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No Sunday morning drives on Five Mile Drive

By John Larson

Tacoma Weekly
jlarson@tacomaweekly.com
Published on: July 03, 2008

The Five Mile Drive in Point Defiance Park will be closed to vehicles on Sunday mornings for two months due to a pilot project that begins July 6.

The popular route is already off limits to cars on Saturdays until 1 p.m. Metro Parks has decided to ban cars on the road on Sundays until 1 p.m. through the end of August.

Victoria Woodards, president of Metro Parks Commission, made the announcement during the June 23 commission meeting.

Bob Myrick, a board member of Tacoma Wheelmen’s Bicycle Club, requested the vehicle ban be extended to Sundays during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Following his testimony, Woodards told him Metro Parks has made a decision to do so for July and August. “Thank you for your suggestion,” she said. “We will let you take credit for that.”

Myrick also asked for trails in the park for mountain bicycle riders. Woodards asked staff to look into this request.

“It takes what we have been doing on Saturdays for years and extends it to on Sundays,” said Nancy Johnson, communications manager for Metro Parks.

She noted the ban on vehicles will not cover the entire five miles of the road, but will be closer to 3.5 miles. The road has an inner loop and an outer loop; the vehicle ban will apply to the outer loop. There will still be access to Fort Nisqually by vehicles on Sunday mornings.

Groups that rent the picnic areas in the park on Sundays before 1 p.m. will be able to drive to them, Johnson added.

She explained that banning vehicles on the road on weekends came out of public meetings on the master plan for Point Defiance. Sunday mornings seemed like an ideal time for prohibiting cars, according to Johnson.

“So far we are getting good feedback from people who have been asking for it for awhile,” she remarked.

Tacoma police stepped up patrols in the park from May 30 to June 18 in response to an incident in May where a motorist hit two pedestrians, sending both to a hospital.

Police stopped 131 drivers during the emphasis patrol. They issued 70 traffic tickets, with 52 of them for speeding.

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