Photo of a New England farm road, introduced by Public Works staff as an example of a hazardous road condition.
By Peg Manning, Orcas resident
The County Department of Public Works has applied for funding (a total of $600,000) for something entitled “Roadside Hazard Mitigation Program,” whose stated purpose is to “identify and systematically mitigate . . . roadside hazards”– trees, ditches, water and steep embankments.
In other words, in addition to more ugly guardrails, we can look forward to the County “mitigating” the dangers posed by the very large old trees that line our roadways, such as the ones on Crow Valley, Deer Harbor and Orcas roads, as well as modifying other elements of the traditional landscape, such as boulders.
Why?
Because there is grant money available. Public Works claims that “by removing, signing and/or modifying these elements, the injury rate and/or severity may be reduced in vehicular crashes.” That is unlikely, based on insurance institute studies, but Public Works seems intent on turning our rural county into an engineer’s dream—paved and guardrailed, like something out of Everett. The County’s list of fatalities submitted with the grant application shows that the overwhelming majority of injury accidents are caused by DUI, and almost all of the rest are caused by excessive speed.
How many trees will we lose in a futile effort to protect these drivers? So far as we can tell, if there’s a tree within five feet of the road, it’s at risk.(One wonders how many sheriff deputies this amount of money would support to remove drunk and speeding drivers from our roads.)
Ask County Council to discuss and reject this part of Public Works’ 6 Year Transportation Plan.
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San Juan County has a Scenic Roads Manual, which should be consulted:
https://sanjuanco.com/publicworks/scenicrdmanual.aspx
I am saddened as more and more bureaucratic BS creeps into our lives. Isn’t it time WE take responsibilty for ourselves. Why do we have to have government and people telling us we are unable to drive on a road unless it has white and yellow lines, is treeless and straight and flat as a super highway?
Why can’t we be accountable for our own actions. We gripe about Big Brother but we foster his moving in with us. I say don’t remove the trees, don’t widen the roads, don’t make bike paths on the shoulders.
Every change brings us closer to the mainland we moved here to get away from!
this breaks my heart–we really do not need more pavement do we??????
In the town where I grew up there was a tree lined road with curves. People used to drive off the road and injure themselves. The county fixed it. They straightened it, widened it, and removed the trees near the road. The result? People drove faster. They still went off the road, but instead of being injured they were killed as a result of higher speed.
We have enough problems with excessive speed on Orcas as it is. Making roads “safer” will only make the speed problem worse. How about if we all just slow down and enjoy our beautiful island. Your life won’t stop if it takes you an extra minute or two to get into town for whatever errand you are running. But it just might stop if you don’t slow down.
Jim: Well, Public Works is planning to do just that with Orcas Road, after it gets done doing it to Mount Baker Road. I find it easy enough to navigate the turns in Orcas road, because I drive within the speed limit. That drive is one of my favorites. It is clear that many hundreds of thousands of trips have been made on Orcas Road by sober, non-speeding drivers. But we are designing to the lowest common denominator, and likely with the unexpected consequences you cite: higher speed!
Well said. In my 30 years of living on Orcas and seeing some of these “improvements,” all I can see is that people speed more and the roads are more dangerous than ever as a consequence. We need speeding enforcement, not more engineering. The Mount Baker Road project is a case in point. Once again, the promised bike and pedestrian trail will be scrapped, or one will be put in that is underwater 12 months out of the year, due to the wetland on which Mt. Baker Road sits. The intersection of Mt. Baker and Terrill Beach Road is more dangerous than ever, due to the last “improvements.” People died because the intersection is a blind intersection now, and, as usual, people drive 50 mph and above on 25 to 35 mph speed zones.
We have all mourned tree loss on Enchanted Forest Road and Orcas Road. It isn’t “just” tree loss, but habitat loss to the creatures that we all purport to love. We don’t need this “roadside hazard mitigation” plan and the only reason that Public works is going for it is that they found out there are grant monies for it, and so extended their projects for the full amount of grant monies available.
We need a traffic cop! Too bad there are not grant monies for that!
Addendum: I have a simple solution to mitigating all roadside “hazards.” Lower the speed limit where the roads are most dangerous, install speed bumps to help slow people down in town, and enforce the speed limit and ticket/fine offenders with the third offense being a suspended license.