City leaders ignore residents’ voices on Bel-Red Road
Last week, concerned residents of Bellevue sent over 200 letters in just 48 hours asking the Bellevue City Council to support the Transportation Commission’s recommendation to remove Bel-Red Road from consideration for bike lanes and road diets (removal of car lanes).
Despite this, and despite over 1,200 letters sent in the last year by residents opposing road diets, the City’s Department of Transportation Director overturned the Commission’s recommendation on Bel-Red Road and decided it needs to be studied further, which may cost hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars if pursued.
Councilmember John Stokes, who opposed road diets during his campaign (like the one staff proposed for 140th), insisted that the community will thank Council later for imposing such projects. He said, “I don’t quite understand why we’re having such angst on this… Let’s go forward on this…[and] when it comes out people will understand and look back and say, “Wow, I’m glad we did this.” It is always remarkable to hear an elected official say that his constituents don’t know what’s good for them.
With the exception of Councilmembers Jared Nieuwenhuis and Conrad Lee, the majority of Council voiced their support for this quiet staff decision, which they could have overturned in support of the Commission’s recommendation, but did not.
We say quiet because in the public agenda memo, staff wrote that this study session would be “for information only” and that there would be no staff recommendation – when clearly that was not the case. Were it not for two sentences buried later in the memo, we would have never known that staff were keeping Bel-Red on the table. Unfortunately for the City, we at Neighbors for a Livable Bellevue read the fine print and alerted our neighbors right away.
Councilmember Nieuwenhuis expressed his frustration at the lack of communication with the community, saying, “When I see that you’re making a recommendation about a controversial corridor – I think we need to have that right in the title. No one is here because of all of the other recommendations…they’re here about Bel-Red. I think going forward we need to be very clear about what’s going to be discussed and what’s going to be recommended.”
During the meeting, Transportation Commission Vice-Chair Drew Magill maintained the position that Bel-Red Road is not a safe road to ride on. In an exchange with Councilmember Janice Zahn, he explained, “One of the biggest issues [is that] if we put a [bike] lane in that’s separated from cars, you still have every single intersection. You still have every ramp. That’s where most of the accidents occur. Safety is broader than LTS (Level of Traffic Stress)…There are over 70 driveways and intersections on Bel-Red Road in each direction. We would actually be encouraging people to use a roadway that is not [safe].”
He went on to add, “We all want better bike infrastructure. The question is where does it go and where is the safest place to put that infrastructure?”
Councilmember Nieuwenhuis, who is the Council’s liaison to the Transportation Commission, said, “Bel-Red is already feeling very congested and would only get dramatically more so if we removed a vehicular lane and added a bike lane…Rather than spending more funds on additional studies, I’d rather put that money toward completion of Spring Boulevard, which includes protected bike lanes and wide sidewalks.”
The City’s decision to overturn the recommendation of the Transportation Commission begs the question – after spending hundreds of thousands on the 358-page Bike Bellevue study, what will this additional study of Bel-Red Road accomplish?
Transportation Director Singelakis said that the study would look at acquisition (widening of the roadway) to accommodate bike lanes, but also added, “The repurposing of a travel lane is still out there – it would have to be evaluated as part of the alternatives…so that could potentially still be on the table.”
This is a remarkable statement about a project the majority of the public do not want. When residents were asked via a Bellevue Chamber survey if they would support or oppose a plan to reduce six miles of arterial roadways in Downtown Bellevue, Wilburton and Bel-Red from two lanes down to one to accommodate a dedicated bicycle lane – 69% said they opposed. This is not surprising, as traffic congestion relief remains a major issue of concern for Bellevue residents and workers, 70% of whom drive.
Cost is also a major issue – Bike Bellevue’s road diets would have cost over $18 million dollars to increase bicycle mode share by 0.1% percent. Of that $18 million – $8 million would be the cost for just Bel-Red Road. The scope of Bike Bellevue described as a small, rapid deployment project is $4.5 million for design and implementation of three priority projects by the end of 2024.
It’s worth nothing that in March of 2023, Council gave direction to staff to not affect other mobilities, to complete bike routes before taking on new routes, and to not build if a bike lane is perceived as safe but is not. A year later in March of 2024, Councilmembers again listened to what they heard from residents and businesses rather than special interests and people living outside of Bellevue – and said that removal of travel lanes to create bike lanes should be a “last resort.” This is the still the Council direction for Bike Bellevue.
However, last week, a couple Councilmembers expressed views that were a significant departure from their March comments – what happened in these five months and why did Council appear to politically maneuver around their own reasonable direction to staff?
Deputy Mayor Mo Malakoutian in March: “I agree that we should find a creative design solution that creates safe, protected bike lanes without needing to repurpose travel lanes… I completely agree that if possible removing traffic road lanes should be our last, last approach especially in Bel-Red – the amount of density that we are bringing there…I don’t even know how our current road capacity will manage that density… I agree that removing road lanes should be our last, last, last resort.”
Deputy Mayor Mo Malakoutian in August: “I was under the impression that the vision – the value of this body – has been to have a rapid implementation of a safe completed network of [bicycle lanes] for bikers and pedestrians…To me, “last resort” in your definition or your implementation of your recommendation is “there is no repurposing.” [Staff’s] interpretation of last resort is no repurposing any road capacity for bike infrastructure…and to me that not the definition of last resort…We should exhaust all options before repurposing a travel lane as a last resort…But again, we cannot just remove repurposing lanes whatsoever from all of our plans.”
Councilmember Dave Hamilton in March: I would like to see an option that doesn’t involve taking out any travel lanes. We should start with that. I would love to see funding and completion of Spring Blvd. prioritized. If we’re not taking out travel lanes, there’s no harm in trying [demonstrations]… I think it is time to take removing travel lanes out of the discussion. It’s a huge impediment to moving forward…In the short-term, we should not be considering removing travel lanes. I can’t imagine ever thinking it’s a good idea.”
Councilmember Dave Hamilton in August: “We want and need to build bike infrastructure in our city. And traveling to other cities, you see this all over the place. It’s not unique in Bellevue…We’ve been very clear that we want bike infrastructure. If we’re not building it, we’re not doing our jobs.”
The only councilmembers whose comments were consistent in terms of being against road diets and responding to the majority of residents were Councilmembers Nieuwenhuis and Lee.
Near the end of the meeting, Councilmember Lee once again spoke about limited resources, how adding bike lanes to Bel-Red Road would affect families and businesses who depend on a car to get around, and how important it is to listen and work together. He ended his comments by saying, “There are 150,000 people in the City of Bellevue. Listen to them.”
We agree. Bellevue residents need to keep making their voices heard and urging Council to oppose road diets citywide, and to add bike infrastructure next to travel lanes instead of in replacement of them. This approach reflects the balanced multimodal transportation network we all want to see in our community, adding transportation infrastructure in proportion to where there is actual demand and use for it.
Thank you again for all of your attention, engagement and efforts on this issue. Should bike lane projects on Bel-Red be selected for further “study” or a “temporary pilot project” (which we know is likely to be permanent), we will let you know. We must all continue to hold our City staff and Council accountable to be transparent and representative of their constituents who have to live with the impacts of these decisions.