Getting Active

My letter to the mayor pro tem, one of my neighbors.

Hello Mr. Watkins,

You may remember me from the tree planting ceremony we had at liberty park last spring. I'm just up the street from you, about a block.

I'm writing to let you know some of my frustrations recently with local transportation issues. With gas at 3.70 a gallon and all of the environmental concerns out there, my family has sought alternate means of transportation to reduce our fuel use. It's good for the pocket book, and it's easier for me to teach conservation to the Camp Fire kids when I try to practice it.

We're walking the kids to and from school now and my husband is able to catch an intercity bus that takes him to Battelle. After work he rides his bike home quite easily on Richland's great bike paths. These have been simple changes for the family to make. But, as I look towards a busy summer with the kids and running normal household errands (groceries, bank, etc), I have found that getting around Pasco without a vehicle is quite challenging. It is a mile to the nearest bus stop, and that bus takes me straight into the center of Richland. If I want to take the family swimming at Richland pool and go shopping at Richland stores, no sweat, 15 minutes and I'm in downtown Richland. There is virtually no local bus service, within a reasonable distance, that goes to activities or stores in Pasco.

I rode my trailer bike with two kids in it to the gym next to TRAC for my sons hour long gymnastics class. The route is way out of the way, and very dangerous. Shoulders are small or non existent. I wish there was a safer way for us to get to this activity.

I'm concerned that we have hundreds of new houses out here, jam packed with young families and there is no way for kids to get into civic areas for swimming or library time and adults have no easy access to stores 3 miles away on Rd 68. We have a new high school going in, with gas prices rising more high schoolers are opting out of owning a vehicle, yet there is no safe walkway or reliable transit system for alternate methods of getting to school.

Is Chappel Hill going to go through to Rd. 68? When?
Are there hopes to get better transit access in our neighborhood? (I've written BFT and they have said no)
The North side of the highway has a bike/walk path to rd 68, are there plans for one on our side?
Are there plans for a safe walk way, sidewalk to go down Rd 84 to Ruth Livingston? I can walk my kids to school, but it is very scary... especially since there is not even a shoulder in some places.

I don't mean for this to be an angry letter. I'm sorry if it came off that way. I am frustrated with the situation. I hope that with such a large, young community, there are plans to make walking/riding the bus in Pasco easier in the future.

Thank you so much,

His response...

Erin,

Lots of small cans of worms in there.

First, I'm going to take your e-mail to a BFT board meeting with me. I'm Pasco's rep and think Lovissa is under served at present. The goal of transit in our urban areas is service with 1/2 mile (IIRC) and as Lovissa is built out I think we're behind that benchmark. I think practically speaking route rearrangement would coincide with the high school going online next and would expect more service via 84 and Chapel Hill....and will push for that.

BTW, one can catch a bus currently that's westward bound at 84 and Argent...not just the one that goes to Richland.

Yes Chapel Hill will connect with Road 68 when that chunk of farmland ends up being developed. As it's still owned by DNR (state agency) it's probably another 5 or 10 years out...especially since growth has slowed, but it will end up connecting. Cities don't build roads like this just to connect things.....they become parts of development paid by the people doing the developing. It's part of the sustainable growth thing....you and I paid $350 in our homes to pay for our share of Chapel Hill and part of that streetlight as an example.

As the high school goes in there would be sidewalks on the east side of the street to be sure. As that area borders county there's a legitimate question as to whether Pasco taxpayers should subsidized older building developments that didn't do sidewalks when they were built.

The reason this sloppy inconsistency by the way, is because of different county and city standards. Where you and I wanted a street light and a sidewalk...and paid for it when we bought our house through the overall cost....some people develop in the county knowing full well they aren't paying for those amentities. Then when they join the city and complain they want sidewalks and lights I think that's not very fair. I have a little heartburn and think our doughnut hole should have to to build to city standards and been trying to get the county to adopt urban county standards for the south end of the county....but they resist. When you see Corkrum on your ballot this year....well....do your homework. ;)

However, on "arterials" like Argent is becoming we may end up putting a sidewalk. I would expect Argent east of 84 to be developed first to standards similar to Court Street between 68 and 84.

As for bicycle trails we adopted an overall plan just recently noting we tend to have fairly good east to west routes, but not very good on the north to south thing. As we do new development we will end up making bicycles one of the checkmarks of processes to say, "Can we reasonably accommodate bicycles without undue expense?" and add accordingly. It would probably be fair to say that we became more bike tolerant with that plan, however, to become a truly bicycle friendly city would take several decades and a lot of committment by organized bicyclists.

Unfortunately, $4 a gallon gas in the recent past conflicts with what has been desired with a large set of single family medium density housing for the past 50 years and some assumptions for the next decade. People wanted yards and sprawl and that conflicts with being able to run cost-effective mass transit.

Clearly, the pendulum is shifting and we'll adjust accordingly. I'll push for bus routes flanking the subdivision and you'll need to get more bicyclists to demand more in the way of consideration. ;)

I hope this helps a bit.

Matt