Washington State Ferries may or may not continue its long-standing tradition of hearing North Kitsap residents without really listening to what they have say tonight. The state agency will host a meeting at 6 p.m. at the Kingston Yacht Club to get input on its long-range plans for service here in North Kitsap.

Growth is coming and with it, increased ridership, WSF reasons. And rightly so.

Yet it seems much of the plan revolves around lessening the burden on poor old Bainbridge Island and rerouting those cars to good old Kingston. (Possibly because the Island balks at suggestions to four-lane State Route 305 there?)

We wonder if WSF’s projections of traffic growing 89 percent by 2030 at Kingston’s terminal were done correctly. Is that statistic taking into account traffic before Kingston takes the load off Winslow or after?

Adding more and larger boats at Kingston will certainly lessen lines at the dock but what of traffic on State Route 104? The growing herds of vehicles will have more food than ever on which to graze and flourish here, making it more and more difficult for locals to get from Point A to Point B.

So what does traffic on SR 104 — or State Route 305 through Poulsbo and Suquamish — have to do with the WSF plan?

Everything. WSF’s long-range plan is a component, a piece of the puzzle, as it were, in the Washington State Transportation Plan — something that will deal with much more than just ferries. So often we forget that WSF is part of the Washington State Department of Transportation. We must try not to.

Bottom line here is what good is accommodating additional vehicles on ferries if North Kitsap’s infrastructure can’t support it? This isn’t the case everywhere.

Poulsbo is being proactive on this issue with SR 305 slated for widening this summer. WSDOT is also working on SR 305 from Poulsbo to Winslow this summer but motor vehicle lanes won’t be added as a result, bottlenecking traffic at the Poulsbo city limits.

If WSDOT really wants to alleviate congestion, it should be widening SR 104 and doing the same on SR 305 through Bainbridge before throwing more cars into a maxed out infrastructure.

Give North Kitsap the means to move the cars first, then let’s chat about all the eastsiders who are having problems getting to and from the peninsulas.

If there’s one message we hope WSF officials really listen to at the meeting tonight and take back to the others at WSDOT, we hope that’s it.