Wow! On a Wednesday morning over 90 residents, business owners, Chamber of Commerce representatives, city staff, and others joined Mayor Dean Maxwell, Representative Kristine Lytton, Anacortes City Councilmembers, representatives from the Samish Indian Nation to welcome Congressman Rick Larsen to the Guemes Channel Trail.
Over 90 attended the Guemes Channel Trail site visit with Congressman Rick Larsen
Congressman Larsen was invited to the Trail to learn about its benefits for transportation connectivity, tourism, and recreation. He heard from community, civic, and business leaders about their strong work to-date (including a recent $700,000 appropriation in the state capital budget) and what still is needed to “complete the dream” linking the San Juan Ferry Dock to downtown Anacortes (bypassing the narrow-shouldered SR 20) and the Tommy Thompson Trail. Guemes Channel Trail also represents the western terminus of US Bicycle Route 10, which Bicycle Alliance is currently mapping out across northern Washington state.
Washingtonians want trail projects that connect people places, grow economies, and improve safety. As Anacortes Parks Foundation Trustee and co-chair of the Guemes Channel Trail Committee Michele Pope remarked, “people don’t ask if this project should happen, they want to know when we will get it done.”
In his remarks Congressman Larsen expressed his appreciation for the attendees at the Guemes Channel Trail site visit noting that it’s much easier to lead when such strong support for a project exists.
Beautiful day on the beautiful Guemes Channel Trail in #Anacortes. @BikeWA pic.twitter.com/uJ9qNu5v1a
— Rep. Rick Larsen (@RepRickLarsen) August 28, 2013
We couldn’t agree more. Over the past week at site visits in Anacortes and Vancouver almost 170 people have joined Bicycle Alliance, elected leaders, business owners and other neighborhood and civic leaders to say they want transportation investments that:
- grow local economies
- connect people and places to where they want to go
- improve safety
- support new family-friendly recreational opportunities
Bicycle Alliance is excited to help work statewide to connect to our elected leaders to neighbors, mayors, and advocates who want projects that improve biking and walking across Washington state. Join us!
Trail supporters join Rep. Larsen on the Guemes Channel Trail
4 Comments
Just cycled from Seattle to Anacortes last week. The Tommy Thompson trail after the high rise of the SR 20 bridge is one of the most spectacular entries into a city that I have encountered. But the current trail ends a couple blocks from the city center in a very uninspiring way. It’s a great regional amenity and if it could be extended to the west side of the city, it would be a real gem!
We’re looking forward to the full experience when it’s done. Bicycling and walking right along the edge of the bay is just beautiful. You can go to where some of the trail has been constructed by a developer (there are gaps on both ends right now so you have to enter from the neighborhood) and get a feeling for what it will be like.
Whatcom and Skagit counties have beautiful places to ride and tour on bikes yet we have little to none bike lanes. Build them and tourists will come to enjoy our beautiful scenery, learn about our great farming communities and spend money doing so. What are we waiting for? Why are we being so stupid? This is easy, I suggest dedicated, smooth not chip sealed bike lanes that are safe and easy to ride on. Separate lanes would be better and once done will need little upkeep since bicycles have little to no impact on roads like cars and trucks. Just saying, build them and people will come. thanks 🙂
We’re with you!
(and if it has to be chip seal for a while, at least let it be tiny pieces of gravel, not those big bumpy chunks!)