It has been a few months now that drivers have been able to drive the improved Highway 305 corridor through Poulsbo. For the most part, it seems to work as planned but there are several things that are still needed to make this route more bearable.

First, it was great to read that the Washington State Department of Transportation will finally be sequencing the lights on Highway 305. Too bad they and/or the city have forgotten to include the lights that direct traffic flow from the off/on ramps to Highway 3.

Anyone approaching 305 from the north or coming out of the College Marketplace has to deal with two more lights that currently set them up to hit every red light on 305 as it heads south. The key light to make to get the green throughout 305 is the one at the junction of Viking Way and 305. Unfortunately, unless one guns their engine when the off-ramp light changes – a big no-no for fuel efficiency – and races through the next off-ramp light while it’s yellow, then one can be assured of stopping at virtually every light until they get past Hostmark.

In the scoping meetings for College Marketplace, concerns were raised about easy access from 3 to 305. Many assurances were made that things would be done so that a minimal impact would be felt from those already used to a non-stop access from 3 to 305. Fast forward to today and one would be hard pressed to see how that has come to fruition.

It is time to stop giving the preference to those coming off 3 north since they can already make a right turn on red and thus do not need to wait for the light to change. That is not true for those coming off 3 south as they must encounter two sets of lights before getting to Viking Avenue. The light sequencing needs to start at the off-ramp light, not Viking Avenue. A second problem is getting into the right lanes to make turns. The HOV lane requires all those not eligible to travel in the HOV lane to be in the left lane until just a few hundred feet before making their right turn. This is one of those sounds good in theory, works really poorly in practice, situations. Just ask anyone who has tried to move over when the HOV folks are zooming through. The HOV folks seemed disinclined to yield to those trying to obey the law and thus people are ignoring the HOV designation in order to make a safe merge. This really is a situation of an accident waiting to happen.

It is another reason why it would be good to change the HOV designation to the left lane – then such conflicts would not occur. Given that the bus only has two stops, only one of which is in the HOV lane designation, it seems it should be reconsidered. A big bus can better get a vehicle to yield than a car can trying to get over to the turn lane during rush hour.

Lastly, one must wonder why no one thought to put a right turn lane between Viking Avenue and the on-ramp to 3 north. Certainly, there seems to have been plenty of room to do so, but it was not done. This means that users of 3 north have to wait through lights, stuck among all those wanting to go on 3 south. This may not seem like a big deal except that it causes a backup to go past Viking Avenue and down 305. While part of that problem would be solved if people just waited to merge right after the 3 north on-ramp, that is not the way people drive in this state. Driving patterns are supposed to be part of design considerations but somehow this scenario was not accounted for.

Certainly, compared to how 305 was before and during construction, it will be better. It would be nice though if it really was the best it could be.