I am a resident of Redmond and have been since 1973. I have seen this go from a town to a city. I am disgusted with the City of Redmond Planning Commission. Even though I know there is change that will happen, I am not happy about…I can deal with it or move. I am back in my hometown because of personal reasons with my family. This most recent construction of the lanes for Education Hill are one word: absurd.
The bike lane going down the hill is OK, until you get to that Northeast 85th Street. Who in their right mind drew up that plan, and better yet, who agreed to it? I have a small car but, unless I trade that in and get a MINI Cooper, a bicycle, moped or one of those joke cars they call a “smart car,” you cannot fit into this right-hand turn lane. I feel bad for a bicyclist and a 150-ton truck taking a right-hand turn.
When I went up the hill, I noticed those barrier areas, which I presume will in time have plants and/or flowers in them…but what about the traffic that needs to turn left (like at Northeast 91st Street)? If you want to take a left onto that street and get the apartments or church on that road, you would have to slow down to a crawl to fit into that turn space and you would be slowing down the main traffic to do so. I saw several areas where they are too small to get into or have those diagonal lines in them, and unless you have the above-sized vehicle, you are out of luck. Some of the side streets (to turn onto 166th Avenue Northeast — the main road) don’t even give a driver a right/left lane to pull into and wait for an opening to pull out onto 166th; now they will still have to wait for the opening from both sides of the road to take a left.
I beg the City of Redmond Planning Commission to find some new planners as I think the ones we have need a little more experience. Better yet, why don’t you utilize the help of residents who actually live in the area and hold a meeting so all residents know what will happen and they can actually suggest better scenarios of the traffic revision? Maybe then, as Sept. 12 Redmond Reporter letter writer Barbara Thompson suggested, it will get done right — the first time!
Dianna Jenkins, Redmond
