First in Bellingham, a bike lane on right side of parked cars. Past Elevate Apartments.

I've heard about this being done in Europe and seen it in Portland, OR. but this is the first time I have seen this in Bellingham. A bike lane on the far side of parked cars that's protected from the traffic lane. It's on Forest Street going by a big new apartment complex.

That stretch of street has an interesting history. Built in the early 1980s as the "Ivy Street Connector." Connects northbound Forest Street to the Boulevard. It was designed as part of a one way system as State Street takes the southbound traffic.

About 15 years ago, the lanes were reduced on State Street from 3 lanes to 2 lanes and a bike lane. Better for bikes. Also, who needs 3 southbound lanes leading to 1 when it gets to the boulevard? Later that improvement also came to Forest.

Then they decided to build this large apartment complex. Only part of it is shown in the picture. Density, which is often better for bikes, pedestrians and transit. Bellingham has a housing shortage. Population growth.

Now Ivy Street Connector to northbound Forest is down to one lane plus the bike lane and parking. Seems to work good. Maybe drivers will grumble that there is only one lane, but there's also need for more parking with all those apartments. There's parking garages in the apartment complex as well, but there's, of course, never enough of anything. That's true in this life, I guess.

Seems like the setup works pretty well. More housing and now we have a protected bike lane behind the parked cars. First one of these I've seen in Bellingham.

Some people grumble that the apartments are too "cookie cutter dull," but that's yet another story.

Back in early 1980s, some people in the neighborhood complained about the building of the Ivy Street Connector. I lived on Forest Street, then and wrote a letter to Bellingham Herald. Surprising some folks, I was kind of justifying construction of the connector, but blaming the whole thing on people's over dependence on automobiles.

Here is letter text from my archive. Early 1980s.

Now that the Ivy Street connector is finished noise and traffic has arrived here on Forest Street. It would have been nice if we could have preserved quietness in this neighborhood by keeping through traffic out. Some of my neighbors tried to stop the city from building the connector; but their opposition did not do much good.

The opposition could not contend with the fact that there is no other viable place to route excess State Street traffic; and State Street; itself; has become too crowded. Efforts to stop construction of a street in order to preserve quiet in a local neighborhood are no match against the overall circulation needs of the city.

Underneath this dilemma lies a deeper issue: There are too many cars on American streets. If we could get thousands of local people to agree on drastically reducing the number of trips they take in their cars; the bottleneck on State Street could have been solved without ever needing to build the Ivy Street connector. If thousands of people could agree to walk; bike or ride the bus instead of using their cars; Forest Street could have remained a quiet residential street.

We tend to blame our city planners when a quiet neighborhood is disrupted by a noisy street; but planners are often just as helpless as we are. If State Street is too crowded; while Forest Street is the only other economically viable place to route the traffic; planners must follow inevitable circumstances. The best way we have for preserving quiet neighborhoods is to get our people using their cars less. This is something we cannot look to our city planners to do for us. It is something the people; themselves; must do. We may not be as helpless as we think.

I wrote this when I lived in an apartment on Forest Street.

Bridge for Bellingham bike trail hoisted into place

They are finally fixing the bridge for the bike trail across Whatcom Creek just north of downtown. A year, or two ago, a fire damaged the trestle. A new bridge is being put in place and I happened to be riding by at just the right moment.



Video of bridge being hoisted into place.

Bike path to Barkley Village in the snow

Bellingham is having one of it's fairly rare snow events. A few folks still bike, but I prefer walking in the snow. Yesterday, I had a reason to go to the Barkley Village district. Took the bus out there and then walked back.

Little Tokyo restaurant has a welcoming glow in the snow.

Plaza across the street from Little Tokyo.

Barkley Village is sometimes called a "new urbanism" style of development. Slightly more density than the average strip mall sprawl. Some multi story buildings with use of brick and a "Main Street look" along New Market Street.

One of the things that causes me to go to Barkley more often than other satellite developments in Bellingham is the ease of access along Railroad Trail. It heads through the woods behind Barkley Village.

Being a non driver, trails make a difference to me.

Other developments in Bellingham, like Cordata and Bellis Fair Mall, are out where the sprawl is horrible. Few trails or pedestrian facilities. All built for the automobile. There are plans to retrofit some of those areas, but progress is real slow. Barkley seems more accessible to non drivers.

There still is plenty of parking for those who participate in mainstream culture. One of Barkley's biggest features is a 24 hour Haggens Super Market. It's near a large parking lot which also serves as the parking for businesses along New Market Street.

Across Woburn Street from the Haggens is a big construction site. New movie theaters. I hear 17 screens? Lots of grading. There will most likely be a big parking lot. Also some artificial wetlands for storm water retention.

One wonders if a big theater project will work, but at least it doesn't look like we're in a recession when you see the construction equipment going. Bellingham gets some spin off from the robust economy of Vancouver, BC, just across the border. It's still hard to find work here, but Vancouver's economic engine is close by. Shoppers come down to Bellingham to buy milk and other products by the truckload.

Canada is where the controversial coal trains are headed which rumble through Bellingham. They go to a coal port in Canada. Controversial because there is a proposal to build more port facilities on this side of the border which would likely increase the coal traffic being exported to "power house economies" in Asia.

Meanwhile the snowy world of the bike path is only a few feet from commerce.

Below posted January 10 2012 on a day that wasn't snowy.

Freeway looks kind of neat when crossing after sundown.
An hour or two earlier heading east.
While I-5 looks pretty ominous, or might I say "majestic," I'm glad I'm on the bike trail.

Autumn view along Railroad Trail. Image taken in 2010.

Haxton Way Trail in Lummi Nation

I heard there was a new bike trail near Lummi Casino so I rode out there on a nice day a few weeks back.

The trail goes along Haxton from Slater to Kiwina Roads. About 2 miles. It's not that long, but it's paved and even has solar powered street lights.

Some might ask, why spend money for this trail, but I read that since 1988 there have been 16 deaths along Haxton. Car accidents, car pedestrian and car bike accidents.

I don't ride out in Lummi lands very often because of narrow roads and traffic, but the situation is improving. Might as well have a safe "non car" route to the Casino which is a large employer at Lummi.

I accessed the north end of the trail from Slater Road which does have a shoulder. Then I rode south along the trail to Kiwina, turned around and road north back to Slater. Trail runs along west side of Casino Parking lot and then south to Kiwina.

Little by little, the green healthy ways of getting around continue to grow.

Great 7 minute documentary video on the trail. Link added October 2013.

Bike lane also helps protect water resource

This part of North Shore Drive near Lake Whatcom is an innovative road that was recently repaved. Now that it's finished, I decided to ride out there.

It's in our drinking watershed because houses and development have been grandfathered in around the lake for years. Actually over a century.

Idealistically, no one should live in the watershed, but you know. How can they do that?

Next step might be to try and make road surfaces pervious, rather than impervious.

Pervious means rainwater can percolate through. Impervious means water just washes off.

Around the lake, pervious means cleaner runoff. If water can soak through surfaces gradually, it can be filtered. On the other hand, when water runs off a hard surface too quickly it brings more crud to the lake.

Why can't they make the whole road pervious?

Well, I don't know, but my guess is it wouldn't hold up to the pounding of cars and trucks.

Cars and trucks can be awful heavy.

That's where the shoulder (also a bike lane) can come to the rescue. It doesn't need to be so hard since it doesn't normally get as much pounding as the car lanes.

Make the shoulder softer so it can serve as a buffer between the car lane and the surrounding environment.

Another good excuse for a bike lane.

Even the sidewalk can be that new "pervious" stuff.

Another great innovation in planning.

I also rode up onto Stewart Mountain which resides along the north shore of Lake Whatcom. Much of that route is under these ominous looking power lines.

Big inter-tie between power grids of BC Hydro and BPA. Another link between US and Canada.

Lake Whatcom below. Bellingham Bay in distance.

One really hears the hum and crackle; especially from one set of lines.

Power for millions of people passing through our area like Interstate 5. The interstate for electricity?

Happy Fourth Of July. Humming, crackling, booming and sparking. Hopefully not arcing power lines through me.

Ka-blam. I plan to watch fireworks from the top level of a parking garage in downtown Bellingham.

Trails To Balfour Village?

A large development is proposed in Columbia Valley / Kendall area. Quite a few trails and parks are planned in the development which is described as using "environmental friendly" design. More compact and "low impact" than a lot of what's out there now; so they say.

It is controversial. Just about all the new development in this corner of the world is. Traffic on Mount Baker Highway has folks worried. It's getting worse each year.

Rather than jumping onto the "pro, or anti" development side, I tend to have a different line of thinking.

I think, "trails," "parks;" maybe we can extend these features beyond just the development itself.

How about a bike trail from Balfour area to Deming, for instance? That's one of the worse stretches of Mount Baker Highway. East of Deming, the road has practically no shoulder. A trail could take some pressure off the highway.

People sometimes dismiss me as an idealist.

Who rides bikes? they ask.

Okay, bus service can be talked about also. Maybe even buses every 15 minutes, like they have on some routes in Bellingham. WTA has added a route to Kendall fairly recently.

More people should mean more bus service, if folks are giving these type of things priority.

There are even trail plans on the books.

"Bay to Baker Trail" has been talked about for years.

Another proposal is made up of short trail segments that connect different destinations in the Foothills area. That proposal has been called "Chain Of Trails." It would make things safer for kids walking to school and stores, for instance.

If politics can work, economic growth could be harnessed to improve the Mount Baker Highway corridor. Improve it for "alternative" travel.

At worse, a big "wish list" could even tax and kill development out there.

While I am not advocating that development be taxed to death, it might make the anti growth people happy at least.

On the other hand we could get just the right balance of taxes, impact fees and volunteer contributions. Just the right balance so there can be alternatives to car travel out the Mount Baker Highway.

Are greenway levies bad for renters?

I plan to vote yes for Bellingham's Greenways, but there was an interesting point made in a May 10th letter to the editor of Bellingham Herald. Letter basically said "Greenways too costly for renters."

It's still cheaper than driving a car. Greenways = transportation.

It is true that the property taxes, our landlords pay, are passed along to renters. The Greenways have added a bit to property taxes over the years.

This levy is just a continuation of the tax that has been collected over past years. The past levy is expiring. It will not raise taxes, just keep taxes from going down a bit, due to the old levy's expiration.

Still this little bit of added cost is worth it, in my calculations.

The Greenways is "transportation." It still costs a lot less than owning a car. That's how I see things. Making it safer to get around town by bicycle is worth the money saved as an alternative to driving.

Of course there are other things paid by by Greenways; like some park and ball field facilities. These are good things to have also. Encouraging recreation for public health can save lots of money on health care costs and insurance expenses.

So I see this as more than icing on a cake. It can be transportation and health. Pragmatic and cheaper than a lot of things we pay for.

Lake Washington Dinner Train rail trail opportunity

Was topic of today's "The Conversation" show on KUOW. Archived on their web site.

King County (where Seattle is) has the opportunity to buy 47 miles of railroad right of way from BNSF Railroad. This could be the basis of a marvelous trail liking east side suburbs from Snohomish all the way to Renton.

If the county doesn't buy the line, it is possible that the right of way could be broken up as parcels got sold out to different property owners. Keeping it all together would be great.

Photo shows bench near old North Bend Depot. A similar area of old rails and trails farther east in King County.

Currently, some of that corridor is used by Lake Washington Dinner Train; a tourist excursion ride. This use could coincide with a trail. There need not necessarily be a conflict between trail and dinner train use as was pointed out on the radio show.

Back in October of 2002, I remember writing an email to an agency called Sound Transit about that vary corridor. No, I don't live in King County, but listen to Seattle Politics on the radio.

My ear would fill up with talk about Sound Transit's problems developing new light rail corridors through Seattle. Land is expensive. The cost of new stations, tunnels, harsh. Still worth it, in my opinion, but many a talk show host; especially KIRO's Dori Monson, were fuming.

Then there would be an advertisement for . . . The Lake Washington Dinner Train. Ride from Woodenville to Renton.

My mind said, "Wait a minute." "There is an existing corridor." "Interstate 405, passing through the same area, is another congested freeway."

"Maybe the Dinner Train route could be used for light rail." "Take pressure off 405."

So I wrote an email. Wrote to Sound Transit and got back a very good and informative reply.

It had been studied, but population density, in that area, is still a bit too low for commuter train viability. There were also some problems with building track so trains could run two directions . Environmental impacts also. They recommended preserving the corridor, however.

Well, now spin the clock up to 2005 and the issue of preserving the corridor is making news.

Preserving the corridor as a trail.

That would be a lot easier and still take some local pressure off 405. Really, you can go a lot farther on a bicycle than some people think. I'll bet many of the 405 trips are under 10 miles.

Trail and rail possibilities, for that corridor, are significant.