The Collector
June 27, 2025
Humboldt Bay Trail Grand Opening Celebration Tomorrow!
The bike and pedestrian trail along the shores of Humboldt Bay between Eureka and Arcata is complete! The new trail fills a major gap in the Humboldt Bay Trail and functions as a key part of the bigger Great Redwood Trail. We’ve been waiting a long time for this, and it’s time to celebrate!
Trail-related events Saturday morning include volunteer clean-ups, a do-it-yourself fun run, a group skate date, and more. Then, at 1 pm, you can join CRTP and Latino Outdoors for a group bike ride from the Arcata Marsh down to the Adorni Center, where the official celebration will just be getting started. From 3-6 pm at the Adorni Center, we’ll have live music and a DJ, food trucks and beer, bike rentals and tune-ups, bike valet service, and lots of local nonprofits and agencies providing information and giveaways.
The celebration will start with some mixing, mingling, and music, followed by brief comments from local leaders and trail supporters including State Senator Mike McGuire, Great Redwood Trail Agency Executive Director Elaine Hogan, and Humboldt County Public Works Deputy Director Hank Seemann. After that, it’s just a party!
The Humboldt Transit Authority will be running a bus back and forth from 11 am to 7 pm for people who only want to walk/run/bike/skate one way, and it will be coordinated with a vehicle from Wildtrail Tours for added bike hauling capacity. You can find all the details on the event website. See you tomorrow!
Want to Take Your Support for CRTP to the Next Level?
CRTP is looking for new members for our Board of Directors. Candidates for the Board should share a commitment to our mission and goals, and should have time or other resources to contribute to the organization. To find out more about joining CRTP’s Board of Directors, or to submit a completed application, email colin@transportationpriorities.org.
If you’re not quite ready to join the Board, here’s another opportunity to consider: We are currently seeking transit riders to lead ride-alongs with local decision-makers during this year’s Week Without Driving. If you ride the bus regularly and would be interested in sharing your transit experience with a local leader or public official, email kelsey@transportationpriorities.org.
Victory: Transit Funding Restored to State Budget
Thanks to pressure from transit supporters across the state, the budget deal recently announced by Governor Newsom and the state legislature restores transit funding that the governor previously proposed cutting, and includes some emergency support for the big transit systems in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. This represents a major win for transit, and it wouldn’t have happened without the thousands of phone calls and emails from people like you. Meanwhile, the fate of major transit grants currently funded from the state’s cap-and-trade program (including millions of dollars in local grants on the North Coast) remains unresolved, although state leaders have promised to address the issue soon.
McKinleyville Commitee Reaffirms Support for Town Center Plans
There was a packed house Wednesday for the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee meeting, full of supporters of the Town Center plans (including CRTP members!) as well as opponents. County planning staff and Supervisor Steve Madrone spent a long time seeking to educate people about the plans – which have been developed with extensive public input over the last five years – and dispel misinformation that has been spread recently by some opponents.
The committee reaffirmed its support for the Town Center plans, which call for a more walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly core to the community. However, the issue is expected to be back on their agenda again in July, including a specific question about whether they really want to replace two of the current lanes on Central Avenue with protected bikeways. CRTP and our supporters fought hard for this redesign for many years, and we will be working to make sure the committee and the county don’t go back on their promise of a safer Central Avenue.
Earlier in the meeting, the committee weighed in on two other street redesigns. First, they approved final plans for the Hiller Avenue quick-build project. While CRTP is disappointed that the committee chose a design for the intersection of Hiller & McKinleyville Avenue that we don’t think will provide adequate protection for bicyclists and pedestrians, we are excited for the rest of the project, which includes protected bikeways, traffic calming, and public art.
Next, the committee discussed a proposal to make Nursery Avenue into a single-lane, one-way street with a two-way bike facility, in an attempt to address current issues on the street including drivers regularly parking in the bike lanes. At CRTP’s encouragement, the committee asked the county to include physical separation elements between the driving lane and the two-way bikeway to keep cars from parking there, too.
News from Beyond the North Coast
Economist: Too Much Driving (& Parking) Is Bad for Business
Economic development officials often argue that roads and highways stimulate local economies, and business owners routinely fight for more parking for their customers. But a new economic analysis shows that, at both city and neighborhood scales, more driving and more parking are both correlated with lower economic productivity. It turns out that driving is expensive, and there are usually more productive uses for land than highways or parking lots.
On the other hand, if the economic analysis doesn’t convince you, and you want to know how to design a community with too much parking, there’s now a video game just for you!
Drivers Who Kill With Their Cars Often Keep on Driving
Following up on its recent investigation that revealed just how often our legal system allows dangerous drivers to stay on the road, CalMatters has a new story about how, even on the rare occasions when the law requires a driver’s license to be revoked or suspended, courts often fail to report that fact to the DMV.
The Collector is CRTP’s weekly transportation news roundup, published every Friday. We focus on North Coast news, but we also include relevant state, national and international transportation news – plus other items that we just find kind of interesting! To submit items for consideration, email colin@transportationpriorities.org.