University Offers Free Car Sharing – And More Parking

Posted on August 15, 2025 by Colin Fiske

The Collector

August 15, 2025

University Offers Free Car Sharing – And More Parking

Cal Poly Humboldt is currently offering free annual Zipcar memberships to students, staff, and faculty! Car-sharing programs like Zipcar allow people to access a vehicle when they need one, without having to bear the full cost of car ownership or find a long-term parking spot. And car-sharing can empower people to take more trips by walking, biking, rolling, and public transit when they don’t need a car.

A black-and-white site plan shows a large parking lot north of Foster Avenue, with a retention pond and two bicycle shelters

We applaud Cal Poly for offering this program. However, we are disappointed that at the same time, they are completing plans to build a big off-campus parking lot on Foster Avenue in the Arcata Bottoms. Encouraging students to sign up for a car-share program while at the same time expanding parking for their private vehicles makes no sense. The university is sending mixed messages to students and the community. Cal Poly’s adopted climate action plan includes several important strategies for reducing transportation emissions and encouraging more active transportation and transit use, but it will never be possible to achieve their climate goals if they continue to use the limited land and funding available to them to build big parking lots.

Energy Efficiency & Electrification Fair Next Week

Next Tuesday, August 19th, from 4-7 pm at the Jefferson Community Center in Eureka, 350 Humboldt will be hosting an energy efficiency and electrification fair with information about how to take advantage of federal and state subsidies for building and transportation upgrades – before those subsidies disappear. Topics will include electric vehicles and e-bikes, as well as heat pumps, solar panels, batteries, and energy efficiency upgrades. CRTP is a co-sponsor of this great event.

Planning Commission to Get First Look at McKinleyville Town Center Ordinance

After six years of meetings at the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee (with at least one more meeting still to come), the Humboldt County Planning Commission will finally get its first chance to discuss the McKinleyville Town Center ordinance at a public workshop next Thursday at 6 pm. The Commission won’t take any votes at this meeting, but they will discuss the ordinance and hear public comments. You can attend either in person at the county courthouse or online via Zoom, or email comments in advance. (The official agenda has not been posted as of the time we’re writing this, but it will be posted here soon.) With the crucial decision about a needed safety redesign of Central Avenue still unsettled, it’s important for commissioners to hear from people in support of a lane reduction and protected bike lanes on both sides of the street.

A flyer provides information about the 2025 Week Without Driving. Click the link to go to a webpage with full text information.

Regional Transportation Plan Update Approaching

Every four years, state law requires regions to update their Regional Transportation Plans. Humboldt County’s new plan is due next January, and the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) is preparing for the required update now. The HCAOG Board will hear an update at their meeting next week.

CRTP is a fan of Humboldt County’s current plan, which includes ambitious “Safe and Sustainable Transportation Targets” for cutting climate pollution and increasing transportation safety. CRTP and our supporters worked hard to ensure these targets were included in the current plan, and we’ll be advocating to keep them in the new plan – and to make sure we actually make progress toward meeting those targets, too.

Great Redwood Trail Progress Reported

State Senator Mike McGuire hosted a virtual town hall meeting this week to provide updates on the Great Redwood Trail, which will someday follow old railroad tracks from San Francisco Bay all the way to Humboldt Bay. McGuire and Great Redwood Trail Agency officials reported that a third of the trail is already built, under construction, or in “final planning” stages – including the recently completed Humboldt Bay Trail between Arcata and Eureka!

News from Beyond the North Coast

Analysis of San Francisco Data Shows Policing Hasn’t Improved Traffic Safety

Academic research has long suggested that while concentrated policing in a particular location can temporarily lower traffic speeds, enforcement of traffic laws does not have a sustainable, long-term impact on safety. A new analysis of years of data from San Francisco adds to this body of evidence, finding that the number of traffic tickets issued by police officers had no impact on the number of people killed on the streets.

Safer Roads for Wildlife and People

A bill in the California legislature, AB 902, would require future highway projects in certain areas of the state to include designs that allow safe wildlife crossings, reducing the toll of roadkill on wildlife populations and improving safety for motorists. Click here to express your support for the bill as it approaches some difficult votes in the legislature.

Let’s Eliminate Costly Parking Mandates Nationwide!

Minimum parking mandates for new development raise housing costs, make many new housing projects impossible to build, and encourage car dependency – and they’re not based on any scientific evidence whatsoever. A “People Over Parking” bill in Congress would dramatically reduce these mandates in communities across the country. Click here to sign a petition in support of the bill.

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.

Bike & Pedestrian Traffic Stress in Humboldt

Posted on August 8, 2025 by Colin Fiske

The Collector

August 8, 2025

Bike & Pedestrian Traffic Stress in Humboldt

Different people have different tolerances for the kinds of places they will walk, bike, or roll. Generally, research shows that a relatively small number of people have a confident or fearless attitude and will bike or walk almost anywhere, but on busier streets most people require more comfortable infrastructure like good sidewalks and bike lanes. Researchers and planners quantify this idea as the level of traffic stress, or LTS, which is a score ranging from 1 to 4. LTS 1 represents conditions that almost everyone – including most kids – can tolerate. LTS 2 represents conditions that most adults will tolerate, while LTS 3 and 4 represent conditions that only smaller numbers of adults will tolerate.

Over the past year, CRTP has been working with the Humboldt County Association of Governments and engineering firm GHD to develop a local methodology for bike and pedestrian LTS, and to assess all of the street and road segments and crossings in the greater Humboldt Bay area (also known as Wigi). The results of that assessment are now publicly available here. We encourage everyone who walks, bikes or rolls in the area to check out the scores, and provide feedback on whether you think we got it right. You can email your comments to info@hcaog.net.

Before you review the LTS results, it’s important to understand the methodology. For example, the pedestrian LTS results show the vast majority of streets and roads in the area are “high stress,” meaning they scored LTS 3 or 4. The reason for the score depends on the exact location, but common reasons for a high pedestrian score are that a street that doesn’t have a sidewalk at least 4 feet wide or an intersection doesn’t have a curb ramp – criteria that are meant to reflect the experiences of people using wheelchairs, strollers, and other devices. Considering the experiences of everyone in the local population is key to getting the LTS scores right.

Mark Your Calendar for the Tri-County Independent Living Expo

Our friends at Tri-County Independent Living are hosting their 2025 Expo at Eureka’s Sequoia Conference Center on Friday, September 26. The Expo will focus on supporting the Independent Living of people with disabilities and those who are aging. CRTP will be there, and we hope you can come too!

Calling All Mural Artists!

The Hiller Road quick-build safety project in McKinleyville will include pavement art in the bike lane buffers and intersection areas – and you could be the artist! Fill out the application for artists by the end of August if you’re interested. If you’re not an artist but you’d like to help pay for the art, the project is also seeking sponsors.

Regional Paving Project Begins

A crosswalk on a freshly paved two-lane street in the foreground, with older pavement in the background

The annual “slurry seal” paving project, which adds a layer on top of existing asphalt to improve the pavement condition of various streets and roads, has begun in the Humboldt Bay area. The project is a collaboration between Humboldt County and cities including Arcata, Eureka, and Fortuna. Because slurry sealing also requires re-painting, projects like this are a great opportunity for local governments to add bike lanes, update crosswalks, and make other low-cost changes to improve safety. In fact, Eureka and Arcata have adopted complete streets policies that call for doing just that, and CRTP advocates to ensure those improvements are made.

“Headline Humboldt” Cancelled

The cuts to public broadcasting funds enacted by the Trump administration and Republican Congressional majority are already hitting home, with KEET-TV forced to cancel its weekly Headline Humboldt news show. Headline Humboldt has featured the work of CRTP and many other local nonprofits over the years, helping get the word out about important local issues. The show will be deeply missed.

News from Beyond the North Coast

US Pedestrian Fatalities Down a Little Last Year

A new report shows that pedestrian deaths dropped by about 4 percent last year compared to the year before. This is welcome news, but not nearly enough progress. The small recent decreases have not reversed the trend of the last two decades, with pedestrian deaths still almost twice as high last year as they were twenty years ago.

A “Road Safety Emergency”

It’s not just pedestrians dying on US streets and highways. The US has an overall traffic death rate far higher than other wealthy nations, and is one of the few countries in the world where death rates have been increasing instead of decreasing in recent years. In recent testimony to Congress, the head of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety called this situation an emergency and advocated for federal action to make roads and vehicles safer.

Got an E-Bike? Need an E-Bike?

Posted on August 1, 2025 by Colin Fiske

The Collector

August 1, 2025

McKinleyville Town Center Ordinance Inches Forward

A satellite image of part of McKinleyville is overlaid with colored shapes representing zoning districts in the Town Center area. Almost all of it is light purple, labeled "Mixed Use."

On Wednesday this week, the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee reaffirmed their support for the Town Center ordinance without any major changes. However, the Final Environmental Impact Report has not yet been released, and the committee ran out of time before they got around to voting on an issue of major concern to CRTP and our supporters: whether to recommit to a lane reduction and protected bike lanes on Central Avenue. So there will be one more committee meeting on the Town Center in August. Still, if you sent an email to the committee in support of the Central Avenue redesign this week, it was clear your voice was heard! Committee members talked about how many messages they got in support of the lane reduction, overwhelming the number of messages against it.

Got an E-Bike? Need an E-Bike?

Redwood Coast Energy Authority is planning to re-launch their e-bike voucher program very soon, providing anywhere from $400 to $1,000 toward the purchase of an e-bike for eligible Humboldt County residents. Click here for more information, or click here to sign up for a notification when the vouchers are available.

If you already have an e-bike, you can help too! 350 Humboldt is looking for owners of e-bikes – as well as electric vehicles, heat pumps, solar panels and batteries, or induction cooktops – to share their experiences with other local residents at an upcoming home electrification fair. If you’re willing to help out, click here to sign up.

Tragic Pedestrian Death in Arcata

A pedestrian was killed this week after being struck by a Humboldt Transit Authority bus in Arcata’s Valley West neighborhood. We grieve for the loss of this community member, and extend our condolences to the victim’s friends and family. Unlike fatal car crashes, which are tragically common, fatal crashes involving transit buses are very rare, and we are grateful to HTA for conducting an investigation into the crash, and taking steps to ensure this never happens again.

News from Beyond the North Coast

Are You a Non-Driver?

Our friends at America Walks are conducting a research project about the experiences of non-drivers. If you’re a US resident, you’re at least 18 years old, and you don’t own a vehicle, please help out by volunteering to be interviewed for the study.

Trump’s EPA Looks to Abandon Federal Climate Action

Many of the federal government’s actions to address the climate crisis are legally based on a 2009 official EPA finding that climate change endangers human health. This finding is based on a large body of rigorous scientific research which has only grown since 2009. But the Trump administration is trying to discard that finding, and with it some of the few remaining climate rules that it hasn’t already abandoned. Transportation is the nation’s biggest source of climate pollution, and the administration’s proposal includes scrapping fuel efficiency standards for cars.

Being “Black in Public”

A new report based on interviews with hundreds of Black Americans and Canadians explores the challenges of being Black in public spaces, as well as the joy Black people still manage to express in public. Sadly, buses, streets, sidewalks, and trails are among the most common places listed by respondents when asked where they felt unsafe. Clearly, transit operators, transit riders, and street and sidewalk users of all kinds have a lot of work to do to create spaces that are safe and welcoming for everyone.

McKinleyville Town Center Plan Faces More Tests

Posted on July 25, 2025 by Colin Fiske

The Collector

July 25, 2025

McKinleyville Town Center Plan Faces More Tests

Next week, the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee will hold one more meeting to review the draft Town Center ordinance and its Final Environmental Impact Report – maybe the last of the dozens of such meetings it has held over the last six years. As it stands, the Town Center plans call for the development of more walkable, bikeable, transit-oriented housing, as well as bike and pedestrian safety upgrades including a lane reduction on Central Avenue. The advocacy of CRTP and our members and supporters in McKinleyville has played a key role in shaping these plans.

A diagram shows a cross-section of street with 3-story buildings on either side flanked by wide sidewalks, then street trees, then bike lanes, then more street trees, and finally two car lanes with a central media with turn pockets.

Unfortunately, many of the most important elements of the future Town Center – from housing density to the safety overhaul of Central Avenue – are still under attack from some opponents. Additionally, the county has muddied the waters by publishing a flawed “traffic study” recommending future street design changes that would speed up traffic and make McKinleyville’s streets less safe for people walking, biking, and rolling. You can dive into the details by reading CRTP’s May comment letter.

As of this writing, the county has not yet published the Final Environmental Impact Report, so we don’t know whether they are proposing any changes or additions to the previously approved Town Center ordinance. But we do know that it will be critical for supporters of a safe, vibrant, walkable Town Center to show up at next week’s meeting – and at the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors meetings that will follow – to defend the plans for a safer Central Avenue and for more walkable, bikeable, transit-oriented housing.

You’ve Got At Least One More Week to Ride the Bus for Free!

All public buses in Humboldt County are free for the month of July, in celebration of Humboldt Transit Authority’s 50th birthday. Youth (17 and under) and seniors (62 and over) ride free in August, too! Read about Humboldt Transit Authority’s history and recent accomplishments here – and then get out there and Ride Humboldt!

Trails, Housing, and Houselessness

At CRTP, we sometimes hear from people who are concerned about unhoused folks camping near trails in our region. It’s true that people with nowhere else to go often camp along trails, sidewalks, streets, and highways. Our view is that all members of our community, whether housed or not, deserve access to these public spaces, and that people generally only choose to live in these spaces when they don’t have access to affordable housing and other critical services. That’s one of the reasons we support building more safe, affordable homes, in areas with affordable transportation options. It’s also why we’re so proud of the Great Redwood Trail Agency for hiring social service organizations to patrol and keep their right-of-way clean, rather than relying on an armed police force to forcibly remove people. Join us in thanking the agency for this smart, enlightened approach.

Humboldt County Lagging on Accessible Curb Ramps

As we mark the 35th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), we applaud the county’s ongoing efforts to improve accessibility at all of its facilities. However, we are disappointed that in all that time, it has only provided accessible curb ramps at a quarter of the known locations that need them. Curb ramps provide critical access for wheelchair users – who sometimes have to ride in the street if there is no ramp to access the sidewalk – as well as for parents pushing strollers and lots of other kinds of pedestrians.

Crash on Broadway Leaves One Dead & Four Injured

Media reports indicate that the driver of a stolen van sped onto the sidewalk and then hit a parked car. The driver died, and three pedestrians were injured along with an occupant of the parked car. This kind of incident is often dismissed as a kind of unforeseeable, unpreventable “accident.” But the truth is that this is far from the first time that a driver has mounted the sidewalk and crashed with tragic consequences, and there are ways we can help prevent this kind of thing from happening again. Better street designs can make it harder to speed, for example, and well-designed barriers can protect bicyclists and pedestrians and keep cars in the street. In fact, these are exactly the kinds of upgrades CRTP has long advocated for on Broadway.

News from Beyond the North Coast

Federal Transportation Reauthorization – Huh?

The 2021 “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” which funded many of the nation’s highways and even a few buses and bike lanes, is set to expire next year. That means it’s time to talk about “reauthorization.” This process, which happens in Congress every five years or so, is typically opaque and hard to understand, but has huge implications for safety, climate change, and quality of life. If you’re one of the many people left scratching their heads, check out this helpful introduction to transportation reauthorization.

Parking Is Expensive – Even When the Driver Doesn’t Pay

It’s expensive to build and maintain parking, even when it’s “free” for drivers. So who pays for it? Taxpayers, consumers, renters, homeowners – basically everyone.

Safe Walking and Biking on Highway Bridges

Posted on July 18, 2025 by Colin Fiske

The Collector

July 18, 2025

Public Meeting on Eureka Slough Bridges Next Week

A paved trail with a painted yellow centerline curves along a body of water under a highway bridge

Caltrans plans to replace the US-101 Eureka Slough bridges starting in 2029, and the draft environmental document for the project is now available for public review. CRTP is happy to see that both design options include separated bike and pedestrian pathways in both directions. However, we think it’s critically important for those protected bike lanes and sidewalks to actually connect with existing bike and pedestrian infrastructure on the Eureka side of the bridges.

We’re also requesting that Caltrans include some traffic calming features on the southbound bridge to slow traffic entering Eureka. And because the project will be under construction for five years or more, we are asking Caltrans to make strong commitments to keep existing bike and pedestrian infrastructure – including the Waterfront Trail and the new Humboldt Bay Trail – open for use during construction, or at least provide safe and convenient detours. You can read CRTP’s full comment letter here.

You can provide your own comments on the project during a virtual public meeting next Wednesday from 6 to 7 pm, or submit your comments to Caltrans by email. Details about the project, the meeting, and how to submit comments can be found here.

“When Driving Is Not an Option”

People sit in chairs in an auditorium looking toward a large screen and a standing woman dressed in white

National expert and author Anna Zivarts gave an engaging, informative, interactive talk about nondrivers to an audience of almost 50 people at Arcata’s D Street Neighborhood Center last night. Zivarts is the founder of the Week Without Driving and author of When Driving Is Not an Option. If you missed the talk, you can check out an interview with Anna on last week’s EcoNews Report, read other interviews, or read her book (there’s at least one copy in the Humboldt County library system)!

A pictures of a cartoon purple bus appears below the words "Looking for transit riders who want to lead ride-alongs with our local decision-makers"

CRTP is pairing up regular bus riders with people who make local transportation-related decisions, like city and county officials, for transit ride-along trips during this year’s Week Without Driving. If you are a bus rider and you’d like to lead a decision-maker on one of your usual trips, like your commute to work or school or the grocery store, email kelsey@transportationpriorities.org for more information.

Want To Help Build the Great Redwood Trail?

The Great Redwood Trail Agency is hiring a Trail Development Manager. The agency is charged with overseeing development of trails on old railroad rights-of-way around Humboldt Bay and all the way down to San Francisco Bay. A few segments, like the Humboldt Bay Trail, are already built and providing enormous benefits to local communities.

News from Beyond the North Coast

It’s Not an “Accident” That People Keep Dying in the Streets

For many years, transportation safety advocacy groups like CRTP have been referring to incidents of traffic violence as “crashes.” You’ll never hear us call them “accidents.” That’s because we know that traffic injuries and deaths are both predictable and preventable, and when we call them “accidents” it sounds like each one is a unique, random event, and there’s nothing that can be done to stop the carnage. Now, even big government agencies like Caltrans are coming around to the idea that we should stop using the word “accident” to describe a car crash.

Truck Driver Training Videos for Bicyclist Safety

The League of American Bicyclists has produced a series of short training videos to teach truck drivers how to drive safely around bicyclists. If you’re a truck driver, or know someone who is, check out these videos. You could save a life!

Where Should New Homes Be Built in Humboldt?

Posted on July 11, 2025 by Colin Fiske

The Collector

July 11, 2025

Where Should New Homes Be Built in Humboldt?

A digital rendering shows a 5-story apartment building in a variety of earth-tone colors and with a variety of roof lines, and a large mural on one wall. — *Image: City of Eureka*

This week, we were happy to see the Wiyot Tribe win $4 million to help build two housing projects in downtown Eureka, one primarily for elders and the other focused on families. These projects will replace underutilized city parking lots with 93 affordable housing units, all within walking and biking distance to many jobs and services, and served by multiple transit systems. This is what’s called “infill,” and it’s the kind of housing we need in order to reduce climate pollution, improve health and safety, and make living in our region more affordable.

But it’s not inevitable that future homes will be built in infill locations. Over the last century, most local homes were built on former agricultural and wild lands in sprawling, car-dependent locations, and there is a lot of pressure to continue that kind of development. It takes years of effort by tribes, public officials, planners, and advocates to make projects like the Wiyot Tribe’s possible, and they regularly face fierce backlash. (Remember the millions Rob Arkley pumped into his ballot initiative last year trying to block this and other downtown housing?)

A lot of the decisions about where to build housing start with an obscure state-mandated process called the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). Every eight years, the state assigns each region a specific number of new housing units in every income category, and requires local governments to make plans to ensure those homes are actually built. However, the region makes its own choices about how to divide the responsibility for those new homes among local jurisdictions. In Humboldt, a lot about the future of housing and transportation hinges on whether most of the homes will be built in existing job and service centers like Eureka and Arcata, or will be assigned instead to the mostly low-density unincorporated county.

At a meeting next week, the Humboldt County Association of Governments will hear its first update on the local RHNA allocation for the next eight-year cycle, and provide input on how the new housing should be divided among local governments. CRTP is watching closely. As always, we will be advocating for local, regional, and state policies that support infill housing development and discourage sprawl.

“When Driving Is Not an Option”

A white woman with short hair and glasses smiles at the camera

National advocate and author Anna Zivarts is coming to Humboldt in two weeks to give a free public talk! Zivarts is the founder of the Week Without Driving and author of When Driving Is Not an Option. The talk will be on Thursday, July 17th, at 7 pm at Arcata’s D Street Neighborhood Center. Topics will include the nondrivers in every community, the importance of meeting the transportation needs of nondrivers, how communities can work better for nondrivers (and everyone else), and valuing the expertise of nondrivers. See you next week!

Eureka’s C Street Bike Boulevard Starts Construction Next Week!

The long-planned transformation of C Street into a bike-friendly thoroughfare is about to begin. The project extends from Henderson Street to Waterfront Drive. It includes traffic-calming curb extensions, median islands, and flashing beacons at key intersections, and other measures to reduce traffic speeds. Crucially, it also includes measures to reduce the volume of traffic: although vehicles will still have access to every block, alternating one-way designations will prevent drivers from using the street as a cut-through, while continuing to allow two-way bike travel throughout. Unfortunately, the crossings of 4th and 5th Streets are left out of the project (Caltrans is supposed to make improvements there), and improvements in Old Town don’t amount to much more than painted “sharrows.” But overall, the C Street Bike Boulevard will be a nice addition to the city’s growing low-stress bicycle network.

Another Bear Is Killed By a Driver

While CRTP primarily focuses on transportation safety for people, we care about our non-human neighbors, too. So periodically we feel obliged to remind the community that “roadkill” is a major hazard for wildlife in our region (and throughout the world), and can even drive some populations to extinction. Fortunately, we know a lot about how to design roads and highways to reduce or eliminate the problem for many species. The most effective way to reduce the death toll for animals is the same as it is for humans: drivers just need to slow down.

News from Beyond the North Coast

Countries Are Failing the Climate, But Cities Are Stepping Up

A new report shows that, while countries across the globe are failing to take the needed steps to reduce climate pollution, cities are increasingly stepping into the void with their own ambitious plans and actions. In this country, Congress and Trump administration are currently eliminating clean energy and transportation programs, clawing back grants to fund bike, pedestrian, transit, and zero-emission vehicle infrastructure, and urging Americans to “gas up” and drive more. The Trump administration is even slow-walking safety funding. And we can’t rely on the state to save us, either, as the supposedly forward-thinking California government continues to pump millions into doomed highway expansions and cut bike and pedestrian funding. In this context, the importance of local climate action is more clear than ever. While we are devastated by many of the actions being taken at federal and state levels, CRTP is glad to work with many local partners and allies on the North Coast trying to tackle our own climate-harming emissions.

Cameras Confirm: Lots of Drivers Are Speeding

Inexplicably, it has long been illegal to enforce speed limits with cameras in California. However, a 2023 law created a pilot program to allow speed cameras in a few cities, and the first data are starting to come in. Unsurprisingly, the results show that a lot of drivers regularly exceed the speed limit – and not just by a little. Research shows that automated speed camera enforcement can significantly reduce speeding, and if the cameras are placed and monitored in a fair and equitable way, can avoid many of the inequities inherent to human traffic enforcement.

Parents Arrested After Driver Kills Their Child

When a 7-year-old kid was killed while trying to cross the street in Gastonia, North Carolina, police did not charge the driver – or the engineers and planners who designed the street – with any crime. Instead, they arrested both parents for allowing their children to walk home by themselves.

Free Buses Throughout Humboldt This Month!

Posted on July 4, 2025 by Colin Fiske

The Collector

July 4, 2025

Free Buses Throughout Humboldt This Month!

The Humboldt Transit Authority was founded in 1975. To celebrate their fiftieth birthday, they’re offering free rides on all buses throughout the month of July! Regular bus riders will save a little money, and it’s also a great opportunity for new riders and the bus-curious to get out there and try public transit. Unfortunately, however, you can’t ride today – there are no buses running on Independence Day.

“When Driving Is Not an Option”

Funding Awarded for Loleta Transportation Safety & Last Chance Grade Designs

The Humboldt County Association of Governments will be leading a new planning effort to improve safety for kids walking and biking to school in Loleta, as well as connectivity to tribal lands. The plan is funded by a $310,000 grant from Caltrans. We appreciate this funding and look forward to safer conditions in Loleta. However, we are also struck by the contrast with another funding announcement this week: $40 million from the state to “jump-start the design phase” of the Last Chance Grade project.

CRTP has always supported a long-term, responsible solution for the long-running problems on US-101 at Last Chance Grade, and we know the project will be expensive. But it is hard not to notice that the state spends hundreds of times more to maintain highways than it does to ensure kids can get to school safely. Because while the Last Chance Grade project is unusually expensive, Caltrans routinely spends tens of millions of dollars to repave sections of rural highway in our region, while local governments and tribes – and even staff within Caltrans itself – are forced to compete with each other for much, much smaller amounts of money dedicated to safety and sustainability.

Caltrans Wants Feedback on Eureka Slough Bridges Project

Caltrans plans to replace the US-101 Eureka Slough bridges starting in 2029, and the draft environmental document for the project is now available for public review. CRTP is happy to see that both design options include separated bike and pedestrian pathways in both directions. You can find more information, including the Environmental Impact Report and how to comment on it, here.

“Walkies Only”

At CRTP, when we talk about “pedestrians,” we mean people walking as well as people using wheelchairs, scooters, canes, and other mobility devices. That’s why you might notice us using phrases like “walking and rolling” when we talk about what pedestrians do. It’s also why we highly recommend that our supporters read an ongoing series of opinion pieces in the North Coast Journal about Cal Poly Humboldt’s lack of accessibility for people with mobility limitations. It’s is an important reminder of the need to design streets, roads, sidewalks, buildings, and other public places in ways that work for people of all ages and abilities.

News from Beyond the North Coast

Big Changes for Transportation and Housing

The state budget bill just signed by Governor Newsom includes a bunch of policy changes aimed at encouraging more housing production, including exempting most new infill housing projects from environmental review. At the same time, new climate rules also took effect this week which are expected to moderately increase the price of gasoline over the next several years.

Both the new housing laws and the new climate rules include a host of highly technical details, and for transportation advocates there is plenty to both like and dislike. We hope that, as proponents have argued, the result will be more walkable, transit-oriented development and less climate-destroying transportation pollution. But we also know that at least some of the changes to the climate rules are likely to increase emissions, and that lengthy environmental reviews are not the only barrier to infill housing.

Why Aren’t Kids Biking These Days?

American children are biking a lot less than their parents and grandparents did. It may be partly because parents are increasingly aware of the prevalence of dangerous streets and dangerous vehicles. But relinquishing this form of independent mobility comes with significant costs to kids – and their parents.

Autonomous Cars Are Driving More Like Humans

Proponents of self-driving vehicles have long claimed that they are so much safer than human drivers that traffic deaths will soon become a thing of the past. But at least one major autonomous vehicle maker admits that they are now training the cars to act more like human drivers, because passengers and other drivers get impatient with slow, risk-averse robot driving. If this trend continues while autonomous vehicle adoption increases in future years, the consequences for street safety could be enormous.

Humboldt Bay Trail Grand Opening Celebration Tomorrow!

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Colin Fiske

The Collector

June 27, 2025

Humboldt Bay Trail Grand Opening Celebration Tomorrow!

A whimsical cartoon shows an egret on roller skates, a bear on a bicycle, a walrus pushing a stroller with a baby walrus, a porcupine on a skateboard, a turtle on a scooter, and a mole walking. Text reads "Humboldt Bay Trail."

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.

Graphics overlaid on a photo of a street show a one-lane, one-way street, with a parking lane on one side and a buffered two-way bikeway on the other side.

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.

CRTP Publishes Bike Safety Audit Report

Posted on June 20, 2025 by Colin Fiske

The Collector

June 20, 2025

CRTP Publishes Bike Safety Audit Report

A group of people of varying ages, many wearing reflective orange safety vests, are gathered talking on a street corner. In the background, cars pass on a busy three-lane one-way street.

Following up on last month’s bike safety audit in Eureka’s 4th and 5th Street corridor, CRTP has published a report of findings that documents the issues identified by audit participants and suggestions to make the corridor safer for biking. We already knew that 4th & 5th Streets were dangerous for biking, but the audit report identifies specific problems and specific solutions.

Perhaps the biggest idea to come out of the bike safety audit is to turn one lane on 4th Street and one lane on 5th Street into protected bike lanes. This single design change could address a lot of the safety issues by providing a safe place to ride on the street, reducing the distance to cross the street, lowering traffic speeds, and mitigating the unpredictable driver behavior that comes from having three general vehicle lanes going in the same direction.

Take the Vision Zero Survey

As we mentioned last week, the Humboldt County Association of Governments is developing a Vision Zero Action Plan for the county, and they want to hear from you. Click here to take their survey about transportation safety. And don’t forget to keep making reports on Street Story about crashes, near-misses, and hazardous locations as well. CRTP is making sure that Street Story reports are considered as the plan is developed.

Trails! Trails! Trails!

The Humboldt Bay Trail Grand Opening Celebration is coming up in just over a week, and people are definitely getting excited.

In other good trail news, at its meeting next week the California Transportation Commission is slated to allocate construction funding for Arcata’s Annie & Mary Trail Connectivity Project (a new trail from the Sunset Avenue skate park all the way past Valley West to the first pump station on Baduwa’t), as well as a new financial contribution toward the project from Caltrans. The regional commuter trail network is growing before our eyes!

Bike to the Juneteenth Day Festival!

Black Humboldt’s 7th annual Juneteenth Day Festival is taking place this Saturday at Halvorsen Park in Eureka. CRTP is providing bike valet, so we can watch your bike while you enjoy the festival. See you on Saturday!

Affordable Housing and Parking in Arcata

Some current residents of Arcata’s Bayside neighborhood have been speaking out recently against the “Roger’s Garage” affordable housing project, which proposes to build 53 new affordable housing units on Old Arcata Road. Some of the complaints have to do with the fact that the site’s soil is contaminated from its former use as a mechanic shop, although the site has been contaminated for many years and the housing project would be required to clean it up. But a lot of the complaints, as usual, are about parking.

Here are a few things to remember about parking and housing development: First, there is a direct tradeoff between parking and housing. The more parking is provided, the less housing can be built, and the more expensive that housing is. Second, many people make car ownership and driving decisions based in part on residential parking availability, so a housing development with less parking will almost certainly result in residents with fewer cars. Third, if there is ever a real parking “shortage,” there are effective management tools to address that situation, like a residential parking permit system.

The Roger’s Garage project is not exactly in a walkable location, but it will be quite bikeable once Caltrans completes safety improvements to the US-101 interchange. Given the dire need for more affordable housing in our region, CRTP supports this project, and encourages the city to coordinate with other agencies on bike, pedestrian and transit improvements to better serve the neighborhood as it develops.

News from Beyond the North Coast

California Transportation Commission Looks to Fund More Highway Expansions

The commission is notoriously pro-highway and autocentric, and rarely objects to big projects proposed by Caltrans. Advocates are increasingly frustrated as enormous sums of money flow toward highway expansions that undermine the state’s climate and safety goals, and have called out a number of boondoggles in advance of next week’s meeting – including a multimillion dollar project to add lanes to a state highway that could be under water in less than ten years due to sea level rise.

Tellingly, the Trump administration hasn’t uttered a peep about this kind of “waste, fraud and abuse,” despite making the state’s biggest mass transit project into a culture war topic and focus of the president’s feud with Governor Newsom.

If Every City Were Like Copenhagen, We’d All Be a Lot Healthier

A new study quantifies some of the benefits of biking at a societal scale. One striking finding: if cities around the world all got up to the levels of biking currently found in the Danish capital, it would reduce global auto emissions by 6% and save nearly half a trillion dollars in health care costs every year.

This Is Not Normal

Posted on June 13, 2025 by Colin Fiske

The Collector

June 13, 2025

This Is Not Normal

At CRTP, we continue to do the important work of educating and advocating for safe, sustainable and equitable transportation on the North Coast. We keep sending out newsletters and emails and social media posts about local issues and events, and it might seem like everything is normal. But it isn’t.

In the long term, we can’t keeping doing this work without the rights and protections afforded to us by a democratic society, which appear to be increasingly under threat from a federal administration with authoritarian tendencies. We also can’t do this work if there’s no more objective research on how to improve safety, equity and sustainability, and if our communities and institutions are targeted by the federal government because they use words like “climate change” and “equity.” And our work to improve transportation doesn’t matter much if the members of our community are afraid to leave their homes.

We are a small organization focused on local and regional issues, but we can’t afford to pretend that the federal government’s actions don’t affect us. We must speak up for freedom of expression, for democracy, for equity, for safety. We support the right of everybody – including immigrants, LGBTQIA+ people, and other marginalized communities currently under attack – to use streets, bike lanes, sidewalks, public transit, and other public spaces without fear, to get where they need to go, to express themselves, and to participate as full members of society. We stand in solidarity with all members of our community.

Regional Vision Zero Planning Effort Kicks Off Next Week

Vision Zero is both an acknowledgement that traffic deaths and serious injuries are preventable, and a commitment to eliminate them in a specified time period. Some local Humboldt County governments have officially adopted Vision Zero policies, but most have not. Next week, however, the Humboldt County Association of Governments officially kicks off development of a Vision Zero Action Plan for the whole county with a public open house on Tuesday evening from 5:30 – 7:30 pm at Eureka’s Wharfinger Building. Drop in to learn more about the plan and provide your input.

Major Progress on Long-Time Priority Projects

Final construction on the Humboldt Bay Trail is very nearly complete, after decades of work from local nonprofits, advocates and agencies. In fact, we are just two weeks away from the official Grand Opening Celebration! Don’t forget to mark your calendars for June 28th.

Crews also recently broke ground on the long-awaited Linc Housing development of 90 new affordable, walkable housing units on three underused city-owned parking lots in Eureka, along with a long list of nearby bike, pedestrian, and transit improvements. Meanwhile, Arcata continues to build up its bike share system (and encourage Eureka to add some stations, too), and the Humboldt Transit Authority just marked a major milestone in its efforts to transition to zero-emission buses.

A row of rental bikes are docked next to a sign with a playground in the background

With many of our most important priorities – including climate action, safe bike and pedestrian infrastructure, walkable communities, and equity for all – under attack from the federal government, it’s an especially important time to acknowledge and celebrate our victories.

A Chance to Restore Critical Transit Funding in the State Budget

The California legislature’s latest budget proposal restores over $1 billion in transit funding that had been cut from Governor Newsom’s last proposal. This is nowhere near the amount of sustained funding needed for transit systems across the state, but it should prevent the kinds of drastic service cuts that might otherwise have been necessary. Click here to urge the governor to accept the transit funding proposal.

In related news, this week the Humboldt County Association of Governments’ Social Services Transportation Advisory Council heard the plan for how new Measure O revenues will be used to support transit over the next year. The proposal includes paying for more late-night Redwood Transit System service, supporting the new long-distance North State Express routes to Willits and Willow Creek, maintaining Eureka and Southern Humboldt Intercity service, and purchasing new vehicles to allow more frequent service. Measure O has already become a critical source of support for local transit, and it wouldn’t have happened without the sustained efforts of CRTP and our allies. Thank you!

News from Beyond the North Coast

State Bike and Pedestrian Funding Will Remain Extremely Low

While legislators restored some transit funding for the next fiscal year, they did not restore the draconian but supposedly “one-time” cuts to the Active Transportation Program from last year’s budget. That will leave the state able to fund only a handful of bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects in the next year, directly affecting the prospects of many local projects on the North Coast.

Other transportation reform legislation seems to be faring a little bit better in Sacramento this year, with bills to allow lower speed limits and quick-build safety projects on state highways, allow installation of speed limiting technology in the cars of dangerous drivers, and streamline sustainable transportation projects all progressing. Check out CalBike’s summary of legislation at the mid-point of the legislative session.

Your Chance to Weigh In on Good Bike Designs

A new study shows that building protected, safe, low-stress bike facilities results in a lot more people riding bikes. But details matter! Caltrans is currently updating its design policies for “Class IV” (protected) bikeways, and CalBike is offering an opportunity for you to provide your feedback directly. CRTP will also be providing feedback to Caltrans through our seat on the California Walk & Bike Technical Advisory Committee.

Time to Get Rid of the Highway Trust Fund?

The Highway Trust Fund would have run out of money long ago if not for continuous bailouts by Congress. Meanwhile, it has continued to pump money into destructive new highway projects while failing to deliver safety improvements, climate action, or congestion relief – or even a well-maintained highway system. Maybe it’s time we try something else.