GAIT: Getting Around Issaquah Together

Formerly known as the Issaquah Park & Ride, the new Issaquah Transit Center is going into operation on Saturday 5/31. Note this is not the garage, just the bays where the buses stop. The garage opens later this summer. Here’s the info from Metro:

There will be new boarding locations for Metro routes 200, 209, 210, 214, 269, 271, 927 and ST Express 554, 555 and 556 at the Issaquah Transit Center (formerly the Issaquah Park-and-Ride) located on State Route 900 between Maple Street and Newport Way. Starting May 31, passengers should board at the new transit platform located between the construction area and SR 900. Bus riders can still park at the Tibbetts Park-and-Ride south of Newport Way or in the interim lot on the west side of SR 900 until Sound Transit opens the new transit center garage later this summer.

 

The city recently passed a “Complete Streets” ordinance which essentially puts some teeth in the already existing requirements that new development include facilities for bicycle and pedestrian transportation. Barb Shelton passes along the following information about the city’s plans for striping existing roads this year:

At the Council Transportation Committee this past week, Councilors learned that the following locations could get bike lane improvements in 2008 within the Complete Streets program. These locations would involve restriping only of existing roads. They have not been cross-referenced with the Bike/Pedestrian section of the Transportation Element that we worked so hard to incorporate bike facilities into. So take a look & respond to Gary Costa & Todd Christensen with comments or additional locations.

• NE Gilman from Front St to 3d Ave past bridge
• Newport Way between Holly & Maple
• Newport Way between Pinecone/Oakcrest & 54th
• Village Park Dr
• W. Lk Sammamish Pkwy
• SE 43d Way (road to Providence Pt)

If you send feedback to the city, be sure to mention that you’re a member of GAIT. We’ll work out official membership soon, but for now if you read this blog, join the mailing list, or come to a meeting or event then you’ve got the right to call yourself a member.

Tonight GAIT had its first meeting. Ten of us sat at a table at the Issaquah Brewhouse and talked about bicycle and pedestrian issues in Issaquah. Rob, Nina, Barb, Karen, David, Kent, Erik, Karen, Becky, and me.

I have to thank Kent for giving us the kick needed to have a meeting when he forwarded some info about a program from the Kryptonite Bike Lock company to place free bike racks. We spent a fair amount of time brainstorming where we might like to see such racks. Here are the places mentioned:

• City Hall South
• City Hall North
• Issaquah Medical Center (on Gilman by the post office)
• Gilman Station near the end of the East Lake Sammamish Trail
• Bank of America on Front Street
• Mills Music
• Memorial Field
• Poo Poo Base
• Skate Park
• Community Center
• Target
• Caffe Ladro in the Highlands
• Safeway
• REI
• Barnes & Noble
• Pickering Barn
• Lake Sammamish State Park

Some of these may already have sufficient racks in place. We thought we’d prioritized public locations ahead of private businesses thinking we might be able to lobby businesses into installing racks on their own. There are a lot of unknowns about the program so next steps here are to refine the list and get some pictures taken of where we’d like to place racks, and then to contact Kryptonite to see what they’re willing to do.

Beyond the bike rack program a lot of ideas flew across the table. I’ll try to get some pages here on the website to capture some of that over the next few days. There were also some war stories told about various organizations, but you’ll have to come to a meeting if you want to hear any of those.

It was exciting to see so many interested people there. Suddenly I have no qualms about referring to GAIT as a “group” and using the word “we” when talking about it. That alone is a big step forward. Thanks, everyone!

One of the things that struck me at the High Point Connector ribbon cutting ceremony was how little visibility the project had. I only knew about it from a chance conversation with David Kappler a number of years ago when he mentioned finding a route for the trail. The next hint I had that something was going on was when the construction started on the easternmost portion of the trail where it comes into the ELST. I never heard about any design reviews or other public involvement.

So one of the ongoing projects I envision for GAIT is to highlight any projects that will impact active transportation from their inception through design to implementation.

Being a computer geek, my fantasy was that this would just involve visiting the city web site once in a while to see if there are any updates. It doesn’t look like it’s going to be that easy. For example, here’s a page about the proposed I-90 undercrossing by the post office. It suggests that construction would happen in 2007. Since they haven’t done any work at all yet I suspect the page is at least a couple years out of date.

Looks like I need to pay a visit to city hall.