The Point Roberts Community Advisory Committee had its best turnout since its creation when over 20 community members came to weigh in on transportation priorities for Point Roberts.

“You’ve gotten a lot of good input tonight,” said Whatcom County Public Works director Frank Abart at the August 17 committee meeting. “What I need now is to get the committee to get some focus and hopefully a plan.”

The committee has been asked to condense community priorities and come up with recommendations for how the county should spend gas-tax revenues from Point Roberts, which need to be used specifically for transportation improvements.
Most who attended the meeting felt the top priority was improving safety for pedestrians, cyclists and riders who share the roads with cars. “Benson Road is so narrow,” said Margaret Moras. “It really needs to be wider to be safe.”

“With added development on the Point we’re going to see more foot traffic,” added Shelley Damewood. Moras and Damewood said they would like to see ditches covered in high traffic locations to make more room for pedestrians and cyclists.

In addition to Benson Road, audience members identified APA Road and Goodman Road (the road leading down to Maple Beach at Johnson and Boundary Bay roads) as areas that had heavy use by pedestrians and cyclists and not enough room for them to safely share the road with vehicles. “At a minimum it really needs some traffic calming and ideally there would be a path,” said Sonya Liu.

Abart said if bike and pedestrian paths were the priority, the first step would be to come up with a plan for where to put them. Judson Meraw came to the meeting with his plan already drawn up. “A bicycle transportation network could start with the simplest things,” he said.

His proposal is to start by marking existing lanes such as the ones along Tyee Drive and Gulf Road, connecting those with bike route signs along roadways connecting the four corners of the Point. This simple network could be slowly improved with “greenway paths” along utility easements and easements obtained from private property owners and the addition of bike racks in key locations. He is also proposing a “loaner bike” program so visitors could walk across the border or come into the marina and hop on a bike to explore the community.

Meraw’s proposal drew applause from the audience and committee member Marco Aurilio said he thought the proposal was “a dead ringer for a grant.”

Committee chairman Arthur Reber said the committee would come up with a list of what they had identified as community priorities from input they had received and then ask the community to weigh in again. “We will get feedback about your priorities, get a plan and send that out,” he said.