# Transportation Commission Tackles Urban Growth and Downtown Bike Infrastructure ## Meeting Overview The Transportation Commission convened on November 12, 2024 at the Pacific Street Operations Center for a packed evening addressing two major development initiatives shaping Bellingham's transportation future. With commissioners attending both in-person and virtually, the meeting covered the sprawling Barkley Urban Village development plans, the long-debated Community Streets Program, and detailed findings from the controversial Holly Street bike lane pilot project. Chair Addie Candib presided over what would prove to be a substantive discussion about how the city balances competing transportation needs as it grows. The evening's agenda reflected the ongoing tensions between accommodating vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, and transit in an increasingly dense urban environment. ## Barkley Urban Village Transportation Vision The meeting opened with an ambitious presentation from the Talbot Group about their plans for Barkley Urban Village, a development that promises to be one of Bellingham's most significant urban planning initiatives. Ben Besley, the company's CEO, and project manager John Moullen laid out their vision alongside Amalia Leighton Cody from Toole Design Group, who presented the transportation framework via Zoom. "We've spent a tremendous amount of time," Moullen explained, describing the years-long planning process. "One of the goals, especially over the last five or six years when Stowe and Jane have gotten more involved, have been really this commitment of trying to do an urban village that not only is sustainable but is something that can be an example for the Northwest and how we can do things better." The development team has taken an unusual approach to road planning, prioritizing existing forest preservation over typical engineering efficiency. As Moullen noted, most developers would ask "what's the cheapest and best path through here for the roads," but the Talbot Group has been documenting old growth trees and designing road alignments around them. Cody walked the commission through various bicycle and pedestrian facility designs being considered for the village, from shared-use paths and bike boulevards to separated facilities with both horizontal and vertical protection. The designs incorporate newly adopted elements from Bellingham's bicycle and pedestrian toolkit, representing some of the most progressive multimodal infrastructure planned for the region. However, commissioners pressed for more details about the broader transportation picture. Commissioner questioning revealed that while extensive bicycle infrastructure is planned, transit facilities and traffic analysis for increased congestion remain less developed aspects of the proposal. "Did you look at transit facilities at all in your street designs?" asked one commissioner, highlighting a gap in the presentation that focused heavily on bicycle infrastructure while leaving questions about bus service and signal timing largely unanswered. Keith Moore raised concerns about the timeline and specificity of the proposals. "It's hard for us to say very much about it until we see a real plan," he observed. "I think the ideas are really good, and I think that we should follow up with them. But it's going to take a little while for us to see what you've got and give some feedback on that before we go along." The development team indicated they would return to the commission within three to six months with more detailed plans as they progress through the planning commission and city council approval process. ## Community Streets Program Finally Moves Forward After months of refinement, the Community Streets Program received unanimous approval from the commission. The program, formerly known as the Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program, represents the city's systematic approach to addressing traffic safety concerns on residential streets. The program will operate on a four-year rotation, focusing on one geographic quadrant of the city each year to ensure equitable distribution of resources. With a construction budget of just $200,000 annually and capacity to study about 25 locations per year, the program faces significant constraints in addressing what commissioners acknowledged is overwhelming community need. "There's incredible need for this program that is going to outpace 25 projects a year astronomically," observed one commissioner, highlighting the tension between community demand and resource limitations. Joel Pfundt from Public Works explained the practical constraints: "A speed hump is usually eight to ten thousand dollars per installation. So if we're looking at a normal treatment, that'd be about three speed humps... So we're looking at $30,000 for a single project." Despite concerns about capacity limitations, commissioners ultimately endorsed the program with minor modifications, including softening the language around the 25-project cap to position it as a target rather than a rigid limit. The commission also requested addition of a visual timeline to help community members understand the process. Keith Moore summed up the prevailing sentiment: "I think that we need to get going on this now... This is an experiment. Let's get the show on the road and see what happens. I think that we're going to learn a whole lot in the next year about what might work and what won't work." ## Holly Street Pilot Results: Success with Significant Trade-offs The most substantial portion of the evening focused on findings from the Holly Street bike lane pilot project, which has generated intense community debate since its implementation in May 2024. Shane Sullivan and Natalie Monro presented comprehensive data showing both the project's transportation benefits and its significant impacts on other modes. ### Data Shows Strong Bicycle Demand The pilot project created a buffered bike lane from Ellis Street to State Street and a parking-protected bike lane from State Street to Bay Street. Post-implementation data revealed a 33% increase in bicycle ridership along the corridor, with volumes remaining elevated even through worsening fall weather conditions. "Holly Street is now the highest bicycle volume throughout the entire downtown core," Monro reported. "Before the project, it was right around what we'd expect on State Street, like 100 to 150. But then, after the bike lanes went in, it's now more than 30% higher than any other bike corridor downtown." The lane utilization data proved particularly compelling, with 87% of cyclists choosing to use the bike lanes rather than mixing with vehicle traffic. However, the data revealed interesting differences between the two sections: while the buffered section saw 92% utilization, the parking-protected section dropped to 84%, suggesting confident cyclists were deliberately choosing to ride in traffic to avoid perceived safety issues at intersections. ### Community Feedback Overwhelmingly Negative Despite the usage data, community response was harsh. Over 1,100 people responded to surveys, with feedback dominated by safety concerns, traffic congestion complaints, and design criticism. Natalie Monro acknowledged the challenging reception: "We did not have any trouble hearing from people. I'm sure you have all heard from people on this as well." The primary concerns centered on visibility problems where parked cars obstruct drivers' views of cyclists, difficulty for cyclists making left turns, and increased traffic congestion throughout downtown. Many respondents questioned both the necessity of the bike lane and the decision-making process that led to its implementation. ### Signal Timing Creates Ripple Effects One of the project's most significant unintended consequences involved downtown signal timing. To prevent dangerous backups on Interstate 5 ramps, traffic engineers were forced to extend signal cycles from 56 seconds to 128 seconds, with most additional time allocated to Holly Street movement. This change created cascading impacts throughout the downtown core. Pedestrian crossing wait times increased from 20-25 seconds to over 90 seconds, leading to increased jaywalking. Transit service suffered severely, with Route 1 experiencing 25% longer runtimes, decreased on-time performance dropping from nearly 100% to 70-80%, and six dropped trips in September alone due to late buses caught in congestion on cross streets. "The extra congestion is impacting transit considerably," Sullivan explained, noting that WTA's analysis showed multiple routes degraded performance levels. ### Intersection Improvements and Design Changes As the pilot progressed, city staff implemented several modifications in response to safety concerns. Most significantly, they installed "bend-ins" at parking-protected intersections, removing additional parking spaces to improve visibility between cyclists and right-turning vehicles. The team also made a major change in early October when COVID-era "streateries" were removed from the Commercial Street to Bay Street section, allowing restoration of turn lanes at the Holly/Bay intersection. This modification enabled traffic engineers to reduce signal cycle lengths back to 64 seconds, alleviating some of the severe impacts on pedestrians and transit. However, this change required eliminating the parking-protected bike lane for one block, replacing it with a marked transition zone where bikes and vehicles cross paths—a design element that generated additional safety concerns. ### Commission Supports Continuation with Major Redesign Despite the challenges, commissioners generally supported keeping bike infrastructure on Holly Street while acknowledging the need for substantial design improvements. Keith Moore emphasized the fundamental visibility challenges: "There are about seven or eight crossings in this very, very short stretch. It is very difficult to have a protected lane if you're always going to be crossing it... The visibility is crucial." Commissioner discussion focused heavily on addressing intersection conflicts through improved "daylighting"—removing parking near intersections to improve sight lines—and intersection hardening to slow turning speeds. Several commissioners noted that the primary safety concern expressed by both cyclists and drivers centered on right-hook conflicts at intersections. "The biggest safety concern that everyone's expressing here is the primary safety concern is right hooks," observed one commissioner. "Cars don't feel safe taking right [turns] because they think they're going to hit a bike." Shane Sullivan agreed, noting that addressing multimodal impacts would be essential for any permanent design: "I really hope that when we get to [the next phases], we can talk about things besides just the bicycle lane project, but are there any other timing elements, any other elements that we could soften the blow to [other] modes." ### Moving Forward with Interim and Capital Improvements City staff outlined a two-phase approach for Holly Street's future. An interim design planned for spring 2025 will address immediate safety concerns using relatively low-cost treatments like wheel stops, intersection hardening, and possible changes from "bend-ins" to "bend-outs" to further improve visibility. A more substantial capital project, potentially beginning design in 2025 and construction by 2026, would extend protected bike lanes to Broadway Street and implement more permanent solutions including grade-separated facilities, concrete buffers, and comprehensive intersection redesign. The commission directed staff to continue working with stakeholder groups and to present their recommendations to city council in December or January, emphasizing the need for holistic solutions that address impacts on all transportation modes. ## Closing Discussion and Future Work Planning As the evening concluded, Chair Candib initiated discussion about the commission's 2025 work plan. Commissioners suggested several focus areas for the coming year, including evaluation plans for the bicycle and pedestrian master plans, an examination of parking policies in urban villages, and updates on state grant opportunities. Keith Moore highlighted the success of the Eldridge Avenue separated bike lane, noting it as a positive example that has generated little controversy: "That separated bike lane up and down Eldridge is a real success. I don't hear anybody really complaining about that from any particular perspective." The commission also discussed the need for better documentation and public access to meeting materials, noting that recent meetings lack publicly available recordings and minutes—a transparency issue commissioners hope to address. The meeting adjourned just after 8 PM, with commissioners scheduled to reconvene December 10 for their final meeting of 2024. The evening reflected the complex challenges facing Bellingham as it attempts to balance growth, transportation equity, and competing community interests in an era of rapid urban development. The transportation decisions emerging from meetings like this one will significantly shape how Bellingham residents move through their city for decades to come, making the commission's work increasingly vital as the community continues to grow and evolve.