The Collector

February 20, 2026

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Another Driver Kills A Pedestrian on Broadway

A driver in an RV hit and killed an 83-year-old man crossing Broadway with his dog last Friday. The man and his dog were in the crosswalk, and the driver hit the man with the RV while turning onto Broadway from Wabash Avenue.

You’d never know those key facts from the initial reporting on the crash, though. Following the familiar pattern of casting blame on the pedestrian victim and exonerating the driver before all the facts are known, the Eureka Police Department initially emphasized that the driver was “traumatized” by the crash and wasn’t believed to have been speeding or driving under the influence – all while lecturing pedestrians to “look both ways before crossing the street.”

Contrary to the narratives commonly promoted by police, the media, and many members of the public, most pedestrian victims are hit while crossing the street legally in a crosswalk. On dangerous streets like Broadway, 4th and 5th Streets (US-101), no amount of situational awareness or rule-following will keep pedestrians and bicyclists (or even drivers) safe. In just the last ten years, US-101 in Eureka has claimed 20 lives and brutally affected many more.

We need to make these streets safe for everyone before more people are killed. If you haven’t signed the petition to make Broadway, 4th & 5th Streets safer, click here to sign now. If you have already signed, please share the petition with friends and family and ask them to sign too.

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“I have felt substantially safer”

Testimonial from Eureka resident Will Kluger

“As an avid bicyclist in Eureka, I want to express my appreciation for the significant improvements to Eureka’s bike infrastructure. Navigating the streets is always a dangerous endeavor, especially when the road is shared with cars; in fact, I was unfortunately involved in a minor hit-and-run accident before the recent improvements. Since the expansion of these lanes, I have felt substantially safer, and it has transformed my commute into a more sustainable and reliable transportation option.

“I particularly want to praise the Humboldt Bay Trail and the C Street bike lanes. The design and implementation of those stretches have made a noticeable difference in the flow of vehicle and bicycle traffic and my overall sense of security on the road. Riding on the side of the highway was rough, to say the least. This kind of investment in our cycling network not only protects residents like me but also encourages others to choose greener ways of getting around our community. I’ve noticed so many more bikers on our roads, something that is undeniably good for those that choose to bike.” 

You can join Will and share your personal appreciation for recent bike infrastructure improvements with CRTP by emailing kelsey@transportationpriorities.org. Then, we’ll help share it with the whole community. While we know we have a long way to go, it’s important to celebrate the progress we’ve already made!

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EaRTH Center Takes Another Step Closer to Construction

This week, the Eureka City Council formally approved the last piece of funding for the Eureka Regional Transit and Housing Center (EaRTH Center). The long-awaited and much-needed downtown transit hub will also have space for local businesses on the ground floor with affordable homes above. It’s expected to begin construction this year. CRTP has advocated for this project for many years, and we can’t wait to see it built!

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Why We Need Wildlife Crossings

It’s not only pedestrians and bicyclists who are threatened by dangerous street designs. Cars and trucks are a major threat for many species of wildlife too. Check out the latest EcoNews Report for a discussion about wildlife crossings with Tom Wheeler of EPIC and Steve Blackledge of Environment America.

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No Fish Farm on Humboldt Bay

A land-based fish farm may sound like it has nothing to do with transportation, but the facility proposed by Nordic Aquafarms would have been huge, and would have had major impacts. Together with our allies in the local environmental community, CRTP had negotiated several big improvements to the project, including commitments to adopt an evidence-based sustainable commuting program for workers and to purchase 100% renewable energy. We hope whatever project is proposed next, the developer will also be willing to work with the community to address transportation safety and sustainability concerns.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

E-Motos Are the Problem, Not E-Bikes

Amid a growing moral panic about the dangers supposedly posed by e-bikes, advocates are pointing out that the vehicles that are the subject of all the public hand-wringing are not actually e-bikes at all. CalBike is currently hosting a petition calling on state leaders to crack down on retailers illegally selling “e-motos” as e-bikes. Meanwhile, dangerous state legislation has been introduced to require riders of many e-bikes to have a license and registration. If enacted, the bill would crush much of the e-bike market without meaningfully improving safety. You can express your opposition to e-bike licensing requirements by filling out this survey.

Know Any Local Leaders Who Could Use a Safe Streets Training?

America Walks is currently accepting registrations for a series of workshops for elected and government leaders called “Making Streets for Everyone.” The workshops will provide training for local leaders on safe street designs and policies. If you know a local leader who should take this training, share this opportunity with them!

What’s All This About a Mileage Tax?

Conservative media have been buzzing for weeks with outrage over a mileage tax that the California legislature supposedly approved recently. The truth is that the state has been studying options for replacing the gas tax with a mileage fee for over a decade, and the latest bill basically just calls for further study and a new report.

Nevertheless, as gas tax revenues decline and transportation costs mount, it’s likely that California and most other states will end up enacting some kind of mileage fee to replace the gas tax and fund road (and hopefully transit) investments in the coming years. CRTP supports this approach in theory, because electric vehicles have many of the same safety and infrastructure impacts as fossil-powered vehicles. Nevertheless, the climate crisis demands that we both reduce driving and switch to zero-emission vehicles. And we are concerned, among other things, that the wrong kind of mileage fee could remove one of the few disincentives for buying big, dangerous pick-ups and SUVS (namely, the high fuel costs), while also eliminating a major incentive for switching to zero-emission vehicles.

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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.

The Collector

February 13, 2026

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Speak Up: Regional Transportation Plan Up for a Vote Next Week!

The Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) will bring the latest Regional Transportation Plan update to its board for a vote next Thursday. The plan remains mostly the same as the previous version, which is a good thing. It includes strong goals and policies for reducing climate pollution and improving transportation safety. And several proposals to water down the plan have been defeated thanks to advocacy from CRTP and our members and supporters.

However, one of the most important pieces of the plan is still missing: a policy requiring HCAOG to prioritize funding projects that actually advance its climate and safety goals. Supervisor Steve Madrone spoke forcefully in favor of such a policy at the last HCAOG board meeting, but staff contend that there was “no consensus” for the policy, so they have left it out.

A so-called “Funding Consistency Policy” is crucial to ensure that HCAOG puts its money where its mouth is. The good news is that there’s still a chance to get this policy included the plan. Email your comment in support of a Funding Consistency Policy to amy.eberwein@hcaog.net before next Thursday, or attend the meeting in person or on Zoom to make your comment directly to the board.

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Sign the Petition for Safer 4th & 5th Streets!

Eureka’s Broadway, 4th and 5th Streets are dangerous. Anyone who lives, works, or travels in downtown Eureka knows that. CRTP’s recent report documents the dangers in detail. A recent crash on 5th Street – involving a driver who jumped the sidewalk, barely missing a pedestrian, and slammed into a local restaurant – is just the latest example of the dangerous conditions.

It’s past time to make these dangerous downtown streets safe for everyone. If you haven’t signed the petition for safer 4th & 5th Streets yet, click here to sign now.

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Amazon Distribution Center Coming to McKinleyville?

Amazon has applied to Humboldt County to build a distribution center in the airport business park in McKinleyville. The transportation safety and environmental impacts of this project could be significant.

Amazon says the project is intended to “speed up deliveries.” Faster delivery, however, is one of the main drivers of climate pollution from online shopping. Additionally, anything that encourages online ordering undermines the emissions reductions that otherwise come from building homes within walking and biking distance of local shops.

The distribution center is projected to add 542 (mostly truck) trips to local roads. However, the safety impacts are hard to assess, because the company is claiming that exactly where those trucks go is “proprietary information.” Notably, there are several schools in the vicinity of the airport, and many of the main transportation routes lack bike lanes or sidewalks. Adding more heavy truck traffic to these routes could add to the dangers already faced by people walking, biking, and rolling.

Meanwhile, if you want to weigh in on the future of McKinleyville more generally, there’s a new survey available from Cal Poly Humboldt and various McKinleyville organizations. Let them know how you feel about transportation, development, and other McKinleyville issues!

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More Big Transit Changes Could Be Coming

The Humboldt Transit Authority’s Board of Directors last week directed staff to continue developing a new service plan for the well-used Redwood Transit System (RTS). The concept involves eliminating underused stops that require the bus to deviate significantly from the US-101 corridor, and increasing bus frequency to every half hour all day from McKinleyville south to Rio Dell. Eliminating some stops, according to HTA staff, could significantly reduce travel times. For example, traveling from Eureka to McKinleyville on the bus could take only 30 minutes, as opposed to the nearly 50 minutes that trip takes today.

The plan relies partly on replacing the eliminated RTS stops with microtransit service that could deliver riders to the main line. CRTP is cautiously optimistic about this new plan, but we know that before it can be done, we need to make sure the microtransit system is operating effectively. If you want to weigh in on the new route concept – which stops should be eliminated or retained, how often the bus should come, how microtransit should work – you can contact HTA or email kelsey@transportationpriorities.org to get involved in our local transit riders group!

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Eureka’s Growing Investment in Walkable Development

City planners have developed a set of changes to the Eureka zoning code that will hopefully lead to more walkable, bikeable, infill development – like the affordable homes currently under construction downtown. The new measures strengthen standards for pedestrian-friendly building designs as well as bike parking requirements, ensuring that new homes and businesses provide secure storage for all kinds of bikes.

Importantly, if the city council adopts the code amendments, new multifamily housing will no longer be held to the Design Review Committee’s interpretation of vague and subjective aesthetic standards, but will instead be required to meet new specific and objective rules. This simple tweak to the process is anticipated to make a big difference for infill development, because all projects will be held to the same design standards, and builders will know what those standards are from the start.

CRTP strongly supports these zoning code changes. We are also asking the city to add one other measure to the package: removal of costly and unscientific parking mandates. Parking mandates stifle new infill development. They constitute a self-fulfilling prophecy of car dependence at a time when climate and equity policies demand a shift toward supporting other modes of transportation. Removing them may be the single most effective pro-housing, pro-climate reform a community can adopt – and communities across the country, including Arcata and McKinleyville, are doing just that. Eureka should join them!

The Eureka Planning Commission this week recommended approval of the zoning changes, and the city council is expected to take them up in early March. Meanwhile, the city also recently became the latest local government to adopt the Regional Climate Action Plan, which focuses in part on encouraging walkable development.

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You Could Be the Next Member of Arcata’s Transportation Safety Committee

Arcata’s Transportation Safety Committee advises city council and staff on everything from new bike lanes to parking policy. It is always in need of members who are passionate about safe and sustainable transportation, and there are currently several vacancies. If you live or work in Arcata, you’re eligible to serve on the committee. Click here for information on how to apply.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Trump’s Biggest Attack Yet on Climate Progress

Trump’s EPA just rescinded the so-called “endangerment finding” which underpins almost all federal climate policy. To put it in simple terms: the EPA is officially denying the mountains of scientific evidence that climate change endangers human health, and discarding all attempts to reign in climate pollution. Since transportation is the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, the implications for transportation policy are likely to be significant.

State Legislators Take on the Most Dangerous Drivers

Following a series of disturbing CalMatters reports, California lawmakers are proposing several bills to keep DUI offenders and drivers who have already killed someone with their car from going out and doing it again. While a lot more could and should be done, these bills would represent some progress toward more accountability for the most dangerous drivers.

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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.

The Collector: Special Edition

Editor’s Note: This week’s edition of The Collector is devoted to the safety problems that plague Eureka’s Broadway, 4th Street, and 5th Street. We’ll be back with a regular edition covering a variety of local transportation topics next week!

February 6, 2026

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The Safety Crisis on US-101 in Eureka

There is a traffic safety crisis on Highway 101 in Eureka, including Broadway, 4^th Street, and 5^th Street. If you live, work, or travel in Eureka, you probably already know that.

Because of the way these streets are designed, vulnerable people are regularly killed there. In the last decade alone, at least 5 people have been killed and at least 35 people severely injured while walking or biking on 4^th and 5^th Streets. Pedestrians are severely injured or killed on these streets at 90 times the average rate for streets and roads in Humboldt County. Check out CRTP’s recent report “Dangerous Downtown Streets” for more information about the safety crisis on 4th & 5th Streets.

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What’s Happening on Broadway?

Along with 4th and 5th Streets, Broadway is notorious for people being killed in car crashes – especially people walking and biking. Six years ago, CRTP began a coordinated campaign to pressure Caltrans to make major, near-term safety improvements on Broadway. In 2021, we submitted a Broadway safety petition to Caltrans with more than 500 signatures. As a result of that pressure, Caltrans quickly developed plans for three projects, collectively producing major safety upgrades to the entire Broadway corridor.

The first of those projects, the South Broadway Complete Streets Project, is currently under construction. It will add protected bike lanes, a new traffic signal, a new protected intersection for bikes, new sidewalks, street trees, medians, and more. The other two Broadway projects have not yet been funded by Caltrans, despite the ongoing safety crisis. Unbelievably, Caltrans headquarters apparently told local district staff that these projects didn’t even qualify as safety projects!

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How Bad Is the Safety Crisis?

Over the last decade on 4th & 5th Streets, 5 people were killed and 35 seriously injured while walking, biking, or rolling. Over the same period, 1 motorist was killed and 31 seriously injured.

Over the last decade on Broadway, 11 people were killed and 20 seriously injured while walking, biking, or rolling. Over the same period, 3 motorists were killed and 29 seriously injured.

In all, in just ten years, US-101 in Eureka has claimed 20 lives and brutally affected many more. These streets are deadly. There’s no other way to put it. And we won’t accept this situation any longer.

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Sign the Petition for Safer 4th & 5th Streets!

While plans for a Broadway safety overhaul have already been drawn up, and construction has started south of the Bayshore Mall, there are currently no plans for major safety improvements on 4th and 5th Streets.

It’s past time to make these dangerous downtown streets safe for everyone. If you haven’t signed the petition for safer 4th & 5th Streets yet, click here to sign now.

You don’t need to live in Eureka to sign the petition! Anyone who lives, works, or travels in Eureka can sign.

In addition to major safety upgrades on 4th and 5th Streets, our petition demands that Caltrans fully fund and build the rest of Broadway’s safety improvements too.

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Help Us Gather Petition Signatures!

We want to show Caltrans that there is strong community support for major, near-term safety improvements to 4th and 5th Streets (and Broadway!). To do that, we need a lot of signatures on our petition. If you can volunteer to help us get more signatures on the petition, we’d love your help! Email kelsey@transportationpriorities.org for more information.

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What’s It Like Walking and Biking on 4th and 5th Streets?

It’s easy to get lost in numbers and statistics. But these streets are part of everyday life for thousands of people in our region. And the impact that they have depends on who you are.

If you haven’t checked out CRTP’s series of point-of-view videos on 4th and 5th Street, we encourage you to take a look. We got a 6-year-old kid, an accessibility expert, and several other pedestrians and bicyclists to strap on cameras and document what it’s like for them navigating these streets under different conditions. These videos are eye-opening, even if you’re already familiar with 4th and 5th Streets from your own perspective.

We also encourage you to check out reports on Street Story, where dozens of local residents have documented their experiences on these streets. And then make your own report too!

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Let’s Make These Streets Safe for Everyone!

Thousands of people live in the area around Broadway, 4th and 5th Streets, and many thousands more work, run errands, and travel there every day. Whether you’re a driver, a bus rider, a pedestrian, or a bicyclist, there’s no way to avoid these streets running through the center of our region’s largest community.

These streets should be safe for everyone. It’s as simple as that. People shouldn’t be afraid to bike to a local business on Broadway, 4th or 5th Street. Parents shouldn’t be afraid to walk across the street with their kids to get to the library or the Waterfront Trail. People with disabilities shouldn’t need to go half a mile out of their way just to cross the street in relative safety.

Let’s join together to tell Caltrans that this situation is unacceptable. Let’s demand the safe streets we deserve. If you haven’t signed yet, sign the petition today. (Anyone who lives, works, or travels in Eureka can sign.) And then make your impact even bigger by encouraging your family, friends, and neighbors to sign too!

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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.

The Collector

January 30, 2026

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Taking to the Streets to Protect Our Neighbors

In Minneapolis and around the country, families are hiding in their homes, afraid to go out in public for fear of arrest, detention, or deportation. People who take to the streets in protest have been beaten, arrested, and killed.

CRTP believes in the right of all people to move around their communities safely and without fear. We stand in solidarity with everyone resisting the reign of terror being visited on communities in the name of immigration enforcement. And we encourage all of our members and supporters to take part in that resistance in any way they can.

We will be joining local demonstrations this weekend, and we hope that you will too. We also encourage you to enter Centro del Pueblo‘s hotline number into your phone, and call it if you see federal immigration agents locally. That number is 707-200-8091.

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Sign the Petition for Safer 4th & 5th Streets!

Eureka’s Broadway, 4th and 5th Streets are dangerous. Anyone who lives, works, or travels in downtown Eureka knows that. CRTP’s recent report documents the dangers in detail.

It’s past time to make these dangerous downtown streets safe for everyone. If you haven’t signed the petition for safer 4th & 5th Streets yet, click here to sign now.

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HCAOG Resists Putting Its Money Where Its Mouth Is

As we previously reported, following public pressure from CRTP, EPIC, and 350 Humboldt, the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) Board of Directors recently showed support for addressing the problems we identified with an update of the county’s Regional Transportation Plan. Specifically, a majority of the Board supported restoring use of the phrase “climate crisis” throughout the plan, as well as restoring the existing policy that 80% of new housing should be in non-car-dependent areas, rather than pushing that target date out to 2030. Supervisor Steve Madrone, representing the county, also spoke forcefully in favor of a policy requiring HCAOG to prioritize funding projects that do the most to advance the plan’s goals of safety, climate action, and equity.

We are now seeing the proposed final draft of the plan for the first time. While HCAOG staff did restore the phrase “climate crisis” throughout the document, as well as the target for new non-car-dependent housing, they did not include any policy requiring that funded projects meaningfully advance climate, safety, or equity goals – despite Supervisor Madrone’s call for such a policy. This policy is fundamental to ensuring that the plan is more than just a pile of paper (or an online PDF), and CRTP will continue fighting for it as HCAOG considers the plan’s final adoption.

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New Transit Options on the Way!

The Humboldt Transit Authority’s on-demand Flex system is expanding, with dozens of new stops and new dedicated vehicles. The system allows riders to hail a vehicle with an app. While it’s not a door-to-door service, it does serve numerous stops in the Humboldt Bay region, and can provide point-to-point rides as well as connections to regular fixed-route buses. CRTP supports this system as a way to provide service in areas without enough population density to support good fixed-route buses. If you have a trip that the regular bus routes don’t serve and you want to try out the Flex system, HTA is currently running a special promotion for two free rides with the code “FlexUp”. Everything you need to know to ride Flex can be found here.

In other transit news, the Arcata & Mad River Transit System recently expanded its later night options, and the Fortuna City Council appears likely to open Fortuna Transit service – which currently only serves seniors and people with disabilities – to the general public. This change could ensure the continuation of Fortuna Transit, which otherwise might end service, while allowing HTA to eliminate some low-ridership Redwood Transit stops in Fortuna and reduce travel times on its main regional route.

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Love New Bike Lanes & Trails? Share Your Story!

From the long-awaited opening of the Humboldt Bay Trail to the completion of Eureka’s C Street Bike Boulevard to the quick-build bike lanes on Hiller Road in McKinleyville, we’ve seen a lot of progress toward better bike infrastructure in the last year. And progress continues with Eureka preparing to rehabilitate a portion of its much-loved Waterfront Trail.

But here at CRTP, we still regularly hear people grumble that they never see anyone riding on the new trails and bike lanes, and using that as an excuse for opposing future bike improvements. We know you’re using these new facilities, and we want to hear from you! Send your stories about what these new improvements mean to you to kelsey@transportationpriorities.org, and we’ll share them on CRTP’s social media – and maybe in The Collector too!

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Hiller Road Quick-Build Project Changes

At this week’s McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee meeting, Humboldt County Public Works Director Tom Mattson provided some explanation for the county’s recent decision to remove the protective bollards on the new Hiller Road quick-build bike lanes, as well as the quick-build roundabout at Hiller Road and McKinleyville Avenue. Apparently the roundabout had not been designed in consultation with the fire district, which presented obvious problems. And the bollards were removed because debris was building up in the bike lane, and the county does not have a bike lane sweeper. CRTP has been encouraging local jurisdictions to buy a bike lane sweeper for several years, and we hope this is a wake-up call.

In better news, the traffic-calming narrower car lanes and painted bike lanes remain on Hiller Road, along with the community murals. And the county is now planning to add quick-build curb extensions, with more murals, to replace the roundabout in the spring.

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Complete Streets Safety Assessments Available

The UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) – the organization that brought us Street Story! – is offering local governments free Complete Streets Safety Assessments. Could your community use an assessment? Encourage them to apply!

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Traffic Deaths Outnumber Homicides 5-to-1

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office has reported that 3 people were killed in homicides last year (two of them by law enforcement officers), while 15 people were killed in car crashes, including 5 pedestrians. It’s another reminder that while homicides get much more attention in the media, drivers and their vehicles are the bigger threat to public safety by far.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Walkable Infill Homes Are More Affordable

A new report from UC Berkeley analyzes the total cost of housing – including associated transportation, utility, insurance, and tax costs – and found that homes built more densely in non-car-dependent areas are much more affordable than homes built in typical suburban sprawl patterns. A big part of the reason is the cost of owning and operating a vehicle.

Are Cars Causing the Loneliness Epidemic?

Cars separate their occupants from everyone around them, keeping people isolated even in public spaces. People in car-dependent communities live far apart and don’t see other people as much as people in walkable communities. The implications for loneliness and social isolation are significant.

Hauling Stuff Without a Car

Has anyone ever told you they can’t give up their car because they need to take their kids to school, or haul groceries or other heavy items around? Maybe you’ve had that thought yourself. If so, let us introduce you to the cargo e-bike.

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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.

The Collector

January 23, 2026

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Sign the Petition for Safer 4th & 5th Streets!

There is a traffic safety crisis on Highway 101 in Eureka, including Broadway, 4^th Street, and 5^th Street. Because of the way these streets are designed, vulnerable people are regularly killed there. In the last decade alone, at least 5 people have been killed and at least 35 people severely injured while walking or biking on 4^th and 5^th Streets. Pedestrians are severely injured or killed on these streets at 90 times the average rate for streets and roads in Humboldt County.

It’s past time to make these dangerous downtown streets safe for everyone. If you haven’t signed the petition for safer 4th & 5th Streets yet, click here to sign now.

Our recent report “Dangerous Downtown Streets” describes the safety crisis on 4th and 5th Streets in detail, and recommends improvements to make things safer. Our point-of-view videos provide clear perspectives on what it’s like for people of all ages and abilities to walk and bike around 4th & 5th Streets. But if you’ve spent any time in downtown Eureka, you already know: these streets are dangerous.

Five years ago, our petition for a safer Broadway spurred Caltrans to plan a major safety overhaul of Broadway. Some of those improvements are now under construction, but the rest are still unfunded. So in addition to major safety upgrades on 4th and 5th Streets, our new petition demands that Caltrans fully fund and build the rest of Broadway’s safety improvements too.

If you want to help us get more signatures on the petition, we’re looking for volunteers! Email kelsey@transportationpriorities.org for more information.

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More Progress on Walkable Housing in Eureka

Just a week after the Wiyot Tribe’s Gou’wik Hou Daqh “(Where the Families Are) family housing development was approved by the Eureka Design Review Committee, the Tribe broke ground on its Laqilh Hou Daqh (Where the Elders Are) housing project. As the Wiyot Tribe noted in its press release:

“Laqilh Hou Daqh is being developed on a parking lot, formerly owned by the City of Eureka, fulfilling Dishgamu’s values by developing infill housing on vacant or underused land within existing urban areas, integrating sustainability by reducing sprawl, cutting transportation emissions through walkability, using existing infrastructure efficiently, and incorporating green technologies, offering a key strategy for climate-friendly density and revitalizing communities. By using local contractors, the project provides local living wage jobs. This project leverages existing services, reduces habitat conversion, and increases affordable housing units with significantly lower overall carbon footprint compared to building in undeveloped areas. This development aligns with “smart growth” principles by focusing on compact, mixed-use development near transit.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Meanwhile, Linc Housing continues construction of its three downtown housing projects, the EaRTH Center transit and housing hub is expected to start construction this year, and the Sunset Heights affordable housing project (which includes a collaboration with CRTP) is lining up final funding. All in all, Eureka is seeing huge progress on much-needed walkable, transit-friendly housing. Even better: most of these projects come with bike, pedestrian, and transit upgrades too!

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Caltrans Cutting Trees in Richardson Grove

CRTP has opposed Catrans’ highway expansion project through Richardson Grove since our founding in 2015. This week, Caltrans began cutting trees in the grove in preparation for what the agency says will be a spring start to construction. We join our allies at EPIC in condemning Caltrans for cutting trees with no public notice, while a lawsuit against the project is still pending in court, and for continuing to pursue this unnecessary, destructive, and costly project at all.

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Two Positions for Local Sustainable Transportation Enthusiasts!

If you’re passionate about sustainable transportation and land use planning, there are two big opportunities right now to take on important local positions. If you’re looking for a full-time job, the Humboldt Transit Authority is hiring a project manager. If you’d like to volunteer for the community, the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee is looking for applicants for a vacant seat. These are both great opportunities to help shape the future of our region!

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Arcata to Expand Bikeshare System

This week, the Arcata City Council approved a plan to add two new bikeshare stations to its system. This latest expansion brings the total number of stations to 12, and will for the first time add e-bikes. CRTP is excited by the prospect of adding e-bikes, which help empower many local residents to replace car trips with a healthier, more environmentally friendly option.

Because bikeshare is most useful when coordinated with public transit, we are encouraging the city to locate new stations at well-used bus stops. We are also advocating for Eureka to add stations, including at the new EaRTH Center transit hub.

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Almost a Tragedy

On Sunday, a driver in Old Town Eureka suddenly drove their car onto the sidewalk, narrowly missing several pedestrians and a horse. This could have been a tragedy, but instead it is a lesson. Old Town streets are narrow, and the city has built a lot of traffic calming features on 2nd Street where the crash occurred. That meant the driver was going slowly enough that pedestrians could “run out of the way,” as one witness put it, and avoid being hit. It’s a clear demonstration of why it’s so important to design streets for low traffic speeds, especially in areas with lots of people walking, biking, and rolling.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Dumb E-Bike Laws

New Jersey may soon become the first state in the country to require a license and insurance to ride an e-bike. This unworkable proposal would only serve to push more people back into cars – making our streets less safe. Unfortunately, New Jersey isn’t the only place where legislators are making proposals like this. What we need is not a crackdown on pedal-assist e-bikes that empower more people to get around by bike, but instead reforms to keep manufacturers from confusing legislators and the public by pretending that high-powered mini-motorcycles are actually e-bikes.

California’s Focus on Cars Makes It Harder for Many People to Access Resources

A new UCLA report finds that California’s transportation policy continues to prioritize cars at the cost of human lives, the climate, and equitable access to resources.

Most Americans Are Open to Living Without a Car

Despite the overwhelming force of car culture in the US, a new survey finds that 18% of Americans really want to live car-free, and another 40% are open to the idea. The results suggest that there is more support for policies that reduce car dependence than policymakers might have previously thought.

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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.

The Collector

January 16, 2026

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Our Voices Were Heard: Regional Transportation Plan Fixes Are on the Way

Following public pressure from CRTP, EPIC, and 350 Humboldt, as well as dozens of our members and supporters, the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) Board of Directors showed support this week for addressing the problems we identified with an update of the county’s Regional Transportation Plan. Specifically, a majority of the Board supported restoring use of the phrase “climate crisis” throughout the plan, as well as restoring the existing policy that 80% of new housing should be in non-car-dependent areas, rather than pushing that target date out to 2030. Supervisor Steve Madrone, representing the county, also spoke forcefully in favor of a policy requiring HCAOG to prioritize funding projects that do the most to advance the RTP’s goals of safety, climate action, and equity.

While the HCAOG Board did not take a vote, based on their discussions, we expect these issues to be addressed when the final plan comes to them for adoption next month. Humboldt’s Regional Transportation Plan contains ambitious and science-based policies and targets – even more so than the recently approved Regional Climate Action Plan – and it’s imperative that we keep it that way.

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Trinidad Rancheria Part of High-Tech Transportation Safety Pilot

The Trinidad Rancheria will be collaborating with the University of Utah to install high-tech sensors along Scenic Drive and in other parts of the Rancheria, thanks to a pair of federal grants awarded recently. The sensors are intended to detect seismic movements and landslides as well as traffic movements, use AI to predict road hazards, and produce real-time warnings. CRTP will be watching to see if this approach can produce real safety gains, although the energy and expense involved leads us to question how realistic it is for these technologies to be deployed at scale.

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Wiyot Family Housing Development Moves Forward, and Other News from Eureka

Eureka’s Design Review Committee this week approved the Gou’wik Hou Daqh “Where the Families Are” Wiyot Family Housing Development, to be built on the site of the current city parking lot at 5th and D Streets. CRTP has been working to support the conversion of underused downtown parking lots into walkable housing for many years, and we are excited to see this project move another step closer to construction.

In other news from Eureka, the City Council is slated to adopt new Strategic Visioning Goals that include, among many other things: doubling down on transportation safety efforts, developing a new transit hub in Henderson Center, creating “pedestrian-centric parkways,” seeking funding for pedestrian lighting along Broadway, and implementing a better parking management program in core areas.

Speaking of parking management, city staff told Transportation Safety Commission members this week that the city is proceeding with its paid parking program for downtown lots and preparing to expand it to on-street parking. Staff also outlined plans to reprogram many of the city’s traffic signals to reduce conflicts and improve safety.

But the news from Eureka is not all good. Unfortunately, the City Council recently decided to appeal its allocation of affordable housing through the state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Assessment. Specifically, the city objects to the use of vehicle miles traveled as a major factor in allocating lower-income homes throughout the county, which results in Eureka – as the county’s most walkable community – having to plan for more affordable housing.

CRTP believes that all communities need affordable housing, but concentrating such housing in car-dependent areas rather than walkable communities like Eureka penalizes people who can’t afford to own or operate a vehicle. Moreover, when we pushed for more housing at all income levels to be built in non-car-dependent areas, the city objected to that, too – a history which undermines the moral case they are trying to make against “concentrating poverty” in Eureka.

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Provide Input on Del Norte Active Transportation Plan

Del Norte County is developing a much-needed active transportation plan, and there are currently two opportunities to provide input: You can take a survey about your experiences and priorities, and you can provide location-specific comments on a map. We encourage anyone who lives, works, or visits Del Norte to use both tools to provide input. You can find out more about the plan here. Let’s encourage Del Norte to start prioritizing the safety and mobility of people walking, biking, and rolling!

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We Can’t Enforce Our Way to Safety

The Eureka Police Department has taken every opportunity lately to remind the public that they are conducting more – way more – traffic stops than they used to. But serious crashes just keep on happening. It is tempting to believe that better enforcement of traffic laws would solve our safety problems. And it’s true that a small number of people drive especially dangerously as a matter of habit, which is why we support efforts to revoke driving privileges from the most egregious violators. But the research consistently shows that enforcement can’t produce sustained, community-wide reductions in serious crashes. When you add in the fact that traffic stops are often used as a pretext for other investigations rather than targeting genuinely unsafe behavior, and the fact that people of color are almost always targeted disproportionately, you can see why CRTP does not support police enforcement as a major strategy for improving safety.

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Barriers to Better Bus Service

A recent article on the Lost Coast Outpost explored the question of why Humboldt County doesn’t have better bus service. The answers will be familiar to regular readers of The Collector. Low-density, car-dependent development makes effective transit service very hard to provide, and the Humboldt Transit Authority has a very small budget to work with.

The article singled out the proposed “Roger’s Garage” affordable housing project in Bayside, noting that there is currently no bus service to Bayside due to the low-density development pattern, but it’s possible there could be service in the future if the project generates enough local demand. Given the current lack of transit service, CRTP’s focus for the Roger’s Garage project is on accelerating progress toward addressing the dangerous conditions for bicyclists and pedestrians at the Samoa Boulevard/US-101 interchange, which is currently a major barrier for people walking and biking from Bayside to the rest of Arcata.

Unmentioned in the Outpost article is the need for improvement of the Eureka and Arcata transit systems, which serve the densest parts of the county but run complicated, infrequent, and inconvenient loop routes. If you have ideas about improving transit in Eureka specifically, click here to take a survey being conducted by a local student about just that topic.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Let’s Talk About the Cost of Cars

With politicians focusing much of their energy lately on the issue of affordability, cars are a major blind spot. While the cost of gas gets plenty of air time, the other costs of car ownership – which collectively are much greater than the cost of fuel – are largely ignored.

This Is Your Brain on Cars

“Car brain” – also called windshield bias or, more academically, motonormativity – is a real thing. And it’s causing huge problems.

Newsom’s Budget Again Fails to Invest in Active Transportation

Governor Newsom’s January budget proposal leaves investment in pedestrian and bike infrastructure at historically low levels, despite massive demand from local communities. Meanwhile, new research confirms that building this kind of infrastructure leads directly to more people walking and biking, which the state needs in order to meet its climate targets – not to mention improve public health and stimulate local economies.

Trump’s EPA Doesn’t Value Human Life

The US EPA has proposed new rules which fail to assign any dollar value to human lives saved by pollution regulations, while assigning large values to the supposed costs of such regulations to corporations. The predictable result will be that almost any proposed regulation will appear to have huge costs and no benefits, and will therefore not be adopted. If this approach is applied to new vehicle regulations, the implications for transportation will be significant.

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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.

The Collector

December 19, 2025

Editor’s Note: The Collector will be on a winter break for the next few weeks. We’ll be back in the New Year!

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Humboldt Regional Climate Action Plan Adopted!

On Tuesday, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors officially adopted the Regional Climate Action Plan after nearly eight years under development. We appreciate that the supervisors made some changes to address our concerns about the plan’s definition of infill development (although we have yet to see the text of those changes). We also saw some progress addressing our concerns about greenhouse gas thresholds for new projects, with the supervisors adopting thresholds that are slightly more reasonable than what was recommended by the Planning Commission, but still not as ambitious as they should be.

In fact, “some progress, but not as ambitious as it should be” would be a reasonable way to sum up the whole Regional Climate Action Plan. The plan commits to much-needed new programs and reforms in transportation, land use, energy, and other areas. This marks the first time that some local agencies – notably the County of Humboldt itself – have made such meaningful commitments. However, it was supposed to be a ten-year plan starting in 2020, and the long delays mean the region now has only 4 years (until 2030) to follow through. And many of the plan’s goals are not very ambitious – for example, to increase walking and biking in urban areas from the current 9% of trips up to just 12%. So the new plan developed in 2030 will have to include much more aggressive measures in order to reach the state’s target of carbon neutrality by 2045.

It’s also worth noting that the plan is intended to be implemented not just by the county, but also by all seven local cities and several other agencies. All of these partners must now adopt the plan. The real work won’t start until that happens, after which a Regional Climate Committee will be formed and staff hired to work on it. CRTP will be monitoring the situation closely.

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Parking, Parking, Parking

Parking was the theme of the Arcata City Council meeting this week. The Council established a parking permit system on Eye Street to address concerns about student parking spillover from the new Hinarr Hu Moulik dorms. This simple action provides a good illustration of how parking problems do not need to be addressed with more parking – they can be much more effectively addressed through good management.

The bulk of conversation at the meeting, however, was focused on Cal Poly Humboldt’s plan to build a massive new parking lot on Foster Avenue in the Arcata Bottoms. In contrast to the parking permit system, this plan represents the worst way to respond to perceived parking shortages: by paving over yet more land in a vain effort to meet parking “demand.” In fact, the university revealed Wednesday that they eventually plan to build a mind-boggling 1,000 parking spaces on the site.

The university has many options for better managing its parking problems – some of which are called for in its own climate action plan – and an expensive parking study the university commissioned a few years ago explicitly advised against building new parking. But the administration has so far ignored its own plans and expert advice, refusing to implement new parking management strategies and instead opting to pursue costly, destructive, and unnecessary new parking construction.

We should acknowledge that a Cal Poly representative also announced on Wednesday a needed trail connection to fill the gap between segments of Foster Avenue. Unfortunately, the benefits of this small improvement for bicyclists and pedestrians will be completely overshadowed by the impacts of the massive expanses of asphalt to be built just a few steps away.

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Comment Period Still Open for Regional Transportation Plan

Humboldt’s Regional Transportation Plan contains more ambitious and science-based policies and targets than the Regional Climate Action Plan. But a new version being circulated for public comment backs away from previous commitments to urgently needed climate progress.

From removing the phrase “climate crisis” to delaying commitments to build climate-friendly infill housing, purchase zero-emission vehicles, and develop EV charging stations, the new plan would be a step backward for the region. Most concerning, the new plan would remove any commitment to funding projects that are actually consistent with the plan’s own goals for climate action and transportation safety.

The public comment period is open until December 29th. If you haven’t commented yet, we encourage you to take the official survey on the plan, and then to email Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) Board members and tell them to increase their commitment to climate action rather than abandoning their ambitions. You can find Board members’ emails here.

Here are some specific things you could say:

• Restore the use of the phrase “climate crisis” throughout the Regional Transportation Plan. Language matters, especially when it comes to important plans and policies.
• Don’t reverse climate progress. Keep existing targets for climate action, including climate-friendly infill housing. We need climate action now, not five years from now.
• Ensure that future funding decisions prioritize HCAOG’s own climate and safety goals. A plan is nothing more than words on paper if it doesn’t influence future decisions!

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Rural Transit Would Be Hit Hard by Trump Cuts

The Trump administration’s proposal to cut almost all federal funding for public transit would hit rural areas like the North Coast particularly hard. Small rural transit agencies tend to rely much more heavily on federal funding than agencies in bigger metro areas.

Trump Administration Wants Dirtier Buses

There’s really no other way to say it. Faced with administering a congressionally mandated grant program to fund low-emission and zero-emission buses, the administration provided almost no funding for zero-emission buses. Instead, they poured money into the dirtiest vehicles that could fit the definition of “low-emission.”

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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.

The Collector

December 12, 2025

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There’s Still Time to Tell Humboldt County Supervisors to Adopt a Robust Climate Action Plan

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors is slated to adopt the Regional Climate Action Plan next Tuesday, and you can still weigh in! CRTP is joining our environmental allies in asking the supervisors to approve the plan, after making a few key changes. Here are our specific requests:

• Adopt greenhouse gas thresholds at the original levels recommended by the consultant, and reject the Planning Commission’s attempt to weaken this key standard for projects that aren’t compliant with the plan. (Check out EPIC’s great explanation of this issue here.)
• Ensure that only low-emission infill development projects will be considered compliant with the plan, so that high-emission rural developments aren’t exempted from analyzing and mitigating their climate impacts.
• Adopt and implement the plan without delay and without weakening it.

You can find a lot more detail in the letter CRTP and EPIC submitted to the Supervisors. We encourage CRTP’s supporters to email the Supervisors (you can find their emails here), and attend the Board of Supervisors meeting next Tuesday (December 16th), starting at 9:00 am in the Board of Supervisors Chamber, Humboldt County Courthouse, 825 Fifth Street, Eureka.

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Take Action: Transportation Is at the Heart of the Climate Crisis

The Regional Climate Action Plan isn’t the only regional plan currently under consideration that will have a big effect on climate pollution. Transportation accounts for nearly three-quarters of local greenhouse gas emissions, which means Humboldt County’s Regional Transportation Plan is also crucial for the future of climate action in our region. 

This plan is updated every four years by the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG), which is governed by a Board of representatives from the county and all seven of its incorporated cities. Unfortunately, the latest draft of the plan backs away from previous commitments to urgently needed climate progress.

Shockingly, HCAOG is actually proposing to remove all uses of the phrase “climate crisis” from the draft plan, suggesting a troubling lack of understanding of the seriousness of climate change and the urgency of action. And it’s not just the language that has been changed. The new draft also kicks the can down the road by delaying commitments to build climate-friendly infill housing, purchase zero-emission vehicles, and develop EV charging stations. 

Even worse, HCAOG is proposing to remove from the plan any commitment to ensuring that the projects they fund are actually consistent with their own goals for climate action and transportation safety. 

With the federal government aggressively undermining climate action and trying to ensure the crisis only gets worse, local communities need to step up now more than ever. We can’t let our county and our cities backslide on climate at this critical moment in history.

We encourage everyone to take HCAOG’s official survey on the plan, and then to email HCAOG Board members and tell them to increase their commitment to climate action rather than abandoning their ambitions. You can find Board members’ emails here.

Here are some specific things you could say:

• Restore the use of the phrase “climate crisis” throughout the Regional Transportation Plan. Language matters, especially when it comes to important plans and policies.
• Don’t reverse climate progress. Keep existing targets for climate action, including climate-friendly infill housing. We need climate action now, not five years from now.
• Ensure that future funding decisions prioritize HCAOG’s own climate and safety goals. A plan is nothing more than words on paper if it doesn’t influence future decisions!

If you want to dive deeper, you can review the draft Regional Transportation Plan, read the official comments submitted by CRTP and our environmental allies, or read recent local media coverage of the issue. Comments are due by December 29th.

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Housing Wins and Warning Signs

Walkable, transit-friendly, affordable housing in Eureka got two big boosts this week. First, the Sunset Heights affordable housing project, on the bluff above Broadway between Harris and Henderson Streets, secured a $21.7 million state grant. The money will not only allow the construction of 43 affordable homes near jobs and services, it will also pay for improved transit service as well as bike and pedestrian safety upgrades to some of the neighborhood’s most dangerous streets. CRTP is proud to have helped facilitate this grant application and excited to announce that a small portion of the funding will help us develop a new program at CRTP.

In breaking news today, we have also learned that the Humboldt Transit Authority and Danco have officially received the final funding needed for construction of the Eureka Regional Transportation and Housing Center (EaRTH Center), the long-awaited downtown transit hub with 45 affordable homes built right on top!

While we celebrate these wins for infill housing, we are also tracking warning signs that the county may be planning for more car-dependent, climate-wrecking sprawl. At their meeting this Tuesday, Humboldt County supervisors approved a grant application that, among other things, would fund studies of “improvements necessary to support potential subdivision and development along the Walnut Drive corridor between Cutten and Ridgewood.” Development in this area would have very little potential for walkability, bikeability, or high-quality transit – in other words, it would be sprawl. We will be advocating strongly for the county to support new housing in more sensible locations like Myrtletown and McKinleyville.

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Trails! Trails! Trails!

Next Tuesday, the Great Redwood Trail Agency will be holding a virtual public meeting about its Master Plan for the future development of the trail from San Francisco Bay all the way around Humboldt Bay to Fairhaven. You can register for the meeting here, and submit questions in advance using this form.

Meanwhile, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors took another step this week toward maintaining a crucial piece of existing trail infrastructure. The Hammond Trail bridge over Baduwa’t (Mad River) provides a safe connection between McKinleyville and Arcata for bicyclists and pedestrians, but is old and considered seismically vulnerable. Funding to replace it was secured by Congressman Jared Huffman two years ago, and on Tuesday the supervisors hired a consultant to develop engineering and environmental plans for the project.

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Are We Really Still Doing the Big Box Thing?

According to media reports this week, Wal-Mart is in the process of buying the old K-Mart property on Broadway in Eureka. The property owner had previously agreed to sell the property to the county for a new permitting center, but apparently backed out after receiving an offer from Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart stores are the epitome of car-dependent corporate development, with infamously large parking lots and predatory business practices. There’s a reason “big box” stores are not allowed in Arcata or the future McKinleyville Town Center. Why is Eureka still allowing, and even encouraging, this kind of development?

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News from Beyond the North Coast

California’s Legislators Fail to Prioritize Transportation Safety

A new CalMatters investigation shows that, when presented with the fact that 40,000 people have died on California’s roads in the last decade and the number keeps rising, state legislators completely ignored this accelerating epidemic and decided instead to discuss issues like homeless encampments on state highways. It’s a stunning example of the lack of political will that is undermining efforts to eliminate traffic deaths. We know how to stop the carnage. The solutions – from better road design to intelligent speed assistance in vehicles – are well documented, and where governments invest in them, they work. But we will never make progress if our leaders keep ignoring the problem.

Statewide Task Force Recommends Transit Reforms

The California Transit Transformation Task Force has been meeting for the last two years. The group, created by a state law in 2023, was charged with charting a path forward to ensure robust and effective transit systems across the state, and determining how to avoid the fiscal crises facing many big systems. The task force’s official report has now been published. Among other things, it calls for new funding sources for transit and freeing transit operators from onerous state restrictions. Some of the recommendations can be implemented by transit agencies and local governments, but most will require the state legislature to take action.

About That Traffic Study…

When changes to local road or street designs are proposed, it’s usually not long before someone calls for a “traffic study.” Not unreasonably, people feel that we should know what will happen to car traffic after a project is built, and a study sounds like an official and scientific way to find out. But it turns out that most of the models used to conduct these studies are deeply flawed and fail to account for some of the most basic principles in transportation planning.

If You Build It, They Will Come

We’ve long known that building more highway lanes doesn’t alleviate congestion in the long term. Instead, it results in more people driving and filling up the lanes again, so congestion ends up at about the same level it was before. Recent research confirms that this phenomenon – called induced travel – happens with even small “congestion-reducing” projects, like adding a turn lane at an intersection. And it also applies to people walking and biking. Build more bike lanes, sidewalks, and trails, and people will walk, bike and roll more!

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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.

The Collector

December 5, 2025

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Tell Humboldt County Supervisors to Adopt a Robust Climate Action Plan

Nearly 8 years after Humboldt County began work on a Regional Climate Action Plan – years in which global climate pollution kept rising and the impacts of climate change became more and more severe – the Board of Supervisors is finally poised to adopt it. Through all these years, CRTP has been advocating for a robust plan that meets the urgency of the climate threat and tackles the region’s biggest source of climate pollution: transportation.

Almost three-quarters of the climate pollution covered by the plan comes from transportation. That means that upgrading our local infrastructure and services, and changing our land use rules, to make low-carbon options like walking, biking, rolling, and riding the bus safer, easier, and more appealing are keys to the plan’s success.

CRTP has been advocating for almost 8 years to get a plan adopted that is robust and ambitious enough to meet the urgent challenge of climate action. The current plan is far from perfect, but we will be relieved to see it adopted. After adoption, a regional climate action committee will be set up and new staff will be hired, setting the stage for more focused and ambitious climate action than we have seen in the past.

The supervisors are scheduled to vote on the plan on December 16th, and written comments are due next Thursday (December 11th). We are joining our environmental allies in asking the supervisors to approve the Regional Climate Action Plan, after making a few key changes. Here are our specific requests:

• Adopt greenhouse gas thresholds at the original levels recommended by the consultant, and reject the Planning Commission’s attempt to weaken this key standard for projects that aren’t compliant with the plan. (Check out EPIC’s great explanation of this issue here.)
• Ensure that only low-emission infill development projects will be considered compliant with the plan, so that high-emission rural developments aren’t exempted from analyzing and mitigating their climate impacts.
• Adopt and implement the plan without delay and without weakening it.

We encourage CRTP’s supporters to submit a written comment by emailing cob@co.humboldt.ca.us by next Thursday, email your County Supervisor (you can find out who your Supervisor is here and find their email here), and attend the Board of Supervisors meeting on December 16th, starting at 9:00 in the Board of Supervisors Chamber, Humboldt County Courthouse, 825 Fifth Street, Eureka.

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Eureka Town Hall on Designs for Density

There is an urgent need for more homes in our region, and limited options for where to build them. The City of Eureka is developing new zoning rules to allow more homes to be built in city limits, and next Monday, the city will be hosting a Town Hall to hear public input on what those homes should look like.

Attendees of the events held this week with national street and community design experts came away with some ideas that could be applied in Eureka. Dan Burden, Victor Dover, and Josh Meyer reviewed local streets and buildings and presented evidence for the overwhelming health, safety, and economic benefits of slow streets, walkable neighborhoods, and beautiful public spaces.

CRTP strongly supports denser infill development, which has many benefits over sprawl, from community building and increased safety to greater affordability and environmental protection. If you’re a Eureka resident, we encourage you to attend next Monday’s Town Hall and have your say!

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Driver Strikes Pedestrian on 4th Street

Last Wednesday, a vehicle struck a pedestrian at 4th and C Streets in Eureka. Public information about the crash is extremely limited, but it appears that the victim was seriously injured. As CRTP documented in our recent report, all of 4th and 5th Streets are dangerous for pedestrians, and some of our point-of-view videos documenting pedestrian and bicyclist experiences in the corridor include this very intersection.

The intersection of 4th and C Streets is directly between the Bayview Heights supportive housing complex for homeless veterans and the office of a veterans services organization, and very close to other important destinations including the North Coast Co-op and Tri-County Independent Living. Despite high usage by pedestrians and other vulnerable road users, there is no signal or other protection for crossing pedestrians at this intersection, or any other intersection for blocks in either direction. CRTP continues to call for a major safety overhaul of 4th and 5th Streets to prevent crashes like this from continuing to happen.

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CRTP Publishes Annual Update

CRTP has done a lot this year! Even if you’re a regular reader of The Collector, you may have missed some of our many accomplishments, large and small. Check out our 2025 Annual Update to get the details on some of the most notable things we did this year, from securing millions of dollars in annual funding for local transit to celebrating the long-awaited completion of the Humboldt Bay Trail.

We rely on community support to do this work, and we’d love to have you as a member! Click here to join CRTP or renew your membership.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Heavier Vehicles Kill More Pedestrians and Bicyclists

New research adds to the evidence that bigger, heavier vehicles – especially vans and pick-up trucks – are more likely to kill pedestrians and bicyclists. Interestingly, the analysis found SUVs to be less likely to kill vulnerable road users, but note that this result could be explained by incomplete data, the fact that SUVs tend to be newer and therefore have more safety features, or the wide variety of SUV weights and designs.

Why We Are Failing to Reduce Traffic Deaths

The Washington Post has published a damning investigation into the rise of traffic deaths in the US in recent years, particularly among pedestrians and bicyclists, at the same time that American government agencies at all levels have adopted the goal of eliminating traffic deaths (Vision Zero). As the Post details, this dismal failure is a result of lack of funding, lack of political will, and backlash from drivers who prioritize speed over safety.

Are E-Bikes Really the Problem?

As the epidemic of traffic deaths continues unabated amid indisputable evidence of the dangers of large vehicles, some in politics and in the media are ignoring this crisis and focusing instead on the relatively minor safety threat posed by irresponsible e-bike riders. CRTP supports reasonable e-bike regulations, but not onerous rules that would force people back into cars (which are more dangerous by far), or limit the mobility of nondrivers. Like transportation safety advocates nationwide, we are concerned that the moral panic over e-bikes is leading the American public to ignore the real safety threats on our streets.

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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.

The Collector

November 21, 2025

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Dangerous Downtown Streets: Another View of Biking Across 4th and 5th Streets

Imagine you’re cruising down I Street on your bike, heading toward downtown in the new buffered bike lane. Then you get to 6th Street, and suddenly you have to cross two turn lanes and merge with busy car traffic to reach your destination. Click here to watch a video of just this experience. Afterwards, you can also click here to watch all the other point-of-view videos we’ve produced documenting the experiences of pedestrians and bicyclists in the 4^th & 5^th Street corridor.

After you watch, you can read our full 4th and 5th Street safety report. And if you’d like to report a safety concern in the corridor to Caltrans, click here and scroll down to “Safety Concern” in the “Situation Type” menu. We also encourage everyone to continue making Street Story reports, so that concerns are publicly documented.

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Memo to Local Governments: Climate Change is a Crisis

The Board of the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) is made up of representatives from the County of Humboldt and all seven of its incorporated cities. At a Board meeting this Thursday, these representatives made several decisions that suggest a troubling lack of urgency in their approach to addressing the climate crisis.

Most prominently, the Board discussed a proposal to completely remove the phrase “climate crisis” from the new version of the Regional Transportation Plan. Some Board members expressed their belief that climate change is in fact a crisis, while others thought the word “crisis” is overused. Apparently those folks didn’t think that one of the biggest existential threats in the history of humanity merits the term. Regardless of the individual views they expressed, Board members voted unanimously to publicly release the new draft plan with the word “crisis” removed.

Scientists and government bodies around the world have identified climate change as a global crisis. At a time when the US government is actively undermining climate action, our local responsibility to act on the crisis is greater than ever. And transportation is our biggest source of climate pollution.

Of course, while language is important, actions speak louder than words. And the new draft Regional Transportation Plan provides more for climate advocates to be worried about. For example, it calls for delaying critical targets for building walkable housing, reducing vehicle miles traveled, and building electric vehicle charging stations. This comes at the same time that HCAOG continues to move forward with a regional housing plan that fails to adequately discourage climate-wrecking sprawl.

Perhaps most troubling of all, HCAOG continues to resist any policy that would hold it accountable to its own climate and safety targets when deciding which local transportation projects to fund. In fact, the draft Regional Transportation Plan the Board voted to release on Thursday eliminates a prior commitment to track the effects of its funded projects on things like climate and safety.

At the same meeting, Board members rebuffed CRTP’s request to adopt a policy to ensure that funded projects are consistent with its own stated goals on issues like the climate crisis. Instead, they approved funding for several projects with no such analysis. And they did so after we explained to the Board in detail that one of the approved projects – a large, complex roundabout in Fortuna – will, as designed, result in increased driving and unsafe conditions for people walking and biking, contrary to HCAOG’s own goals.

Stay tuned for more information about how we are pushing back against these troubling developments. In the meantime, you can take HCAOG’s survey about the Regional Transportation Plan update to express your opinions.

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NEW DATE: Family-Friendly Bike Ride This Saturday Using New McKinleyville Protected Bike Lanes!

Last weekend’s planned bike ride in McKinleyville was postponed due to the weather, but we’ve rescheduled it for Saturday (tomorrow!). Join us for a slow-paced, family-friendly bike ride celebrating the new protected bike lanes and beautiful murals on Hiller Road! You can choose either a short ride starting at Hiller Park, or a slightly longer ride starting at the Mad River Trailhead. The current forecast calls for rain on Sunday, but we’ll only be canceling for heavy rain or major stormy conditions. Light rain won’t stop us!

We’ll depart from the Mad River Trailhead at 11:00 am and head toward Hiller Park, using the Hammond Trail. We’ll stop at Hiller Park at around 11:20 am to pick up folks who are starting their ride there, and then head up Hiller toward Central Avenue. After using the new eastbound protected bike lane on Hiller, we’ll stop near Central to check out the new murals, then head back using the westbound protected bike lane. The ride will end around noon at Seagoat Farm Stand with free hot tea and the opportunity to buy some snacks at the farm stand. People of all ages and abilities are welcome.

Whether you can join us for the ride or not, we also encourage all community members to take this county survey to provide feedback about the project.

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Walk Audits, Bike Audits, and Community Meetings!

The Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) does a lot of important work, and CRTP often works with them to advance our priorities for safe, sustainable, equitable transportation. In this edition of The Collector, we’ve strongly criticized what we see as backsliding by HCAOG. CRTP will always call out such problems at local agencies. But we will also always support them when they are trying to do the right thing.

The week after Thanksgiving, HCAOG is bringing internationally recognized experts Dan Burden and Victor Dover to Humboldt for a series of walk audits, bike audits, and community meetings to promote “vibrant, walkable/rollable, livable neighborhoods.” This is an important effort to educate the public and local decision-makers about safe and sustainable transportation.

Monday, December 1st will feature a walk and bike audit in Hoopa. On Tuesday, December 2nd, there will be walk and bike audits in Arcata and Eureka, and a community meeting in McKinleyville. On Wednesday, December 3rd, the visit will conclude with a regional community workshop in Eureka. Check out the full schedule here and mark your calendar for as many events as you can!

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Indianola Undercrossing Partially Complete

Local media were buzzing this week about the fact that the Indianola undercrossing on US-101 between Eureka and Arcata opened for car traffic, following decades of planning and development work. If we were in charge, we would have designed a different safety project for this location. Nevertheless, the new undercrossing will undoubtedly improve safety for motorists, and that’s a really good thing. However, bicyclists and pedestrian take note: while the overpass is now carrying car traffic, the part of the project that will provide access under the highway, to and from the new Humboldt Bay Trail, has not yet been completed.

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You Can Still Report Your Unmet Transit Needs

Several local agencies – including the City of Arcata – held their annual Unmet Transit Needs hearings this week. But if you missed those meetings, you can still report your unmet needs! Submit your comments by taking HCAOG’s survey or emailing your comments directly to HCAOG.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Trump Administration Proposes to Eliminate Federal Transit Funding

The Trump administration has been slashing previously approved funding for transit projects since it took office in January. Now, the administration is taking its attack on transit to a new level, proposing to completely eliminate the main source of federal funding for transit agencies, while at the same time prohibiting states from using any highway funds for transit. If this proposal is approved by Congress, it would, as Transportation for America says, “annihilate state and local transportation budgets.”

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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.