The City of Kirkland acquired almost six miles of the Eastside Rail Corridor that cuts through Kirkland. This is a really awesome opportunity for Kirkland and the city is soliciting feedback in an online forum for how best to utilize this corridor.

Personally, I’m a bit torn. The corridor absolutely needs to be used for a pedestrian and bicycle path. It could connect to the Sammamish River Trail on the NE east end, and the new 520 bicycle path on the southern end (somehow) and therefore create an awesome connection in the region.

However, Kirkland is also in need of some high capacity transit in the form of Bus Rapid Transit or, ideally, a connection to the region’s fledgling rail system. The problem is that I wouldn’t want to sacrifice a good pedestrian/bike path for the rail system. Both should be built, not one or the other.