Transportation Committee

Councilmember Kevin Stoltz invited to be a second alternate and attend this week’s Council Transportation Committee. What a hard working group! We talked about which roads the public works department expects to apply chip seal to this summer (Beverly Park Road and Harbour Pt Blvd in front of Kamiak, generally), parking on the waterfront, and improvements WSFerries plans to do at the Front Street/525 intersection at the ferry.
The state Department of Transportation is working with our staff on designing the traffic signals for the Front Street and 525 intersection. The goal is to install some signals for pedestrians, so that intersection can be safer for them. However, the mechanics of the intersection, including ferry offloading (and loading), the regular traffic movement and pedestrians, is complicated. Just remember when the lights go in—DOT engineers, city engineers, and also some councilmembers spent a lot of time thinking about how it might work. This issue will be discussed more by the entire council at our April 5th meeting.
We also discussed parking on the waterfront and in the downtown. Staff should be presenting new strategies in early May, I think. I felt like the plan we have now is coming together and can really work. Whidbey Island commuters will obviously be troubled, but Mukilteans should enjoy more parking at Lighthouse Park during the busy weekend hours and early evening hours (when commuter parking and park user parking would most conflict). There should be more parking available during Mukilteo Farmers’ Market, as well as Waterfront Wednesdays in general. This topic will be discussed more by the full council at our May 3rd meeting.
Remember, the best way to get to the waterfront is on the Community Transit 113 bus, running every twenty minutes, for $1.50.