project at the Public Works Department, rather than November 2014 as originally predicted.

Alabama stretches through the Roosevelt neighborhood from Lincoln Street to St. Clair Street and continues through both the Sunnyland and Alabama Hill neighborhoods.

The Alabama Street Corridor has gone through a number of changes since its first proposal in 2011. The original plan proposed a “road diet” with a center curb, lower speed limits, and several changes to stop signs and pedestrian walk ways. The road will not be physically changed from the length and width it is now, with the exception of one block where a few trees must be removed in order to complete the design.

Freeman says one of the issues people are torn between in the concept of “convenience over safety.” Although it seems to be agreed, as Freeman put, “It cannot stay the way it is now.”

The Public Works Department is emphasizing these improvements to the Bellingham Pedestrian Master Plan but they are also developing a new bike boulevard project as a part of the Master Bicycle Plan for the city. This is forecasted to begin either concurrently with the Alabama Street project or directly afterwards and executions plans are currently being developed.

This bike plan is being enacted in an area of the Alabama corridor that is not designed to include bike lanes, such as Texas Street. The overall bicycle plan for the city of Bellingham aims to add over 50 miles of new bike boulevards and 45 miles of new bike lanes.

Freeman says the Public Works Department has an ideal hope that the traffic will become less of a concern as Bellingham continues to create more biker-friendly roads such as this upcoming proposal. The ultimate goal for this project and other similar road construction in Bellingham, according to Freeman, is to make the city “more porous” as the population continues to climb.

Another concern voiced is the increase of traffic not only on Alabama Street but surrounding back roads. David Dopps, president of the Roosevelt Neighborhood Association or RNA says, “We would love to see traffic move down to Iowa Street” and steered away from Alabama.

The RNA has noticed a significant amount of skepticism but they say many are just waiting to see how it will “play out.” The RNA say they will continue to discuss the plans with the community, including in the new and developing master neighborhood plan.

One particular problem that arose was the center curb originally proposed for the entire stretch of Alabama Street which put into question the entire project.

The Kid’s Korner, works with the Head Start program to offer both full and part-time childcare and learning service for kids age one to pre-school. This center is located just off Alabama Street. The location of a daycare center directly off a main arterial has led to some concerns for those working at the Kid’s Korner. Ana Sheppard says, “We see parents running across the arterial with the kids rather than walking down to the crosswalk.”

Sheppard says they are “really excited” about the new crosswalk being placed however they helped protest the center curb originally planned.

The plan for crosswalks is to add hawk signals to warn drivers of pedestrians walking. This kind of signal is relatively new to the Bellingham area according to the RNA.

Although the final design release date has been changed, Freeman says the project is still to be completed in mid-summer 2015. After the basic outline of the corridor is constructed, they plan on improving the already existing roads with improvements such as fresh asphalt. Freeman predicts that Roosevelt will be the next “hip neighborhood” in Bellingham if it continues to adapt the way it has been over the past few years.

Roosevelt Neighborhood Association Community Meeting Thursday

The Roosevelt Neighborhood Association is having a meeting Thurs, Nov. 20 from 6-8 pm at the Boys and Girls Club to discuss the new development of new neighborhood master plan.

The members of the RNA, including president David Dopps, say the meeting plans to update and revise the official neighborhood planning document and they would love to have as much community involvement as possible in the new master plan.

The official master plan for the neighborhood will address a wide range of topics including public infrastructure and safety projects, any park and open space additions, construction codes, land use zoning and more.

Dopps says, the first step for the meeting is to address the old plan and bring up anything that should have been addressed in this plan. Then Dopps says they plan to propose the new plan and present a few of the example ideas they have constructed.

Dopps says, he would like the community to be the one to drive what is included on the plan so they have placed a survey online for the community which can be found in the links below.

Next the RNA says they would like to address maps of the neighborhood with people to explain some areas of improvement; for example, any developments in the parks.

Finally, Dopps says they will ask for questions about the overall project and they will leave opportunity at another time for specifics once the plan has undergone further development.

The master plan for the Roosevelt neighborhood was last updated in 2011. Several of the other Bellingham neighborhoods have also decided to update their plans.

The RNA recently suggested the idea of a new plan to the city of Bellingham, however, the RNA say the city reported that it make take some time to get a new plan approved.

The RNA said they want to encourage as many people as possible from the community to attend the meeting.

The Boys and Girls Club is located at 1715 Kentucky St. The RNA says refreshments will be served.

The RNA meets every second Tuesday of the month.

http://www.cob.org/documents/planning/neighborhoods/roosevelt.pdf

https://sites.google.com/site/rooseveltneighborhoodplaninput/

http://whatcomclubs.org/bellingham/

Alabama Street: The Good, The Bad, The Adapting

By Sydney Gerrish

The Bellingham Roosevelt neighborhood is planning to initiate the Alabama Street Corridor project construction this upcoming spring. Recent updates from residents and small-businesses bring up mixed reviews about the project which was first proposed in early 2011.

According to the City of Bellingham official website, the Alabama Corridor project aims to “reduce vehicle collisions and increase safety for all users.” The 1.7 mile arterial stretches from Cornwall Avenue to St. Clair Street and will now face a “road diet.” This includes converting a four-lane arterial to a three-lane, adding bike-lanes, preventing left-turning vehicles from the moving forward in the travel lane and reducing speed limits.

The project overview of ES-466 states that between 2006 and 2011, there was a recorded 262 vehicle collisions which is almost five times the country average. There are roughly 3,000 vehicles that travel on Alabama each day.

The residents and businesses that surround Alabama Street have developed a diverse range of opinions about the proposed construction. Bellingham resident M’lin Avera comments on the growing nature of the city saying, “For me, the construction is a good thing, it means there is jobs.”

However, some local businesses predict that this project will do more harm than good. Yorky’s Market has been located on Alabama Street since 1939.Cashier Tina Duke shares, “We cannot reduce any more lanes. Traffic is already bumper-to-bumper at certain times of the day. Businesses will suffer because people simply cannot get in to the parking lot.”

With the current proposal of the project, The Whatcom Transportation Authority will also be required to take initiative in order to keep buses running on time. Chuck Boyle, the operations supervisor for the WTA says the Alabama Street Corridor project “brings up concerns about running times.”

The 331 Cordata to Downtown Bellingham route on the Gold Line will be affected the greatest by the Alabama Street project. The WTA plans on shortening the amount of stops made by buses running on the Gold Line in addition to an increasing the frequency of  buses by having a bus arriving every 15 minutes at each stop along the route.

In 2006, the Bellingham City Council met to discuss further infrastructure plans for the city of Bellingham saying, “the city is attempting to focus transportation funding on infrastructure improvements that will make walking, bicycling, and transit more viable, convenient, and safe.” 

According to the city council website, this project falls underneath this category, along with several other arterial improvement projects throughout the city of Bellingham that have occurred in the last five years for safety reasons.

Duke says, “I think there will be more accidents and more impatient drivers.” There is also concern over the level of traffic on the back streets of Alabama, almost all of which include roundabouts at every intersection. Even with the increased traffic Duke says, “the roundabouts make driving on back streets difficult, especially for larger trucks.”

Marcy Plattner, the 30-year owner of the Garden Spot Nursery located on Alabama Street says, “I am optimistic. I hope that we are so good at what we do, people will come anyway. If the neighborhood is happy, we’re happy.”

For many of the residents of Roosevelt, Alabama Street is another project aiming to adjust to the increased growth of Bellingham. Boyle says, “the city’s growing up and we simply have to adapt.”

These mixed reviews have led to several changes in the original design including the removal of the center curb originally planned. The final design is expected to be released in November 2014.

In May 2012, Bellingham received $1,461,824 to solve the proposed problems on the Alabama Corridor. Bellingham is 1 of 50 cities to apply for federal safety funds through the “Target Zero Highway Safety Program” created by the Washington State Department of Transportation.  

Construction for the Alabama Street Corridor is to take place in the spring and summer of 2015. The project’s federal deadline is in September 2015.

Introduction to the Roosevelt Reader

My name is Sydney Gerrish. I am currently a sophomore at Western Washington University aiming for a double major in Journalism and Political Science. This blog will cover pieces of news from the Roosevelt neighborhood located in Bellingham Washington. I hope you enjoy the Roosevelt Reader!