‘Unacceptable’ traffic pattern scheduled for improvements

There’s only one signal, one road, and too many cars for drivers passing through Bainbridge Island, going to and from the Seattle-Bainbridge ferry.

Greg Mathers has no trouble getting to the ferry from Poulsbo in the morning; it’s a 20 minute trip. The way home is a different story. It takes him 90 minutes.

“Unacceptable,” he says of his daily frustration.

Bainbridge’s ferry terminal is near the center of the island. Commuters must enter onto the island at the north end by crossing the Agate Pass Bridge and traveling on SR 305.

Mathers blames the highway for not being able to handle the traffic, and the signal on the north end of the Agate Pass Bridge, which acts like a ramp meter &#8212 slowing drivers down coming off the island.

Claudia Bingham-Baker with the Washington State Department of Transportation says engineers studied the stretch of highway over the summer and found something interesting about the sight lines.

“They couldn’t see the signal until they made the curve in the road, so, consequently, drivers were looking at their cellphones, they were looking out the window, they were distracted, and they were taking quite a bit of time to get going to get through the signal,” Bingham-Baker said.

Drivers were leaving big gaps and the signal across the bridge at Suquamish Way would mistakenly switch to allow cross-traffic.

To fix that problem, Bingham-Baker says they added some time to the green light, as well as made other adjustments.

“We also put up a second signal head that was closer to Bainbridge Island that could be seen just around the corner,” she said. “So now, drivers approaching that intersection know before they actually reach the signal whether the signal is red or green.”

The changes are keeping speeds up and dropping travel times. Travel times have dropped by 13 minutes.

And those aren’t the only changes coming.

“We will be out there building a right turn lane from northbound [State Route] 305 to Suquamish Way,” Bingham-Baker said. “So people that are trying to turn right and get out of that traffic and not have to go through that intersection will have a right turn pocket when we’re done with that job.”

The turn lane is scheduled to be built next summer. Over the next eight years, the state will invest nearly $37 million into other improvements to SR 305.

Included in that funding will be a study on widening the road and potentially building a new bridge. The current bridge is 65 years old.

Bainbridge Island residents have been reluctant to support a widening of the highway. They don’t like the potential traffic impacts or the loss of trees that line the highway. There has never been a vote on the idea, but the city plans to reach out to its residents next year for input.