Vashon needs a plan for bicycle traffic | Letter to the Editor

Published 11:39 am Tuesday, June 19, 2012

A biker lying down in pain along 204th Street interrupted our conversation as we stopped and provided first aid and called 911. The injured was an experienced daily bicycle commuter who swerved off the narrow, two-lane road onto a non-shoulder and took a tumble.

Vashon’s great rumble crises is an opportunity to focus Islanders’ energy to transform our Island’s auto-centric transport system into a needed safe bicycle transportation system, including paths and safe lanes. Perhaps the energy generated in this crisis can be harnessed into longer term effective political action to design and adopt a safe bike transportation system plan for our Island.

It is ironic that Vashon, the home of many bike innovations, is devoid of a bicycle transportation plan, such as those found in most communities in our greater metropolitan area. Seattle has budgeted $250,000 to update its very expansive five-year bike transportation plan and action program. Seattle, as well as most of our metro area, has made substantial progress in constructing miles of bike paths and safe lanes during the last five years.

One might ask why Vashon Island remains a big white blank in King County Department of Transportation’s Bike Transportation Map. Why have the needs of the bicycle transport failed to be addressed in the county’s Vashon transportation planning and decision making? Why did the Department of Transportation not consider bicycle use when it spent huge sums resurfacing many of the Island’s roads a year or so ago or on other recent DOT decisions such as the rumble strips.

The words of Amiee Semple McPherson may be appropriate in today’s context when she told the grangers to stop raising corn and start raising hell in their fight against the railroads. It may be time now to stop riding on the shoulders and start raising hell.

— Jack Churchill