City of Bainbridge Island, Washington— Circulation and Access Recommendations
Background
In 2003, city officials implemented a smart growth plan entitled Winslow Tomorrow. This plan recommends a vibrant mixed-use and pedestrian friendly downtown that supports multiple modes of access to downtown. The city had been struggling with outdated parking ordinances and a shortage of short term retail parking that threatened the full potential of this progressive plan.
Key Project Tasks
- Review, summarize and comment on prior parking and circulation studies completed by the city and other entities.
- Develop an overview of the access, circulation and travel issues and opportunities facing downtown Winslow.
- Conduct interviews with members of the Parking and Circulation Committees as well as key stakeholders to obtain feedback on proposed solutions.
- Develop a Parking and Circulation Priorities report which identifies the most important current issues and forecasts future parking and circulation demands.
- Conduct three rounds of public meetings to discuss reports and solicit public participation.
- Develop a Final Parking and Circulation Recommendations and Action Plan that sets out a three-year action plan to be presented to City Council this October for adoption and implementation.
Stakeholder Interview Results
Twenty-two interviews were conducted with Winslow business owners, City Council members and related transportation committee members. These interviews provided valuable feedback on potential parking and circulation strategies. The following lists the five most-strongly supported and most-strongly opposed strategies.
5 most strongly supported strategies
- Identify and preserve informal lanes and walk corridors
- Improve non-motorized access from the ferry terminal to downtown
- Pursue off-street greenways for non-motorized uses
- Locate and install signage identifying bike routes
- Establish local transit circulator routes
5 most strongly opposed strategies
- Use public tax funds to pay for new parking facilities
- Require employees to park outside of downtown area
- Install parking meters on Winslow Way and surrounding streets
- Change fee-in-lieu payments to a sliding scale to make small development or redevelopment projects more attractive
- Assign specific parking lots to downtown employees, free of charge
Circulation and Access Recommendations
The following provides an outline of priorities identified by the Circulation and Access Recommendations:
Circulation Issues
1. Create a pedestrian supportive environment
2. Improve connectivity
3. Manage traffic
4. Expand transit services
Access Issues
1. Optimize on-street supply
2. Revise off-street requirements
3. Increase enforcement efforts
4. Establish parking finance mechanisms
5. Manage parking and parking spill-over
6. Insure adequate parking for delivery vehicles
Final Recommendations
To view the final version of these recommendations click on the link below. | BIW-003_-_Final_Document.pdf | 23.21 MB |
Project Presentations
Recommended: Right-click file to save file to your computer; or, click on link to open in a new browser window.
| June_Circulation_Meeting.pdf | 25.58 MB |
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| June_Parking_Meeting.pdf | 8.14 MB |
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| Circulation_Priorities.pdf | 4.81 MB |
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| Parking_Priorities.pdf | 1.06 MB |
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| JanuaryCityCouncil.pdf | 4.43 MB |
