Tuesday, March 3, 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., Eastsound Fire Hall
— from Phyllis Morrison, SJ Pubic Works —
In January, the adjacent property owners and Orcas community voted on four alternatives to the Orcas Road plan from Nordstrom Lane to McNallie Road. Alternative #2, the Curvilinear Alignment, received the greatest number of votes and we are now proceeding with the preliminary design.
Please come to the Open House, see additional visual renderings and give us your input on some of the design details. Staff will be available to answer questions.
For additional information, contact: Shannon Wilbur, Project Engineer, (360) 370-0500.
Maybe I’ve missed it, but why are we doing this? The road seems perfectly fine.
Sadly another opportunity to implement congestion solving roundabouts has come and gone.
Susan, The stretch of road in question is the most dangerous on Orcas. There is barely enough room for two cars without bikes.
Please make sure the banking of the roadway is not so steep that cars will slide up/down when the roadway is icy. And for those cars that do slide on ice, provide a safe place for them to land off the roadway.
From a bike rider’s perspective, this stretch of road is terrifying. I’ve had cars pass me both ways on blind corners, and there is absolutely no shoulder for bikes to be safe from motor vehicles. I think the County has come up with a reasonable solution.
Once again I want to express my hope that the design of the cross-section of this portion of Orcas Road serve as a prototype for the eventual entire-length of the road between the Landing and Eastsound…a cross-section with enhanced safety which preserves the intimate scale of our meandering scenic roads…by allowing for two adequate travel lanes, MINIMAL width shoulders, and featuring a SEPARATE, two lane bike path for cyclists.
While improvements on this section of road are truly needed, the ultimate decider of safety is the person behind the wheel. If we make it wider and the corners smoother, won’t that just encourage people to drive faster? People that already drive to fast on this stretch of road will just drive faster.
Come on people, what does it matter if the trip into town takes an extra one or two minutes. Just slow down!
As Harvey and Mary said, this is the best solution for safety for all users, motorized vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. It’s time for the county to finish the whole length of the road between the Landing and Eastsound, preferably with a separate path for cyclists for cyclists and pedestrians. Mount Baker Road is an excellent model (if they would only fix the dangerous choke point at the Terrell Beach Road corner — they really dropped the ball on that one!).
I share Jim McCorison’s concern that the road improvements will encourage higher speeds.
https://bikeleague.org/content/speedy-road-design-undermines-safety
It is a fact that this improvement will encourage faster speeds! So many studies have proved the fact over and over again! Has any consideration been given to slowing speed on this stretch? Perhaps a ticket or two? Merry B.
Fred’s requirement for both a wider road and a two-way bike path seems to be excessive and excessively expensive.
Wouldn’t it be enough just to add paved shoulders wide enough to accommodate bikes, plus some informative striping?
This is perhaps one of the prettiest part of this road.. I have driven this road for more years than I would like to say..and I get angry when people want to straighten this road. For what purpose? To drive faster? It would be fine if it gets a little wider but keep the curves..PLEASE
The article referred to above, from the League Of American Bicyclists, concerns new safety approaches to URBAN roadways, not rural ones! ”The [older] conventional approach to road design [that the article criticizes for urban use]… sometimes called ‘forgiving design’ ensures that drivers can see far ahead… has helped reduce the number of crashes on highways in rural areas”.
Also, ask any cyclist if they feel safe riding through those two sharp 90 degree turns! Ask any motorist if they feel comfortable passing a cyclist there!
I have lived on and near this part of the road for the last 15 of my 35 years on the island and the main problem is the speed and the passing . I have asked more then once for a lower speed , 35 mph like most of the island and NO PASSING! I feel for the bicyclists, but it will be worse when cars are going even faster then now. Please include this in the new plan which seems inevitable, and perhaps the sheriff can monitor it more often.