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Oak Harbor engineer presents draft Safe Streets plan; SR‑20 corridor shows highest concentration of serious crashes
Summary
A draft comprehensive safety action plan identifies 28 fatalities and 119 serious injuries countywide over five years and recommends 45 candidate projects — including narrowing SR‑20 and adding bike and pedestrian features — to pursue grant funding and local improvements.
Oak Harbor’s city engineer presented the first complete draft of a countywide comprehensive safety action plan Monday, showing the highest concentration of fatal and serious‑injury crashes along State Route 20 inside Oak Harbor.
The draft, prepared by DKS Associates in coordination with the Island Regional Transportation Planning Organization (IRTPO), includes 18 policy‑oriented non‑infrastructure measures and 27 infrastructure projects for consideration when pursuing grant funding.
“Over the most recent five years of complete data for Island County, there are 28 fatal and 119 serious injury crashes,” the city engineer said. He noted the plan’s intersection screening shows 12 of the top 20 injury intersections are within Oak Harbor and that four of the top five are on SR‑20 inside the city.
Among infrastructure recommendations for Oak Harbor, the draft proposes converting sections of SR‑20 from five lanes to three lanes and adding bike facilities and enhanced pedestrian crossings; the consultant split the corridor into north and south segments for staged work and coordination with the Washington State Department of Transportation. Non‑infrastructure ideas include neighborhood proactive safety programs, a citywide speed‑limit analysis and yard‑safety sign programs.
The presentation summarized community engagement: 284 survey responses, more than 400 comments on an online map, 11 public outreach events and about two dozen project meetings. Staff said the draft is data‑driven and is intended to support future grant applications; adoption is expected to return to council in April.
Council members urged staff to prioritize city‑controlled intersections that could be fixed without WSDOT approval, citing Southeast Sixth and Midway and Oak Harbor Street at Whidbey Avenue as examples. The engineer and the consultant also cautioned about how crash cause categories are recorded: distracted driving flags in crash reports reflect what the reporting officer selects and do not automatically indicate cell‑phone use. The police representative explained state patrol crash reports use checkboxes that do not always indicate the specific type of distraction.
Council and staff also discussed recent striping and “road‑narrowing” changes the city has implemented and said preliminary observations suggest those changes have reduced speeds and may have reduced collisions at some locations.
Ending: Staff said they will refine the draft per council feedback, continue coordination with WSDOT for SR‑20 proposals, and return to council in April with a final plan for adoption and grant‑seeking.
