By Wendy Giroux

Bicyclists, drivers and walkers have long had to share the Island’s beautiful but narrow and curvy roads, leading often to frustration and sometimes to accidents.

City staff, council members and community members met last Monday night to talk about roads, safety and interaction between the three modes of transportation. The council had asked staff members to put together a presentation about the Island’s infrastructure and accident history related to bicycles, pedestrians and cars.

Mayor Alan Merkle said he believes most bicyclists, pedestrians and drivers are responsible and polite and that “a few bad apples do ruin the whole bunch.” The council has discussed pedestrian, bicycle and car woes many, many times before, Merkle said.

“Issues are building, and we need to find the best way to stay safe and accommodate everyone’s needs on the Island,” he said. “I think there is a lot to gain from understanding what the rules are, getting the word out and doing some enforcement.”

In preparation for last week’s meeting, police representatives teamed up with the city engineer, the maintenance director and the development director to discuss the problem and brainstorm solutions. That team proposed possible solutions to the Public Safety Committee, which then passed on its recommendations to the full council.

In the past six years, there have been 26 pedestrian vs. vehicle accidents: four in 1999, four in 2000, five in 2001, five in 2002, two in 2003 and six in 2004, police records show.

Those accidents seem to most often occur at intersections when drivers don’t see pedestrians, between intersections when pedestrians try to cross the street and when pedestrians walk on the wrong side of the street and don’t see the oncoming traffic. The pedestrian vs. vehicle accidents appear to occur primarily in the Town Center and along Island Crest Way, while bicycle vs. vehicle accidents are mostly along the Mercer Ways.

In the past six years, there have been 31 bicycle vs. vehicle accidents: three in 1999, one in 2000, four in 2001, 11 in 2002, seven in 2003 and five in 2004, according to police records.

“While Mercer Island accident rates remain fairly constant and compare quite favorably with other Eastside cities, there is still a desire to address this issue in an effort to improve overall safety on our roadways,” Public Safety Director Ron Elsoe wrote in a memo to the council.

To address the issues and try to increase safety, the city uses the following “tools,” Elsoe said: traffic and bike enforcement, traffic code changes, signs, public information, maintenance, engineering and planning.

Members of the Public Safety Committee recommended that the council consider increasing enforcement of existing laws, consider requiring bicyclists to ride single-file (state law allows them to ride two abreast), an increased emphasis on public education and additional signs.

Council members discussed at length, various options and whether they would be effective, too expensive or impossible to enforce.

One of the issues, Councilman El Jahncke pointed out, is that the city has no real control over residents’ actions.

“We get pedestrians walking along the Mercers at night — it may be stupid, but they have a legal right to do so,” Jahncke said.

He also talked about priorities for the police department and where on the list of priorities enforcement of new traffic ordinances would fit.

“Clearly, the priority is protecting Mercer Island from the bad guys,” Jahncke said.

The council talked for some time about the issue of off-Island bike clubs that come to ride on the Island in packs on weekends and sometimes on weekdays, and whether a single-file ordinance would help or hinder matters. Having bicycle clubs ride single file might make matters worse since the line of cyclists would stretch out for so long, councilmen said.

“I think we’re just adding more and more rules and regulations, and sometimes I don’t think we even know what ordinances are on our books,” Councilman Sven Goldmanis said.

Councilman Jim Pearman asked that before any new ordinances are considered, the city spend some time meeting with leaders from the bicycle community to see if they have good suggestions for solutions.

The mayor asked city staff to meet with bicyclists, review the council’s discussions and come back on April 4 with a follow-up report.