TRAFFIC!

~ jenniferknaplund

If you ask just about anyone in Duvall what they are most concerned about, you will hear complaints about traffic and lengthening commute times. With so many factors contributing to our congestion and commute struggles, a single strategy is not going to solve this complex problem. As a community, we are going to have to attack from many angles and be persistent in our efforts. Here are some of my ideas followed by more detailed descriptions:

  1. I will work to ensure our growth stays within the assigned growth targets and not risk losing funding for transportation improvements
  2. Encourage telecommuting, co-working facilities, satellite locations and local employment opportunities to reduce the number of vehicles that must travel our commute routes
  3. Demand safety improvements along our commute routes
  4. Request better coordination of construction impacts
  5. Reduce congestion within the City of Duvall
  6. Advocate for Duvall at the State and County level to address transportation deficiencies that require county and regional planning and solutions
  7. Work to develop a feasible plan and funding for raising 124th road to eliminate flood closures
  8. Increase access to both public and employer sponsored transit for valley residents and encourage ridership
  9. Ensure traffic lights in the surrounding areas work efficiently
  10. Require traffic models to accurately represent potential impacts from housing and commercial business growth
  11. Work with citizen groups to explore solutions and to encourage advocacy, drawing attention to the transportation needs of valley residents and to secure funding.

 

  1. I will work to ensure our growth stays within the assigned targets and not risk losing funding for transportation improvements. Our commute routes are getting more and more congested by the day. City leadership needs to consider how its enthusiasm for dense housing and annexations is contributing to the problem.  Puget Sound Regional Council has rejected Duvall’s 20-year Comprehensive Plan due to planned growth exceeding the assigned King County growth targets. Take a look at this article for more information: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/eastside/regional-council-warns-5-king-county-towns-theyre-growing-too-fast/. “The council has told the cities they must revise the growth and employment forecasts in their comprehensive plans or risk losing a share of the $700 million in federal transportation funds the agency will administer over three years”. I believe our current leadership is ignoring the reality that our city’s growth policies will contribute to worsening traffic. More details can be found here: https://jennifer4duvall.com/2017/07/10/growth/
  2. Encourage telecommuting, co-working facilities, satellite locations and local employment opportunities to reduce the number of vehicles that must travel our commute routes. For remote work arrangements to be feasible, I will make it a priority to ensure access to fast AND dependable internet for those residing within city limits and the surrounding areas. In addition, our leadership should be in communication with regional employers to advocate for flexible schedules, telecommuting and explore locating small satellite or co-working facilities within our City. It is also important to ensure policies are in place to encourage employment opportunities within Duvall, allowing residents to work and live in closer proximity. These initiatives would also be a boost to our economy with more residents remaining in Duvall to patronize local businesses during the daytime.
  3. Demand safety improvements along our commute routes. At the Transportation Town Hall, sponsored by Duvall, several elected officials from the State and County attended and shared that there are no planned capacity expansions to our commute routes, and in fact, expansion is not even feasible. With the increased congestion on the roads leading in and out of Duvall, there is greater and greater risk for major accidents that either slow or block traffic completely. In addition, the impact to the commute due to a collision along these routes has intensified. What used to be a frustrating detour to avoid a slowed/blocked roadway is now an hours long backup to re-route to another clogged road. It feels like it has become a weekly occurrence for a major accident to take place on one of our roadways and unfortunately we had many days recently where concurrent accidents impacted multiple commute routes resulting in complete gridlock. Some possible safety improvements could be enacting a weight limit on the Novelty curves, ensuring better sight lines along Woodinville-Duvall for hidden driveways, adding turn lanes to sections of the roadway and at key intersections (such as West Snoqualmie and 124th and Woodinville-Duvall at West Snoqualmie), etc. Many of these safety improvements would have the added benefit of improving traffic flow. I will work with King County and the surrounding jurisdictions to advocate for improved safety.
  4. Request better coordination of construction impacts. Recently our commute routes were each faced with multiple day closures. I believe closures were planned for Woodinville-Duvall, Novelty, Main/203 and Union Hill, all at the same time. Our community was outraged and spoke up in force. Fortunately adjustments were made and one of the closures was delayed. It was shocking to many that this conflict was not discovered by those planning the closures. Why did it take our community members to point out the obvious that this many closures all at once was unacceptable and irresponsible? I understand that the summer construction season is limited and scheduling is tricky, but more can be done to coordinate these projects and I will advocate for better planning.
  5. Reduce congestion within the City of Duvall. I propose a capacity increase to the intersection of Main/203 and Woodinville Duvall Road. This intersection is often the bottleneck of congestion in our city with traffic backing up in all directions. Specifically, widening the Woodinville-Duvall Bridge as it enters Duvall to allow a turn lane and also create a safe turning radius for the trucks that often get stuck as they make the turn onto the bridge. Additional turn lane capacity in all directions would increase flow since those waiting to turn often impede flow for vehicles intending to go straight or turn in another direction.
  6. Advocate for Duvall at the State and County level to address transportation deficiencies that require county and regional planning and solutions. Significant population growth has occurred and is continuing to occur in areas that directly impact our congestion and commute times. The construction of Redmond Ridge/Trilogy is just one example. Another example is the growth in Snohomish County. Solutions must be sought, planned for and funded at the regional level and I will ensure Duvall has a voice in these efforts.
  7. Work to develop a feasible plan and funding for raising 124th road to eliminate flood closures. There has been much talk about why this road was not raised more during the construction of the “new” 124th bridge. The bottom line is that if the road was raised sufficiently to withstand flooding, it would, in effect, become a dam and increase upstream flooding. Any projects that occur in the valley are required to have “zero-rise” effect on the flood levels, so any proposed construction on 124th across the valley will have to be designed with that in mind. The Snoqualmie Farm, Fish, Flood Advisory committee is working to develop a concept for elevating 124th, possibly using a trestle style roadway that would allow floodwaters to continue to flow downstream. I will support this effort and encourage continued participation in this committee by both staff and council. Currently the city’s director of planning, Lara Thomas and councilmember Jason Walker are members of this committee.
  8. Increase access to both public and employer sponsored transit for valley residents and encourage ridership. I will advocate for increased transit options with input from the community. Current routes have limited pickup times and often require time consuming transfers to get to employment centers. I want to ensure our community has transit options that are convenient and viable to encourage ridership. It may also be helpful to explore ideas such as employer sponsored incentives to increase usage.
  9. Ensure traffic lights in the surrounding areas work efficiently. I have heard many complaints, especially about the intersection at 124th and West Snoqualmie Road, that poor timing of traffic lights are significantly exacerbating commute backups. Attention should be given to these intersections and our city leadership should be advocating for improvements.
  10. Require traffic models to accurately represent potential impacts from housing and commercial business growth. There is significant concern that our traffic models are underestimating the impacts of growth. Specifically, our traffic models are projecting each new house will only add one “trip” during the peak PM hour. This is the national average and does not take into account the large and busy households that are typical in Duvall. In addition, it is my understanding that the model is disregarding the impact of commercial growth by lumping multiple trips into one, concluding that most visits to local businesses are on the way home from work, so they will not impact traffic. Finally, the traffic model is not fully counting the number of homes that will likely be constructed by applying a factor of 45% to significant areas of developable land. Our leadership is making decision on housing annexations based on this traffic model discounting potential new homes. Of course, once these areas are annexed, the full count of homes will be added to the traffic model, but by that time we will be committed to allowing these area to be densely developed. I want to ensure our traffic models accurately predict impacts to ensure leadership decisions are based on realistic information and developer fees cover the actual cost of growth.
  11. Work with citizen groups to explore solutions and to encourage advocacy, drawing attention to the transportation needs of valley residents and to secure funding. Many of the transportation improvement projects are outside city limits and/or will require funding from outside sources. Citizen involvement will be critical to direct focus onto the transportation issues facing Duvall. When planning and funding decisions are being made at the state and county level, I will ensure citizens are alerted and given the opportunity to advocate for our community.

I realize this is an ambitious list of objectives. Our traffic struggles are growing every day as we build more and more houses. Our leadership must be proactive to attack this problem from all angles. I would love to hear your thoughts and any additional ideas.

Published by jenniferknaplund