The city conducted a combined meeting of Lakeview and Central Houghton neighborhoods on May 25 at which transportation representatives from Metro, the transportation commission, and the city’s Transportation Engineer Manager David Godfrey presented information on how the expansion of SR-520 will impact Kirkland. During his opening remarks, Mr. Godfrey and the other speakers said it would benefit Kirkland. I asked how.

Many more cars will find easier access to the south Kirkland’s Park & Ride. There, the benefit stops. Since Kirkland’s council has refused to add capacity to its transportation grid system to handle the added traffic, congestion will increase. The bottle neck of getting through Kirkland using Lake Washington Boulevard and 108th Avenue N.E. will increase congestion, create greater traffic jams and cause through traffic to use residential side streets to get home.

Mr. Godfrey acknowledged the council does not want to add capacity. That only leads to one conclusion – the council will cause the quality of life in Kirkland to decrease. As Mr. Ray Steiger, the city’s Public Works director said, if you think congestion is bad now, just wait until Kirkland’s build out plans are completed.

The plans to expand SR-520 will benefit Kirkland only if cars can find their way through Kirkland. Most of the traffic from the South Kirkland Park & Ride goes north. More traffic from SR-520 doesn’t help. SR-520 expansion is funded. Regional transportation planning is preempting local neighborhoods. What will this council do? Will they protect neighborhoods? Will they agree to regional plans? We wouldn’t have long to wait. In the mean time, it doesn’t look good for our quality of life in Kirkland.

Robert Style is a long-time Kirkland resident.