At a voter’s forum at the Mercer Island Beach Club on Sept. 15, candidates Jane Brahm, Dave Wisenteiner, Bruce Bassett and Tom Acker were asked about everything from Planned Parenthood to the Growth Management Act. But most of the questions centered around transportation, and how Islanders can have access to a regional transit system without taking on a disproportional burden.

Islanders are concerned that the bus intercept concept, rejected by the City Council in May, will still come to fruition and that they won’t have access to I-90 HOV lanes or to the light rail system planned for operation in 2023. Sound Transit is doing a “listening tour” to hear about these concerns and others, starting with a public meeting at 5 p.m. on Sept. 24 at the Community and Event Center.

Wisenteiner said that the Island needs to fight against transit-oriented development that will increase density and demand for transit, and that the bus intercept is “crazy” and “putting the region before Islanders is an equation that doesn’t work.”

“We need to ensure bus capacity or parking,” he said. “We need to make it easier for people to park their cars, or preferably leave their cars at home.”

Brahm said that with the bus cuts, she would look to pilot programs like the new Mercer Island commuter shuttle to get people to the Park and Ride, and future light rail station.

“The train will be of little use to the people on the south end if they can’t get to the Park and Ride, or can’t park,” Brahm said.

Brahm also said that the city relies on its regional partners, and that it has to be at the negotiating table as these issues are discussed.

Bassett said that he would use the “strong relationships with regional leaders” he has cultivated during his tenure as mayor.

“It’s naive to think we will succeed by demanding to get our way,” he said. “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

He noted that “parking will be a key part of our negotiations with Sound Transit,” and that the city brought outside consultants on board to help with those discussions.

Acker said that he has been working for months on a way to get the current Park and Ride on North Mercer Way designated for Islanders only. He said he would look at creative solutions and accomplish them with tough negotiations, in which he said he has extensive experience.

Acker founded the Save Our Suburbs (SOS) community group, and said that he doesn’t want to see the Mercer Island community change as much as Old Main in Bellevue has, with mixed-use development and five-story buildings.

State Rep. Judy Clibborn, guest speaker at the Sept. 10 Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce luncheon, said, “nobody likes change… but we need to have access.”

She suggested either increased bus service or parking, “otherwise light rail is just for everybody else who comes through town.”

Clibborn, a Mercer Island resident and Chair of the House Transportation Committee, said that the 1976 Memorandum of Agreement that gave Islanders access to the HOV express lanes to and from Seattle was “never intended to be in perpetuity,” noting that Mercer Island would be “kicked out” if speeds in the center lanes dropped below 45 miles per hour.

Bassett said that 58 percent of Islanders voted for light rail, so it’s too late to fight it.

“Our time is far better spent trying to figure out how to make it work for us,” he said.

Bassett wrote a letter to Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Secretary Lynn Peterson on Sept. 17 about the closure of the I-90 center roadway.

“One could easily see how a critical measure would involve an increase in commuter parking on Mercer Island that would be available for use by Islanders,” he wrote.

The Council was concerned that WSDOT representatives did not anticipate substantive meetings on mitigation until early 2016, though “planning for this work should have begun years ago.” Mitigation “may require the expenditure of both capital and operating funds,” he wrote.

For more, see the city’s center roadway (“R8A”) webpage.

Upcoming voter’s forums

Public:

– Mercer Island Reporter/League of Women Voters:

Oct. 14 All candidates  (7 p.m.)

-School District legislative advocacy group:

Oct. 26 All candidates

Private:

-Mercer Island Rotary:

Oct. 6 Bill Hochberg and Bruce Bassett (noon)

Oct. 20 Tracy Drinkwater and Debbie Bertlin (noon)

*Jane Brahm, Wendy Weiker, Salim Nice and Tom Acker already spoke. Traci Granbois and Dave Wisenteiner spoke on Sept. 22, after the Reporter deadline.

-Beach Club:

Sept. 28 Wendy Weiker and Salim Nice (7 p.m.)

Oct. 13 Traci Granbois and Debbie Bertlin

(8 p.m.)

Oct. 27 Bill Hochberg and Tracy Drinkwater (7 p.m.)

*Jane Brahm, Dave Wisenteiner, Tom Acker and Bruce Bassett already spoke.

-Chamber of Commerce:

Oct. 1 All City Council

candidates (noon)