Concern over street safety in Silver Beach

A car drives down a section of Flynn Street in Silver Beach. The lack of sidewalks or

bicycle lanes on the street has prompted some residents to contact the city over

pedestrian and bicycle safety concerns.



Residents of Bellingham’s Silver Beach neighborhood are at odds with the city over the need for sidewalks and bicycle lanes on Flynn Street, and soon the public will have a chance to make their voices heard. 

“Cars can’t see me,” said Jerry Harris, who uses a wheelchair when he walks his dog along Flynn Street. Harris says he “feels especially unsafe when crossing on to Electric Avenue.”

The city’s Silver Beach neighborhood plan describes Flynn Street as a narrow road with several blind corners that is a heavily used bicycle and pedestrian route. There have been three hit-and-run traffic accidents on Flynn Street since 2002, according to Bellingham Police Department records, and city documents indicate one of those involved a pedestrian.

Neighborhood residents agree that Flynn Street is unsafe.

“We walk on that street a lot with our kids,” said Renay Fredette, adding that her husband “bikes to work on that street.

“I have contacted the city, but it doesn’t seem like they are going to do anything,” said Fredette, who stressed the need for sidewalks as she carried a baby in her arms.

The city determines the need for sidewalks or bicycle lanes for streets on a case-by-case basis, according to Rory Routhe, assistant director of Public Works.

“We currently have a pedestrian master plan and are working on a bicycle master plan for city streets,” said Routhe.

Last year, Bellingham established a pedestrian master plan. That plan proposes two sidewalk projects for sections of Flynn Street, yet both have received a low-priority rating from the city.

One involves installing a 927-foot sidewalk along Flynn between Dakin and Kansas streets at an estimated cost of nearly $560,000. The cheaper option, with a cost of approximately $136,250, calls for a 218-foot sidewalk on Flynn between Electric Avenue to Dakin Street.

In the past year and a half, Bellingham conducted two separate citywide surveys of residents as part of developing pedestrian and bicycle master plans.

The first survey, completed in 2012, addressed residents’ opinions of improvements for pedestrians. Results indicated that Silver Beach residents are most concerned by a lack of sidewalks and high traffic volumes and speeds in their neighborhood. Less than a third of the streets in the neighborhood have sidewalks, city records show.

The second survey, conducted in May of this year, focused on bicycle transportation in the city. Respondents reported that their top concerns about bicycling are a lack of bicycle lanes and feeling unsafe around cars and trucks, and that they want the city to spend money developing more bicycle lanes. That survey also found that 85.6 percent of residents supported the idea of a physical separation between cars and bicycles, and 86 percent agreed this would improve pedestrians’ safety.

To create sidewalks or bicycle lanes on Flynn Street, money would need to be included in the city’s annual budget, according to Routhe.

“It depends on how the project is funded,” he said, adding that typically there is no direct affect on neighborhood taxes when sidewalks or bike lanes are developed.  

However, if residents’ taxes were raised to contribute to the installation of sidewalks or bicycle lanes, Harris would be supportive of it.

“Yeah, that’d be alright,” he said, adding he would not mind the inconvenience caused by constructing sidewalks and bicycle lanes on Flynn Street.

“We will listen to any concerns people have,” said Routhe, adding that the city cannot take action unless funding for projects is included in Bellingham’s master plans and annual budgets.

The city is holding a meeting open to residents to discuss the development of the bicycle master plan at 5:30 p.m., on Tuesday, Nov. 19 at Whatcom Middle School.

The results of this meeting will guide the city’s judgment of fund distribution for the bicycle master plan. This funding was approved by Bellingham voters in 2010 and is reserved for bicycle and pedestrian projects and improved transit service. For more information, visit the city’s bicycle master planning website at http://www.cob.org/services/planning/transportation/bike-master-planning.aspx.