Transportation Commission
The Transportation Commission advises City Council, through the City Manager, regarding planning and development of transportation issues referred to the Commission by the City Council. The Kirkland Transportation Commission meets regularly on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 6 PM in the City Council Chamber.
Next Meeting
Public Service Announcement: In response to the guidance given by the Office of Public Health Seattle-King County, we encourage members of the community to implement social distancing as much as possible. Hybrid meetings may be attended in person or remotely on Zoom as a webinar, following normal meeting guidelines. The virtual meeting audio will be recorded and posted on the City's website
Please see details below for the next meeting.
Time: 6:00 PM
Date: Wednesday, March 22, 2023
Location: Hybrid Meeting (City of Kirkland Council Chambers and Remotely via Zoom)
The Zoom meeting room will open to the public at 6:00 PM. Members of the public may address the Transportation Commission during the ‘Items from the Audience’ section of the agenda, in-person or via the Zoom link, subject to the Commission protocol of a limit of three speakers on each side of a particular issue, for a maximum of three minutes each. Speakers who attend the meeting virtually can use the ‘raise hand’ function during ‘Items from the Audience’ to speak. Virtual speakers will provide their comment via audio only. Community members providing comment who wish to also provide a presentation need to send the presentation to the staff liaison via email by 2 PM the day of the meeting.
Community members may join the virtual meeting through the Zoom link below or via telephone by calling 888-475-4499 (toll-free) or 877-853-5257 (toll-free)
Join the virtual meeting
Meeting ID: 915 6533 8560
Meeting Materials
• March 22, 2023 Meeting Agenda(PDF, 126KB)
• January 25, 2023 Meeting Minutes(PDF, 73KB)
• Future of Park Lane Study Memo(PDF, 10MB)
• Transportation Master Plan 2022 Progress Report Memo(PDF, 842KB)
Sign up for the Transportation Commission email
Note: The City of Kirkland appreciates the interest of our community members and values public involvement. We make every effort to make the recordings of our meetings available soon after each meeting is completed. However, due to technical difficulties that may occur with our digital recording system it may take up to four days for a recording to become available online. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Meet the Transportation Commissioners
Faith DeBolt - Chair (term expires 3/31/26)
Faith DeBolt
My family moved to the Finn Hill neighborhood in Kirkland from Seattle in 2011 so that I could be closer to my office in Bellevue. We are a one car family, and I bike commute year-round and use public transportation often. We chose to buy a home in Kirkland over Bellevue because Kirkland is a more walk-able and bike-able city, full of beautiful trees and green spaces. I hope to not only keep it that way but make it even more so. I believe providing people safe, multi-modal alternatives to single-occupancy vehicle transportation is the fastest, most cost-effective way to address the growing traffic problems in our region while maintaining its natural beauty and improving the health of our citizens.
I am a board member of Kirkland Greenways, the bike-to-school coordinator at Thoreau Elementary, and I contributed to the Finn Hill Neighborhood Plan. I look forward to bringing the problem solving skills I practice as an engineering consultant in the energy efficiency industry to the Transportation Commission and collaborating with my fellow commissioners, city staff, the Council, and other regional stakeholders.
Brian Magee - Vice Chair (term expires 3/31/24)
Brian Magee
Transportation is a passion of mine and has been ever since I was a kid. That passion led me to a career in civil engineering where, today, I am a Senior Transportation Engineer in HDR’s Bellevue office and an expert in complete streets design. I truly enjoy taking an active role in applying evolving trends in the industry to make transportation facilities safer, more welcoming, and more sustainable.
My family came to Kirkland in 2013 because we wanted to live in a community is committed to being walkable and a wonderful place for our young children to grow up. Over time, I’ve become an avid volunteer building community as a Board Member of the Juanita Neighborhoods Association (JNA), making our streets safer through the Neighborhood Safety Program (NSP), and as an Adopt a Pedestrian Crosswalk Flag volunteer. On the Transportation Commission, I am excited to apply my expertise as an engineer and as an engaged member of the community help Kirkland maximize investments into transportation to make our City an even better place to walk, bike, travel, and live.
Kurt Ahrensfeld (term expires 3/31/23)
Kurt Ahrensfeld
I am a registered civil engineer with over 36 years of experience in the transportation consulting field, serving primarily local agencies (State, County and Cities) within the Puget Sound Region. As a Senior Project Manager in the Perteet Everett office, I have been involved in highway, transit, and non-motorized improvement projects for improving safety, mobility and capacity. These projects typically involve multiple public and regulatory agencies, numerous stakeholders and ever increasing public outreach. I find that my profession is rewarding not only for seeing projects successfully completed, but also the opportunity to work as a team and to create synergy and endorsement with stakeholders.
As a resident of Highlands for over 20 years, I have seen considerable growth and change in the greater Kirkland area and the challenges to maintain the spirit and atmosphere that is attractive to not only residents but local, national and international visitors. The growth of traffic and congestion and decreasing parking particularly downtown reinforce the need to make the community more livable and walkable. Improvements that make the city more attractive to pedestrian and bicycle traffic has the benefit of reducing the vehicular demand on limited infrastructure. I am excited by the opportunity to be part of the creation of short and long term solutions to transportation issues we face within the City.
Shreedhaarini (Shree) Balamurugan - Youth member (term expires 3/31/2024)
Shreedhaarini Balamurugan
As of 2022, I am a Sophomore at Lake Washington High School. I am always willing to learn, and I am a big computer science enthusiast, having learnt numerous programming languages and have had hands on experience with them. I love playing badminton and have been practicing for 5 years now. I have volunteered and tutored over 400+ hours in many different organizations and nonprofits that have taught me a lot of skills, such as teamwork, management and dedication.
I have lived in Washington for 4 years. Moved to Redmond, Washington in 2018, then to Kirkland in 2021. During this period, I noticed many transportation challenges. With the skills I mastered through my experience and my position in the Transportation Commission, I want to bring awareness to transportation issues and concerns reported by residents of the community to provide the best transportation experience. In addition, I want to ensure that alternative eco-friendly forms of transportation, such as walking and biking, are just as preferred as riding in a car by improving safety and reliability. I look forward to preserving Kirkland’s beautiful greenery for the years upcoming.
Patrick Vu (term expires 3/31/26)
Patrick Vu
As a professional civil engineer, I have over 20 years of experience in the transportation planning, design, construction, and operations, with a passion for finding and implementing mobility solutions for public agencies and communities. I founded my transportation consulting firm six years ago with the philosophy of offering innovative, yet pragmatic solutions for my clients. It is this same philosophy and my experience working with diverse stakeholders that I would like to contribute back to the community my family and I live in. Growing up in Juanita and having seen it and the region’s tremendous transformation over the past 30 years, I am excited to help the City navigate the challenges and opportunities it is facing to balancing growth and mobility in a sustainable way.
AJ Antrim (term expires 3/31/25)
AJ Antrim
I have lived in the Puget Sound region my entire life, where I have commuted via bus, ferry, car, and foot. In 2020, my partner and I moved to Kirkland in order for us to walk and bike to work. Because of that, we are a one-car household which is proof of the benefits of transportation-oriented development.
With my position on the Commission, I hope to make it possible for others to use alternative forms of transportation such as walking, biking, and busing on their commutes by improving their reliability, safety, and convenience. My life has been greatly improved by the recent infrastructure changes and I hope to provide a long-term, forward thinking perspective.
I graduated from the University of Washington in 2020 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and now work as a Vehicle Controls Engineer at Kenworth.
Rafael Fernandez (term expires 3/31/25)
Rafael Fernandez
I am a computer scientist with over a decade of experience in the tech industry. When I was in academia, I worked both in Computer Science and Civil Engineering in an exciting area called Intelligent Transportation Systems. Things have evolved since then: we now talk about big data, when back then we talked about needing more data. We now talk about artificial intelligence as a commodity, where back then it was a bit of a luxury. The opportunity however remains the same: understand traffic flow and the dynamics of the transportation infrastructure in our communities through data analytics at scale.
Our family has been living in Kirkland for over a decade now and we have seen positive growth and exciting changes in our transportation infrastructure. I joined the commission because I am interested in applying data analytics towards supporting multiple modes of transportation, promoting accessibility, and working towards making travel times more predictable.
Vacant (term expires 3/31/2024)