For years, people living on Eldridge Avenue have been asking Bellingham officials for safety improvements on their street — a thoroughfare between downtown and the airport that is lined with single-family homes.
The city responded to these calls this year, slating Eldridge for construction work in 2023 to include bike lanes on both sides of the street.
Some residents say these aren’t the safety improvements they were looking for.
In emails to city officials, a few neighbors have expressed disappointment over a proposal to eliminate on-street parking between Broadway and Nequalicum Avenue, near Bellingham Technical College, to make room for bicycle lanes that would be separated from vehicle traffic with vertical posts.
Removing on-street parking creates both an inconvenience and a safety concern, said Andrew Lorence, who lives on the “water side” of Eldridge, in a Sept. 1 email to the City Council.
Without the benefit of nearby side streets, Lorence wrote, “where are others that are on the water side supposed to have visitors, service people and delivery drivers park?”
Travelers already speed on Eldridge, Lorence continued, and removing parking will effectively widen the street and encourage drivers to go even faster.
“Speed is a major safety issue on this street, and limited plastic dividers will not lessen speeds,” he wrote, referring to the short posts that would line portions of the bicycle lanes.
Cory Blackwood, an Eldridge resident who happens to be on the city’s Transportation Commission, disagreed. The Commission will consider the proposal to eliminate parking on the 4,600-foot stretch of Eldridge on Sept. 13 and then pass a recommendation to the City Council.
“Studies from small suburban areas to small towns, to New York City and everywhere in Europe, prove otherwise,” Blackwood said.
“Bike lanes do slow cars down and improve safety for car drivers,” as well as bicyclists and pedestrians, he added.
If bicycle lanes are added to Eldridge, they would be something of a milestone for city planners, helping to complete a crosstown bike route from the east side of Lake Whatcom to Marine Drive.
Eldridge was slated for bicycle lanes in the 2014 Bicycle Master Plan, and the idea has been given the thumbs-up several times since then.
“City engineers have already recommended it,” Blackwood said. “It’s come to us a couple times (on the Transportation Commission), and we have already agreed to do it.”
If the Commission signs off on the Eldridge bicycle lanes this time around, the City Council is expected to begin considering the idea in October.