Bellingham will turn a portion of Holly Street into bike lanes by removing a single traffic lane between Ellis and Bay streets.
City Council voted 7-0 on Tuesday, April 9 to convert a traffic lane. Areas of Holly Street will become protected parking bike lanes, ensuring that parking spaces along Holly Street will not be impacted by the project.
The pilot project is an attempt by the city to remedy a key missing link in the downtown biking area.
Holly Street “is the glaring missing tooth in the middle of the whole downtown,” said Joel Pfundt, the assistant director of transportation and public works for the City of Bellingham, during the Public Works and Natural Resources Committee meeting on Monday, April 8.
Pfundt explained a protected parking bike lane will run between Bay Street and North State Street, similar to what bikers may find on Forest Street. A buffer bike lane will be between North State Street and Ellis Street.
That’s because of the bus stops along the area that need access to the street curb for accessibility purposes, Pfundt said.
Bike lanes have been a part of the downtown area since the 1990s with the first bike lane on State Street, Pfundt said. In 2017, when Holly Street was repaved, space was made for a future bike lane project. The Holly Street link, from Ellis to Bay Street, was considered a network that needed further study in the 2014 bicycle master plan by the city.
Now that time has come. Eric Johnston, the City of Bellingham Public Works director, said that the pilot project would encourage cyclists who aren’t comfortable riding downtown to come out and that it supported Mayor Kim Lund’s proposal to get more people downtown.
“We know [the pilot project] will work,” Johnston said. “We want to see how we can improve it.”
Pedestrians will also benefit from the pilot project. Traffic signals along Holly Street will have longer walk sign pedestrian signals before vehicles are allowed to move, ensuring people have more time to cross the street without fear of getting hit.
Construction of the bike lanes is expected to start in May. When the city wraps up its evaluation of the project, expected in the late summer or early fall, the community will have the chance to weigh in on what worked and what didn’t work.
Annie Todd is CDN’s criminal justice/enterprise reporter; reach her at annietodd@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 130.
