Sammamish Retreat 2017.
A request for proposal for a consultant to create a Transportation Management Plan (TMP) for Sammamish was green-lighted Saturday at the annual retreat.
A TMP for a 20-30 year vision will be a first for the City.
This differs from the Six Year Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP), a legal requirement under state law for projects needed for growth and traffic concurrency standards.
It will include connectivity, sidewalks, bike lanes, the possibility of new east-west and north-south routes.
Coordination with Redmond, Issaquah, King County, the State and Sound Transit will also be examined.
Looking beyond growth
“The vast majority of projects that the city has spent on roads are growth-related,” said John Cunningham, a traffic consultant to the City. He was the Public Works director for many years until his retirement.
“There are other projects you want to get done: connectivity, sidewalks, bike lanes. Sahalee Way is a concurrency-related project. You have to do that project. You’ve been trying to find ways around doing that project for a year or more. The only way to do that is to change your level of service. This Master Plan is the place to do that,” he said.
“We want an integrated, holistic look,” said Council Member Ramiro Valderrama. “When we talk concurrency, we’re not talking about more through-put. There are transit solutions and safety.
“A real concern I have is we’re an island. We don’t want to improve our roads and rush down to the borders and stop. We need to be able to deal with the state, Redmond, Issaquah and the County,” he said.
Sammamish Comment 
i vote NO on bike lanes unless they can be funded with bike licenses.
John Vasko
I vote NO on Utilities in the streets unless they can be funded with a Utility Tax.
Not really comparable. Rate payers pay PSE/Comcast/etc who pay to have the work done. So long as the permit is priced properly, the city shouldn’t be footing any of the bill. The city, on the other hand, pays for bike lanes. I suppose if you do not want electricity, you can get around having to pay for utility infrastructure.
Generally I am not a fan of bike lanes because they remove the shoulder along the road which makes it difficult to swerve to avoid accidents, get around disabled vehicles, and the like. It also becomes awkward on trash day when cans are set out in that area and cyclists have to dodge them. I’d also argue that the bang-for-the-buck in a city like Sammamish is dubious at best. Seattle invested heavily in bike lanes, has more bike friendly destinations, and still isn’t seeing usage to the point where it makes sense. The plateau is not even comparable in that there are few bike friendly destinations and the elevation gain to get here from anywhere but Sammamish whittles down the target audience considerably.
I am a bigger fan of an appropriately sized sidewalk which can accommodate both pedestrian and bicyclists, similar to what is along the east side of 228th. Given the fiscal situation the city is in, I’d rather see the money spent on sidewalks than on bike lanes, personally.