The Alabama Street Corridor Multimodal Safety Improvements proceed with mixed reviews

By Racquel Arceo

Based off of the results from a series of studies conducted by the Department of Public Works, there will be a variety of changes made along Alabama Street to improve safety.

In Sunnyland, the changes will including the addition of bike lanes, C-curbs, various types of pedestrian crossing lights, and “refugee islands,” the relocation and reduction of transit Gold Go line bus stops and “road dieting.”

The second open house for the Alabama Corridor Project was held on March 5 at Roosevelt Elementary School.

At the meeting, the Department of Public Work’s proposed plan for the Alabama Street renovations was revealed. The proposal included three variations of the road diet and other measures to improve safety.

The open house was for residents from all affected neighborhoods, including Roosevelt, Sunnyland, Lettered Streets, Silver Beach and Alabama Hill, and the Bellingham Police Department and Fire Department, to review the analysis and proposal for safety improvements along Alabama Street.

In 2011, Alabama street was found to be the street with the second most collisions in Whatcom County, right behind Guide Meridian, according to the Department of Public Works. The following year, Bellingham received over $1.4 million in federal grant funds allowing them to conduct studies for improvements along the 1.75-mile long Alabama Street.

Michelle Nancy, Sunnyland resident, has concerns about minimizing the main road through Sunnyland through the “road diet.“

“I don’t want to see traffic on the spillover streets,” Nancy said.

The “road diet” consists of moving the painted lines of the road leaving fewer lanes traveling in either direction and, as it would be for Sunnyland, adding bike lanes.

With the growing traffic on Alabama Street, Nancy said she doesn’t think the roads in Sunnyland are made to support the larger masses.

“Most of the people I have talked to, by in large, like the way it is now,” Nancy said.

Through the stretch of Alabama Street, the only portion that will include bike lanes would be in Sunnyland. The west end of Alabama has been recommended to have a hybrid 4-to-3-lane “road diet” between Dean Street and Iron Street. This “road diet” will reduce the road from two lanes going either direction to one lane going either directing, a left turn lane, and bike lanes going either direction.

Though the majority of Alabama Street is unable to sustain bike lanes due to the heavy traffic, most of the traffic was found to dissipate at James Street.

Although Nancy said that very few people she knows of approve of the bike lanes in the Sunnyland section of Alabama Street, Rory Routhe, city Engineer and Public Works Assistant director, has had the reverse reaction.

“A lot of people that I have talked to from this area are pretty happy with the changes,” Routhe said. “I think this will provide more safety, which is the main objective in the area.”

Along the length of Alabama Street there are currently eight stops on the Golden Go transit line, which, in the proposal, will be reduced to five.

“We are proposing to consolidate some of the stops,” Rick Nicholson, Whatcom County Transportation Authority’s director, said.

With the revised stops, only the outbound stops will be affected.

In Sunnyland alone there will be one less outbound stop leaving three inbound stops and two outbound.

Some of the changes to the stops will be to move them up the street more, past a cross walk.

“We are having buses stop on the far side of cross walks so the people getting off the bus will cross behind the bus instead of in front for safety reasons,” Nicholson said.

For some people they will have to walk further to get to their stops but “that is the trade off for making them safer,” he said.

The proposal also included the addition of C-curbs or “mountable curbs”. The curb is a divider between lanes traveling in opposite directions restricting left turns.

There are existing C-curbs in Sunnyland, through a portion of Alabama Street, but with the proposal they will be replaced and upgraded.

The longest stretching C-curb to be added to Alabama Street will go for three blocks.

The reduction of left turns will add time to people’s drives but it will not interfere with any emergency response vehicles.

“If we really have to we can drive over them,” Jason Monson, Bellingham Police Lieutenant, said.

Though the project got off to a rough start last year, after the first Alabama Corridor Project open house, with the proposal, people are starting to understand the changes more.

“I’ve heard mostly positive reactions,” said Lt. Monson.

Some residents are still skeptical of the changes.

Resident Bill Black has been running Alabama Street for years and sees no major issues with the street.
“I have never, in my 25 years of living here, seen an accident [on Alabama Street],” Black said. “I think they simply need to reduce the speed limit to 30.”