The Bainbridge Island Sustainable Transportation Plan will define our mobility future.

There are many challenges and changes facing us, and they require creative approaches and big ideas. We are at a pivotal moment in time. We are facing a global pandemic, a rapidly warming climate, new and expanding technologies, and a growing population with changing mobility needs. We must move more people in more sustainable ways within the same amount of space. COVID-19 has changed where we go and how we move—we will adapt to these changes and let our values guide our recovery.

Guided by analysis and your input, we will chart the course to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, improve transportation safety, expand mobility options, and enhance the overall experience of getting around the island—whether you call Bainbridge Island home, commute here for work, or are just visiting.

We must act quickly and decisively to achieve our goals, building on the strong foundation set by past Island-wide transportation and land use planning efforts. This means using insights, underpinned by our values and data, to prioritize investments and maintain our mobility system to best meet the needs of our current and future residents.

The Sustainable Transportation Plan will include:

• New visions for sustainable mobility on Bainbridge Island
• Project goals, performance measures and an evaluation framework
• Engagement plan and summary
• Previous plan and project inventory
• Gap analysis to understand where there are unmet needs and opportunites for improvement in our transportation system
• Packages of priority projects, programs, and policies aligned with unmet needs and project goals
• Near-term action plan focused on the first five years documenting the recommended priority projects, programs and policies based on public input
• Funding and implementation plan including planning-level costs, funding sources, and phasing for the recommended scenario over the first five years

Some examples of the analysis we'll use to develop the plan include:

• Equity analysis to understand potential mobility barriers or disproportionate burdens some people experience
• Safety analysis focusing on collisions involving people walking and bicycling
• Review of travel patterns and commute trips by mode, including changes as a result of COVID-19
• Travel demand index based on current and future land uses
• First/last mile connections to transit
• Transit ridership, services, and new mobility opportunities
• Bicycle level of traffic stress and pedestrian level of comfort

The City Council will use the near-term action plan to guide and fund the development of priority projects, program, and policies in coordination with other important City goals.

The Sustainable Transportation Task Force, created and appointed by the City Council, is comprised of 21 volunteers who will meet regularly throughout the project. The task force represents a cross-section of the community and will guide development of the Sustainable Transportation Plan. The role of the Task Force is to provide advice, local expertise, and unique perspectives; review ongoing work; provide input and recommendations to the plan; advocate for the Sustainable Transportation Plan outcomes; and network between meetings to engage others in the planning process.

The Technical Advisory Team, convened by the City, is comprised of the following departmental and agency representatives with an interest or role in transportation planning on Bainbridge Island: City of Bainbridge Island Departments including Planning, Public Works, Communications, and the Planning Commission; Bainbridge Island Metro Park & Recreation District; Bainbridge Island School District; Washington State Department of Transportation; Washington State Ferries; Kitsap Transit; and Puget Sound Energy. The Technical Advisory Team’s role is to review technical analysis and advise the City throughout development of the Sustainable Transportation Plan.

The consultant team, Nelson\Nygaard and EnviroIssues, will inventory Bainbridge Island’s transportation planning efforts and projects identified to date, building upon the extensive planning and engagement completed by the City and Bainbridge Island community members in the recent past. The team will document existing conditions, including island-wide travel patterns, current and planned networks and facilities, multimodal performance, and current and future land use characteristics.

After working with the broader Bainbridge Island community to confirm our mobility vision and guiding values in summer 2020, the consultant team will analyze the planned transportation networks and projects for alignment with the Island’s mobility vision and values. This technical analysis may highlight gaps, unmet needs, or opportunities for improvement that additional projects, programs, and policies could address to further our goals. We will bring these potential projects, programs, and policies to you for feedback during a second phase of outreach in winter 2021.