The Collector
May 15, 2026
Bike Celebration Tomorrow!
We’re halfway through Bike Month, and there are still lots of fun things to do. You can join CRTP and other bike enthusiasts on Saturday from 11 am to 2 pm for the annual Bike Celebration Fair at Jefferson Community Center in Eureka, and there are several other commuter and recreational rides throughout the week. Check out the full event calendar here.
You can also get special deals this month at local bike-friendly businesses! And as always, wherever you ride, report any biking hazards, near-misses or even (we hope not) crashes on Street Story.
Finally, don’t forget that the Redwood Coast Energy Authority’s e-bike voucher program has funding available! You can apply now for vouchers of $400 or more toward the purchase of an e-bike!
Two Deadlines Next Week
The deadline to sign our petition for safer 4th and 5th Streets is next Monday. The petition is already making an impact, before we’ve even submitted it: we recently found out that Caltrans is now planning a “feasibility study” for safety improvements on 4th and 5th Street. Let’s keep the pressure on! Make sure your name is on the petition before we deliver it to Caltrans.
The deadline for applications for our Outreach Specialist position is also next week. If you are passionate about transportation safety, equity, and sustainability, apply by next Tuesday to join our small but mighty team! Click here for the full job description and application instructions.
Arcata Zoning Code Updates on the Horizon
This week the Arcata Planning Commission held its first meeting on zoning code updates to implement new policies in the city’s General Plan, which was adopted in 2024. These updates include critical parking reform measures, walkable development standards, and new bike parking requirements, all of which CRTP and our members and supporters advocated for during the General Plan process. We hope to see them adopted into the zoning code soon!
In other Arcata news, the start of construction of the Sunset Avenue and US 101 interchange improvements has been delayed until next year. The plan to build new roundabouts will undoubtedly make these dangerous intersections much safer for motorists. CRTP continues to advocate to ensure that the design is safe and comfortable for people walking, biking, and rolling too.
More About That Proposed Amazon Distribution Center
Humboldt County has posted video of the contentious community meeting about the proposed Amazon distribution center in McKinleyville on its website, along with other materials presented at the meeting. If you couldn’t make it to the meeting, these materials will help catch you up.
McKinleyville residents, take note: the New York Times this week published a sobering report on the enormous toll that a boom in distribution centers in the Chicago suburbs has taken on transportation safety and infrastructure. Truck traffic deaths in that region have risen dramatically, and road conditions are deteriorating due to the heavy vehicles. While the proposed distribution center in McKinleyville is much more modest in scale, and therefore presumably more modest in impact, CRTP remains very concerned about the potential impact on street safety and infrastructure.
In other McKinleyville news, the Board of Supervisors this week rejected an appeal by Humboldt Commons, effectively requiring the nonprofit senior community developer to add an extra lane’s worth of asphalt to part of Hiller Road. While the Town Center plan calls for this new pavement to eventually by the travel lane, and the current lane to be a median, in the near term the paving will just result in a wider, more dangerous street. We are calling on the county to seek funding to build out the whole Hiller Road safety upgrade as soon as possible, rather than leaving an extra-wide expanse of pavement in front of Humboldt Commons and hoping that future developers will do the rest someday.
Infrastructure and development are also, of course, major issues in the District 5 supervisor race. Current Supervisor Steve Madrone has stated his opposition to the distribution center and has supported infrastructure improvements like the Town Center safety overhaul of Central Avenue. But he is not running for reelection. We will be watching closely to see what his successor – either local ecologist and McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee chair Mary Burke or local businessman Evan Schwartz – will do. Either way, if you live in McKinleyville or anywhere else in District 5, don’t forget to vote!
Eureka to Oppose Offshore Oil Drilling
The Eureka City Council recently discussed how the city could help stop oil drilling off Humboldt’s coastline by banning onshore support facilities. While officially banning these facilities will take a while, the city will take a first step at next week’s council meeting by passing a resolution opposing drilling. As CRTP Executive Director Colin Fiske told the council, while our usual focus is on the other end of the oil supply chain and the need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel transportation, prohibiting offshore drilling is an important issue to us because the entire fossil fuel supply chain is dirty and harmful to health and the climate.
News from Beyond the North Coast
Stop the State from Giving Transit Money to Big Oil!
California’s “cap and invest” (formerly called cap and trade) program brings in state revenue that has been critical for local projects like the new EaRTH Center transit hub, the local transition to zero-emission buses, the Linc Housing and Sunset Heights affordable housing projects in Eureka, and many other transit, bike, and pedestrian investments.
Now the California Air Resources Board is proposing to divert billions of dollars from the program to subsidize oil and gas companies. Click here to send a message opposing this terrible idea.
Trump Administration’s Assault on Transit Continues
The Trump administration is withholding more funding from transit projects around the country, while proposing to eliminate the main source of transit funding entirely from next year’s budget. Some Democrats are pushing back, but the outcome is uncertain. A new report finds that if Trump’s transit funding proposals are enacted, massive reductions in service and layoffs of transit workers will result. Rural areas like Humboldt and Del Norte will be hit especially hard.
Car Ads Promote Unsafe Driving
A new analysis finds that the number of car ads that promote speeding and reckless driving is increasing, while the number emphasizing safety has plummeted.
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.