Ica Enriquez crosses Electric Avenue every day.
She, her husband Sam Schragel, and her five children have lived on Electric for two years, and ever day they cross the street to Whatcom Falls Park, to the bus stop, to Lafeen’s or to take the two youngest children to Carl Cozier Elementary.
Every day, they are worried of being hurt along the heavy-traffic street.
Enriquez and Schragel are not alone in their traffic concerns.
Members of the Whatcom Falls Neighborhood Association are lobbying the City of Bellingham to install sidewalks and crosswalks along Electric Avenue and Lakeway Drive. Temporary neighborhood association secretary Iain Davidson sent an e-mail to residents, requesting volunteers to spearhead an effort to fund traffic-safety projects along Electric Avenue and Lakeway Drive.
City has more projects than funding
According to Bellingham’s comprehensive city plan, the intersection of Electric Avenue and Birch Street at the Whatcom Falls Park entrance is slated for pedestrian and bicycle traffic improvements
“It comes down to funding,” said city Transportation Options Coordinator Kim Brown. “Those [projects] have been identified — we would love to do it, if we could get the funding.”
Brown said the city used $350,000 from federal economic stimulus to install five crosswalks with flashing warning lights in 2009, including one on Lakeway Drive.
The city wants to do the sidewalks and crosswalks when it fixes a water main on Electric Avenue, but there is no funding to do any of it, she said.
According to a list of projects outlined by Bellingham’s now-defunct Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, Electric Avenue and Lakeway Drive need safety improvements. The committee recommends sidewalks on Electric Avenue, bike lanes on both sides of the road and a speed limit reduction from 35 mph to 25 mph because of drivers not following the speed limit. At the beginning of the year, the committee was replaced by the Transportation Commission.
On May 5, the city issued an updated draft of the Transportation Improvement Program, which lists projects for the city to complete in the next five years. These projects are prioritized based on what grants are available from the state and what Bellingham residents need the most, Brown said. No projects pertaining to the Whatcom Falls Neighborhood are on that list, and no proposals have been received from neighborhood residents.
Brown said neighborhood residents can apply for grants, but they are usually no more than $2,000.
“The types of funding you would need for a sidewalk project or a crosswalk, you’re looking at maybe starting at $100,000 and going up,” Brown said.
Pedestrian-orientated community lacking, residents say
Enriquez said she wants the neighborhood to cater pedestrians, rather than cars.
“We have a school and we have a major park, and we don’t have that element at all,” she said.
Schragel and Enriquez said they have seen many accidents in front of their house at Electric Avenue and Lakeway Drive.
“We had a party here and at about one or two in the morning some guy smashed a city sign down the road. We hear ‘crash, crash.’ The guy goes bolting through here,” Schragel said, pointing to Electric Avenue. “And the next day me and my kids walking to the park saw the sign destroyed, mangled, dragged down the road a few feet.”
Enriquez said she wants flashing crosswalk on Electric Avenue because cars won’t stop for her daughter, especially in the winter when it becomes darker earlier.
“We need some semi-major traffic revisions around here,” Schragel said.
Enriquez said the heavy traffic keeps her and her children from freely moving around the neighborhood.
“It does keep us from sending them to the park more. I don’t feel good about telling them to go to the park together because I can’t say, ‘use the crosswalk,’ because there just isn’t one,” Enriquez said.
Kulshan students cross unmarked street
Teri McIntyre, president of Kulshan Middle School PTSA, said a lot of children walk across Lakeway Drive before and after school. There is a crosswalk at Kenoyer Drive to get over Lakeway Drive, but students walk east toward Electric Avenue and cross at the busy intersection of Electric Avenue and Lakeway Drive.
“I don’t believe we’ve had any students hurt on Lakeway,” McIntyre said. “I’ve seen close calls, but I don’t think we’ve had a traffic incident.”
Jeannie Hayden, Principal of Kulshan Middle School, said the lack of a crosswalk at Lakeway Drive and Electric Avenue is a problem, even though there is a crosswalk at Kenoyer Drive and Lakeway Drive.
“It worries me that the kids jet across Lakeway,” she said.
A public hearing will be held on May 24 in the Bellingham City Council Chambers on 210 Lottie St. at 7 p.m. to discuss the Transportation Improvement Program projects.
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