The Collector

May 15, 2026

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Bike Celebration Tomorrow!

We’re halfway through Bike Month, and there are still lots of fun things to do. You can join CRTP and other bike enthusiasts on Saturday from 11 am to 2 pm for the annual Bike Celebration Fair at Jefferson Community Center in Eureka, and there are several other commuter and recreational rides throughout the week. Check out the full event calendar here.

You can also get special deals this month at local bike-friendly businesses! And as always, wherever you ride, report any biking hazards, near-misses or even (we hope not) crashes on Street Story.

Finally, don’t forget that the Redwood Coast Energy Authority’s e-bike voucher program has funding available! You can apply now for vouchers of $400 or more toward the purchase of an e-bike!

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Two Deadlines Next Week

The deadline to sign our petition for safer 4th and 5th Streets is next Monday. The petition is already making an impact, before we’ve even submitted it: we recently found out that Caltrans is now planning a “feasibility study” for safety improvements on 4th and 5th Street. Let’s keep the pressure on! Make sure your name is on the petition before we deliver it to Caltrans.

The deadline for applications for our Outreach Specialist position is also next week. If you are passionate about transportation safety, equity, and sustainability, apply by next Tuesday to join our small but mighty team! Click here for the full job description and application instructions.

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Arcata Zoning Code Updates on the Horizon

This week the Arcata Planning Commission held its first meeting on zoning code updates to implement new policies in the city’s General Plan, which was adopted in 2024. These updates include critical parking reform measures, walkable development standards, and new bike parking requirements, all of which CRTP and our members and supporters advocated for during the General Plan process. We hope to see them adopted into the zoning code soon!

In other Arcata news, the start of construction of the Sunset Avenue and US 101 interchange improvements has been delayed until next year. The plan to build new roundabouts will undoubtedly make these dangerous intersections much safer for motorists. CRTP continues to advocate to ensure that the design is safe and comfortable for people walking, biking, and rolling too.

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More About That Proposed Amazon Distribution Center

Humboldt County has posted video of the contentious community meeting about the proposed Amazon distribution center in McKinleyville on its website, along with other materials presented at the meeting. If you couldn’t make it to the meeting, these materials will help catch you up.

McKinleyville residents, take note: the New York Times this week published a sobering report on the enormous toll that a boom in distribution centers in the Chicago suburbs has taken on transportation safety and infrastructure. Truck traffic deaths in that region have risen dramatically, and road conditions are deteriorating due to the heavy vehicles. While the proposed distribution center in McKinleyville is much more modest in scale, and therefore presumably more modest in impact, CRTP remains very concerned about the potential impact on street safety and infrastructure.

In other McKinleyville news, the Board of Supervisors this week rejected an appeal by Humboldt Commons, effectively requiring the nonprofit senior community developer to add an extra lane’s worth of asphalt to part of Hiller Road. While the Town Center plan calls for this new pavement to eventually by the travel lane, and the current lane to be a median, in the near term the paving will just result in a wider, more dangerous street. We are calling on the county to seek funding to build out the whole Hiller Road safety upgrade as soon as possible, rather than leaving an extra-wide expanse of pavement in front of Humboldt Commons and hoping that future developers will do the rest someday.

Infrastructure and development are also, of course, major issues in the District 5 supervisor race. Current Supervisor Steve Madrone has stated his opposition to the distribution center and has supported infrastructure improvements like the Town Center safety overhaul of Central Avenue. But he is not running for reelection. We will be watching closely to see what his successor – either local ecologist and McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee chair Mary Burke or local businessman Evan Schwartz – will do. Either way, if you live in McKinleyville or anywhere else in District 5, don’t forget to vote!

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Eureka to Oppose Offshore Oil Drilling

The Eureka City Council recently discussed how the city could help stop oil drilling off Humboldt’s coastline by banning onshore support facilities. While officially banning these facilities will take a while, the city will take a first step at next week’s council meeting by passing a resolution opposing drilling. As CRTP Executive Director Colin Fiske told the council, while our usual focus is on the other end of the oil supply chain and the need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuel transportation, prohibiting offshore drilling is an important issue to us because the entire fossil fuel supply chain is dirty and harmful to health and the climate.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Stop the State from Giving Transit Money to Big Oil!

California’s “cap and invest” (formerly called cap and trade) program brings in state revenue that has been critical for local projects like the new EaRTH Center transit hub, the local transition to zero-emission buses, the Linc Housing and Sunset Heights affordable housing projects in Eureka, and many other transit, bike, and pedestrian investments.

Now the California Air Resources Board is proposing to divert billions of dollars from the program to subsidize oil and gas companies. Click here to send a message opposing this terrible idea.

Trump Administration’s Assault on Transit Continues

The Trump administration is withholding more funding from transit projects around the country, while proposing to eliminate the main source of transit funding entirely from next year’s budget. Some Democrats are pushing back, but the outcome is uncertain. A new report finds that if Trump’s transit funding proposals are enacted, massive reductions in service and layoffs of transit workers will result. Rural areas like Humboldt and Del Norte will be hit especially hard.

Car Ads Promote Unsafe Driving

A new analysis finds that the number of car ads that promote speeding and reckless driving is increasing, while the number emphasizing safety has plummeted.

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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

May 8, 2026

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Exciting E-Bike News & More Bike Month Fun!

We kicked off bike month last week by picking the winner of our e-bike raffle. Congratulations to Katie Koscielak, who is now the owner of a Blix cargo e-bike, and thanks to everyone who bought a ticket to support CRTP!

If you didn’t win our raffle, but you still want an e-bike, you should check out the Redwood Coast Energy Authority’s e-bike voucher program. There is funding available right now for vouchers of $400 or more toward the purchase of an e-bike!

Whatever kind of bike you ride, there are lots of ways to celebrate Bike Month over the next week, including mural rides in Eureka and Manila, and National Bike to Work/Anywhere Week all week long. And you can get special deals at local bike-friendly businesses! Check out the full event calendar here. And as always, wherever you ride, don’t forget to report any biking hazards, near-misses or even (we hope not) crashes on Street Story.

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The Economic Impact of Transit in Humboldt County

Last fiscal year, nearly 140,000 work shifts, 151,000 student class days, and 37,000 medical appointments were accessed by transit in Humboldt County. Transit riders spent more than $5 million at local businesses. And people who relied on transit instead of owning a car saved an average of $10,472 over the course of the year. These facts and more can be found in CRTP’s new 2025 Economic Fact Sheet, which demonstrates clearly that our local transit system supports thousands of jobs, along with access to education, medical care, groceries, government services, family, friends, and more.

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Get Involved with CRTP!

If you’re passionate about safe, sustainable, and equitable transportation, and you’re ready for a new chapter in your life, you’re invited to apply to be CRTP’s next Outreach Specialist. Click here for the full job description and application instructions.

If you want to be more involved with CRTP’s work, but you’re not looking for a new job, here are some other opportunities:

• Share your transit story. Send us a paragraph or two about why you ride transit, how transit makes your life better, what you couldn’t do without it, how it could be better with more public support, and any other thoughts you want to share. Your story could help build support for more transit investment in our region!
• Sign the petition for safer 4th & 5th Streets in Eureka. If you’ve already signed, share it with a friend! We’re also looking for endorsements from organizations, businesses, and elected officials.
• Become a member of CRTP. Without our members, CRTP wouldn’t exist!

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Arcata Adopts Regional Climate Action Plan

The Arcata City Council voted unanimously to adopt the Regional Climate Action Plan at its regular meeting on Wednesday. The plan had already been adopted by the county, Eureka, and Rio Dell, which means the vast majority of the county is now covered by the plan.

Transportation is by far the biggest source of climate pollution covered by the plan. In order to meet its targets, the plan requires both a transition to electric vehicles and a shift to more walking, biking, and transit. We are hopeful that adoption of a coordinated regional plan will spur local agencies to act more quickly toward these goals, which we’ve been advocating for since CRTP’s founding in 2015!

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Infrastructure Updates from Around the Region

The City of Eureka has requested a delay in state-awarded construction funding for the planned Bay to Zoo Trail, extending the start of construction from 2026 to 2028 due partly to negotiations with property owners over trail right-of-way. CRTP continues to work to ensure that the trail design is safe and comfortable for everybody. One of our concerns is the design of the Myrtle Avenue roundabout. Plans currently call for people biking on the trail to either merge with traffic in the roundabout or ride on the sidewalk and in the crosswalk. Neither option works well for kids and less confident bicyclists.

The city’s request for delayed construction funding is on the agenda for a California Transportation Commission meeting next week. Also on the commission’s agenda are funding allocations for pedestrian improvements in Rio Dell, purchase of a small electric bus for Del Norte’s Redwood Coast Transit Authority, and planning for Crescent City’s future transit center.

CRTP is also tracking other projects on the commission’s agenda. One is a planned project to repave Highway 299 and improve some bike and pedestrian infrastructure near Willow Creek. The other is a previously planned small project to improve bike and pedestrian facilities at the US 101 & School Road interchange in McKinleyville, which Caltrans is now scrapping. We’ll keep readers of The Collector informed as we learn more.

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Distracted Driving in Eureka

California law prohibits drivers from holding a phone or other electronic device while driving, but this kind of behavior remains common. The Eureka Police Department recently reported that it cited ten drivers for cell phone violations in the month of April alone. Distracted driving is extremely dangerous, and even legal, “hand free” device use distracts drivers, reduces attention to road conditions, and slows reaction time.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Transportation Update from Sacramento

E-bikes are a hot topic for California lawmakers this year, and unfortunately some of their bad ideas – like requiring special license plates for e-bikes – are moving through the legislature. Other bills addressing everything from bike infrastructure to speeders and driving under the influence, are also moving. Click here for a full update from Streetsblog. And while you’re there, check out their primer on California gas prices, which provides some helpful context for current gubernatorial politics.

Trump Is Still Refusing To Release Funds for Walking, Biking & Transit

Advocates across the country, including CRTP, are asking why Congress should negotiate with the White House over a massive new transportation funding bill, when the Trump administration has already demonstrated that they will simply refuse to disburse money allocated by Congress for projects and programs they don’t like.

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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

May 1, 2026

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May Is Bike Month!

There are lots of ways to celebrate Bike Month, from joining a group ride or the annual Bike Celebration, to signing up for the friendly Bike Month challenge, to patronizing a local bike-friendly business. The month kicks off with car-free day on Newton B. Drury Parkway on Saturday and an Arcata Explorers weekly ride on Sunday. Later in the week, Cal Poly Humboldt Bike to Work/School Day is on Wednesday, or you can join a daily morning commute ride on the beautiful Humboldt Bay Trail from Arcata to Eureka on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Check out the full event calendar here. And wherever you’re riding this month, don’t forget to report any biking hazards, near-misses or even (we hope not) crashes on Street Story.

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May Is Also Voting Month!

Technically Election Day is June 2nd, but voters will start receiving their ballots in the mail next week. In addition to the high-profile state and federal elections, there are also local races on the ballot. Our elected officials make decisions every day about whether or not our streets get safer, our buses get more funding, our communities get more walkable, and our climate crisis gets addressed. If you haven’t made a plan to vote yet, now is the time!

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Join the CRTP Team

We’re looking for a new Outreach Specialist who is passionate about safe, equitable, climate-friendly transportation and wants to join our small but mighty team. If that sounds like you, send in your application today! The full job description and application instructions can be found here.

Want to do more, but not quite ready to apply for a job at CRTP? Here are some other opportunities to get involved:

• Share your transit story. Send us a paragraph or two about why you ride transit, how transit makes your life better, what you couldn’t do without it, how it could be better with more public support, and any other thoughts you want to share. Your story could help build support for more transit investment in our region!
• Sign the petition for safer 4th & 5th Streets in Eureka. If you’ve already signed, share it with a friend! We’re also looking for endorsements from organizations, businesses, and elected officials.
• Become a member of CRTP. Without our members, CRTP wouldn’t exist!

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McKinleyville vs. Amazon

McKinleyville residents turned out to a public meeting this week in large numbers to make it clear that they do not want an Amazon distribution center in their community. Community members cited many reasons for their opposition, from environmental impacts to harm to the local economy to workplace safety conditions.

CRTP also opposes the project. As we have previously noted, a new distribution center in the region would drive up levels of carbon pollution, undermine the emissions reductions that we could otherwise achieve through building more walkable communities, and likely make local streets and roads less safe.

If you’d like to offer ideas for projects that might actually have a positive impact, Humboldt County is holding public meetings Saturday (in person) and next Tuesday (online) to get input on how to “improve the community’s livability” with Community Development Block Grant funds. Proposed projects must be in unincorporated parts of the county, including McKinleyville.

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Arcata to Consider Adopting Climate Plan

The Arcata City Council will consider adoption of the Regional Climate Action Plan at its regular meeting next Wednesday. The plan has already been adopted by the county and by Eureka. That means that, following Arcata’s adoption, 86% of Humboldt County’s population will be formally covered by the plan, even before the smaller cities adopt it.

Of course, adoption is just the first step. The county and the cities will next have to agree on how to fund a regional climate coordinator staff position, likely housed at the Redwood Coast Energy Authority, and then get to work actually implementing measures to tackle climate pollution. We’ll be pushing to make sure the work begins quickly.

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Make Sidewalks Safer & More Accessible

Improperly parked cars, utility poles, mailboxes and other objects often make sidewalks impassable, especially for people with wheelchairs or strollers. To make things worse, tree branches, wires, and other objects often jut out over sidewalks, threatening the safety of pedestrians – especially people who are blind or have low vision. In a recent op-ed in the Times-Standard, accessibility expert and CRTP Board Member Peggy Martinez explains the importance of addressing these problems to make sidewalks safer and more accessible for everyone.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Will California Give Critical Public Transit Funding to Oil Companies Instead?

California’s “cap and invest” (formerly called cap and trade) program brings in billions of dollars in state revenue that are meant to fund programs that reduce carbon pollution. Some of the cap and invest revenues go to grant programs that local agencies in Humboldt have relied to fund the new EaRTH Center transit hub, the transition to zero-emission buses, the Linc Housing and Sunset Heights affordable housing projects in Eureka, and many other transit, bike, and pedestrian investments.

Now, however, the California Air Resources Board is proposing to divert billions of dollars from the program to subsidize oil and gas companies, responding to threats from those companies to close refineries in the state. Independent analysis shows that the proposal would both undermine climate progress and eliminate funding for those crucial transit and housing programs. CRTP joins with transit, housing, climate, and environmental justice advocates from around the state in condemning the proposal and asking the Board to reject it.

Pollution Doesn’t Just Come from Tailpipes

New research shows that asphalt is constantly emitting toxic air pollution. Meanwhile, Humboldt Waterkeeper and Wiyot Tribe Shawir Darrudaluduk have found high levels of toxic, salmon-killing tire chemical 6PPD-q in local waterways. Count these as two more reasons to dramatically reduce our dependence on cars (even EVs) and the infrastructure that supports them.

That Device You Bought May Not Be an E-Bike

As we have previously reported, high-powered, unregulated “e-motos” are the real cause of many safety hazards that have been unfairly blamed on legal e-bikes. The problem is that many manufacturers have been marketing e-motos as e-bikes, and it can be hard to tell the difference just by looking at them. California Attorney General Rob Bonta recently issued a consumer alert on the topic.

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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

April 17, 2026

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Why Eureka’s Parking Garage Plan Is a Really Bad Idea

The Lost Coast Outpost reported last week that Eureka and the Humboldt Transit Authority (HTA) are considering building an 8-story, 216-stall parking garage downtown. For context, Eureka City Manager Miles Slattery noted that would probably make it the tallest building north of San Francisco.

As we pointed out when this concept was first floated back in 2023, a parking garage in downtown Eureka is a really bad idea for many reasons. We’ll list a few of them here:

1. Parking garages are really expensive. A recent UCLA report found that above-ground garages cost an average of $52,000 per space to build. And the Victoria Transport Policy Institute estimates that parking spaces cost between $500 and $2,000/year to operate and maintain. Neither the city nor HTA could afford to build the proposed parking garage – which leads to reason number two that this is a bad idea.
2. Transit money shouldn’t be spent on a parking garage. To pay for the project, the city and HTA would apply for a state grant meant to fund transit improvements. At a time when the need for transit service is rising, state and federal transit funding is declining, and HTA is being forced to backfill its budget with new Measure O funding just to maintain existing service, it should be inconceivable to local decision makers to use limited transit funding to build a parking garage rather than actually improving transit service.
3. A “park-and-ride” in this location is doomed to fail. To justify using transit funds, the project would be called a “park-and-ride” and theoretically limited to use by people boarding a bus at the new transit hub across the street. But the concept of a park-and-ride is to collect suburban commuters for an efficient ride to jobs downtown. A feasible park-and-ride location is near residential areas and far from job centers, and provides competitive travel times compared to driving alone. No one is going to drive to downtown Eureka in order to get on a bus and go somewhere else – they’ll just keep driving.
4. There is no need for this. More than a third of downtown Eureka is already covered with parking lots. There are already plenty of empty on-street and off-street spaces at any given time, despite the fact that most of the parking is free. And now that the city is beginning to more efficiently manage the downtown parking supply, it’s virtually certain that there will be even more parking spaces available in the future without building any more. Even if the garage were used (illegally) by non-bus riders, it’s likely that it would sit mostly empty most of the time, costing HTA maintenance and operations money that would otherwise go toward providing actual bus service.
5. Bus riders, pedestrians, and bicyclists will pay the price. Even the best park-and-rides are inefficient subsidies for motorists. A downtown “park-and-ride” is even worse, because it uses up valuable real estate that could otherwise be used for desperately needed housing or services to make the area more walkable, bikeable, and transit-friendly. If homes were built on this site instead of parking spaces, the people who lived there would provide new riders for HTA and help support the improvement of bus service. In contrast, a parking garage would just be another ugly monolith for people to walk or bike past on their way to somewhere else.

CRTP will be working hard to make sure that transit funds are spent on improving transit service and that this proposal never comes to fruition.

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Share Your Input on Bike and Pedestrian Safety Upgrades

In better news from Eureka, the city and Rural Communities Housing Development Corporation (RCHDC) are applying for a state grant to build affordable housing at the Sunset Heights site, above Broadway between Harris and Henderson Streets. If that sounds familiar, it’s because they applied for – and won! – a grant for the first phase of the same project just last year.

The state’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities grant program funds not only housing, but also bike, pedestrian, and transit improvements in the surrounding neighborhood. You may recall the public outreach that was conducted last year to inform what improvements the first grant should cover. Now that more money could be coming, there are new opportunities to provide input!

This neighborhood has well-known traffic safety problems, as we were reminded this week when another pedestrian was struck by a driver on Harris Street just blocks from the new housing site. CRTP encourages Eureka residents – and anyone who might want to live in the new housing after it’s built – to fill out the city’s online survey and attend a community walk next Thursday at noon to help identify opportunities for bike and pedestrian improvements. And as always, you can also report hazardous locations on Street Story, which CRTP and the city both periodically review.

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Share Your Ideas for a Better McKinleyville

Cal Poly Humboldt and the McKinleyville Municipal Advisory Committee are collecting “ideas to improve quality of life, sustainability, and/or economic growth for McKinleyville.” Want better sidewalks, protected bike lanes, calmer traffic, or better transit service? You can share your ideas at a listening session Saturday morning or submit specific ideas through this form.

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Get Involved with CRTP!

Want to do more to support safe, fair, climate-friendly transportation on the North Coast? Here are some current opportunities.

• Share your transit story. Send us a paragraph or two about why you ride transit, how transit makes your life better, what you couldn’t do without it, how it could be better with more public support, and any other thoughts you want to share. Your story could help build support for more transit investment in our region!
• Sign the petition for safer 4th & 5th Streets in Eureka. We’re also looking for endorsements from organizations, businesses, and elected officials.
• Support CRTP. You can support CRTP by becoming a member or by buying a raffle ticket for a dual-battery BLIX cargo e-bike. To buy tickets, email cemone2@reninet.com or contact any CRTP Board Member. The drawing will be May 1st – the first day of Bike Month!

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Temporary Hammond Trail Closure

McKinleyville bicyclists and pedestrians, take note: the Hammond Trail will be closed for maintenance next week between Murray Road and Knox Cove Avenue.

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Arcata Committee to Discuss Lowering Speed Limits

Arcata’s Transportation Safety Committee will meet next week and consider whether to create a new subcommittee to guide the city toward lower speed limits. State laws passed in the last few years have created opportunities the city can take advantage of, poking some holes in the regulatory regime that historically made lowering speed limits practically impossible in most cases. Local governments can now reduce speed limits to 20 mph on many streets, and even to 15 mph in places with special safety needs.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

“America Has No Transportation Engineers”

To get a degree to work as a transportation engineer in the United States, a civil engineering student often takes only one class: “Introduction to Highway Engineering.” It’s no wonder that they often don’t seem capable of solving the traffic safety crisis or building usable bike and pedestrian infrastructure. Doing those things requires an understanding of the complexities of how humans interact with the built environment, and our engineers just aren’t trained for that.

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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

April 10, 2026

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Join Us for a Solidarity Gathering!

Next Monday, April 13th, join CRTP and our allies at Friends of the Eel River and EPIC for a Solidarity Gathering from 5-7 pm at Humbrews in Arcata. This is an opportunity to learn how to participate in community decision-making and help shape the future of our cities, rivers, and forests. CRTP will share about our campaign for safer local streets, and EPIC will teach you how to get involved in environmental policy-making in our region.

Humbrews is generously donating a portion of sales during the event, so please bring your family out to have dinner and drinks and join the movement to support what our community cares about. There will also be a raffle!

Friends of the Eel River is hosting these gatherings every month to help community members plan creative resistance to the Trump administration’s destructive policies, learn about community initiatives, and take meaningful action to protect the people, creatures, and values we all hold dear. Join us on Monday, and keep an eye out for the next one!

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Share Your Transit Story

If you are a transit rider on the North Coast, we want to hear from you about the importance of public transit in your life. We’re looking for a paragraph or two about why you ride, how transit makes your life better, what you couldn’t do without it, how it could be better with more public support, and any other thoughts you want to share. Your story could help build support for more transit investment in our region!

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Don’t Forget to Buy Those Raffle Tickets!

CRTP is raffling off a dual-battery BLIX cargo e-bike, and there’s still time to buy tickets. Tickets are $5 each or 5 tickets for $20, and all proceeds benefit CRTP. To buy tickets, email cemone2@reninet.com or contact any CRTP Board Member. The drawing will be May 1st – the first day of Bike Month!

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Show Your Support for Fixing Our Most Dangerous Streets

Almost 600 residents of Eureka and other local communities have signed our petition for safer 4th and 5th Streets so far. If you haven’t signed yet, there’s still time!

We are also looking for endorsements from organizations, businesses, and elected officials. If you represent a group that would like to publicly endorse the petition and encourage people to sign, email colin@transportationpriorities.org.

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Trail Updates, from Eureka to Cloverdale

The City of Eureka has published a new story map with information about the planned Bay to Zoo Trail. CRTP has advocated for this trail for years and is excited to see progress toward construction. However, we continue to have some concerns about its design.

When designing a trail meant to serve bicyclists of all ages and abilities, it’s crucial that the entire route be comfortable and safe for everyone from kids to seniors. But, despite labeling the entire planned route a “trail,” the city plans to require bicyclists to ride in the street with not even a bike lane from St. Joseph’s Hospital south to the Sequoia Park Zoo. We are also concerned about the design of a new roundabout trail crossing at Myrtle Avenue. Preliminary designs appear to show bicyclists diverted onto sidewalks or into the street, with no safe, dedicated crossing location.

In other trail news, a recent ruling by an obscure federal railroad agency is presenting new challenges for the future of the Great Redwood Trail. The ruling means that the Great Redwood Trail Agency will not be able to convert train tracks from Willits to Cloverdale directly into a trail, but instead will have to preserve the rails alongside this important central piece of the trail. As Humboldt’s trail advocates know from years of experience, this “rails with trails” approach dramatically increases the cost of trail-building and as well as the environmental impact.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Pedestrian Deaths are Down, But Still Too High

A new report from the Governors Highway Safety Association estimates that pedestrian deaths dropped by 11% in the first half of 2025, and deaths in California decreased nearly 32% from the year before. This is incredibly good news, and should be celebrated. However, we must consider these safety gains in context.

Despite the progress, fatalities remain higher than they were before the pandemic, which saw a huge increase in pedestrian deaths. The Trump administration is slashing funding for the kinds of infrastructure upgrades which likely contributed to the recent safety gains. And, if you’re a decision-maker focused more on dollars than deaths, it should be noted that even at this reduced level of deaths, pedestrian fatalities are costing the US economy more than $40 billion every six months.

Stop Doing What Doesn’t Work

There’s no reason to fix a dangerous intersection until someone is killed. A pedestrian who is killed by a driver is to blame for their own death. The real solution to the traffic safety crisis is more police enforcement or pedestrian education.

If you’re a transportation safety advocate, these refrains will sound very familiar to you. They are repeated over and over again by public officials in response to demands for street safety upgrades. But these and other common ideas are all completely wrong, and the safety “solutions” they suggest just don’t work.

Safe Biking Networks Are Both Necessary and Possible

A new study confirms previous findings that building low-stress, protected bike lanes leads to more people biking. But the findings also show that bigger ridership increases come only when communities build complete networks of low-stress facilities, rather than disconnected projects here and there.

A complete network of comfortable bike lanes might sound like a pipe dream, but it’s not! With enough political will, infrastructure can change quickly. The city of El Paso has demonstrated this dramatically, building 1,000 miles of bike lanes over the last 10 years.

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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

April 3, 2026

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Share Your Transit Story

CRTP is collecting stories about the importance of public transit to people on the North Coast. If you are a transit rider, we want to hear from you about the importance of public transit in your life. We’re looking for just a paragraph or two about why you ride, how transit makes your life better, what you couldn’t do without it, how it could be better with more public support, and any other thoughts you want to share. We’re hoping to share some of these stories publicly as we work to build support for more transit investment in our region.

To show our thanks for sharing your stories with us, the first five people to send us their transit stories will each get a free ticket for CRTP’s current raffle of a dual-battery BLIX cargo e-bike! Just email your story to kelsey@transportationpriorities.org, and we’ll get a raffle ticket for you!

Of course, you can also buy raffle tickets without sending us a transit story. Tickets are $5 each or 5 tickets for $20, and all proceeds benefit CRTP. To buy tickets, email cemone2@reninet.com or contact any CRTP Board Member. The drawing will be May 1st – the first day of Bike Month!

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The Richardson Grove Fight May Finally Be Over

19 years after Caltrans publicly proposed a highway expansion through Richardson Grove State Park, and 15 years after the first lawsuit was filed against the project, a panel of judges has ruled against EPIC and other plaintiffs in their latest challenge to the project’s environmental review. This decision may mark the end of the long-running fight over the project. Caltrans has said it intends to start construction soon, and the California Transportation Commission has already allocated millions of dollars to spend on it.

CRTP is eternally grateful to EPIC for leading the fight against the Richardson Grove project for so many years. And we are deeply disappointed that Caltrans continues to pursue this completely unnecessary, damaging project, at a time when there are so many real and urgent needs on other parts of the state highway system. The fact that Caltrans continues to disingenuously call this a “safety project,” while refusing to fund real safety projects in places where people are actually dying on their highways – like Broadway, 4th and 5th Streets in Eureka – is especially discouraging.

For CRTP, this is personal. Our organization was founded in 2015 by people who were already, by then, veterans in the fight against the Richardson Grove project. The misguided transportation priorities epitomized by this project were the inspiration for starting an organization dedicated to promoting responsible transportation priorities – priorities like safety, equity, and sustainability. We will keep fighting, along with our allies, to ensure that Caltrans and other agencies do better in the future.

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Join More Than 500 of Your Friends and Neighbors!

Humboldt County is rallying in support of a major safety overhaul for Eureka’s 4th and 5th Streets. More than 500 residents of Eureka and other local communities have signed our petition for safer 4th and 5th Streets so far. Organizations and public officials have been endorsing the petition as well, including 4 out of 5 Eureka City Councilmembers, and organizations like Tri-County Independent Living and the Area 1 Agency on Aging. Have you signed the petition yet?

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E-Bikes Are Not a Problem – They’re a Solution

E-bikes empower more people to get on bikes, to ride longer distances, and to carry more stuff. That in turn allows people to drive less and bike more, which makes our streets safer, our environment cleaner, and our planet more livable. And as more safe, long-distance bike infrastructure becomes available, the opportunities for e-bikes are expanding even more.

But e-bikes are often unfairly blamed for safety problems they’re not really causing, which is fueling a wave of “bikelash” in many communities. CRTP Executive Director helps set the record straight in a recent Times-Standard op-ed.

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Eureka City Council to Consider Transit Hub Funding, Transportation Safety

At its regular meeting next Tuesday, the Eureka City Council will hold a hearing and vote on approval of bond funding for the long-awaited Eureka Regional Transit and Housing Center (EaRTH Center). The hearing is largely a formality, and CRTP is eager to see the financing finalized and the new transit hub under construction.

Later in the meeting, the Council will hear a report on the city’s “transportation safety protocols.” CRTP has been urging Eureka and other local governments to adopt the Emergency Streets protocol, which calls for immediate intervention after a fatal crash to lower speeds at the crash site and investigate changes to prevent future crashes. We plan to take this opportunity to continue to advocate for this common-sense protocol.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Proposed Legislation Would Transform Process for Bike & Pedestrian Projects

AB 1976, introduced by Assembly Member Buffy Wicks of Berkeley, would dramatically change how new bike and pedestrian safety projects are approved in California. Instead of holding separate hearings for each project, local governments would be required to just go ahead and build the projects with no hearings, as long as they are already included in their general plans. This is intended to prevent the endless local fights that often delay or stop important safety projects. However, some advocates worry that it could also reduce opportunities to provide input that actually improves project design. CRTP will be watching this bill closely.

We Need to Cap Vehicle Size

A new study finds that capping vehicles sizes – in other words, stopping the trend toward ever-bigger cars, SUVS, and pickup trucks – will be a critical component of any effective plan to reduce road deaths and address the climate crisis.

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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

March 27, 2026

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When Will We See Those Safer Roads in McKinleyville?

When the McKinleyville Town Center ordinance was finally adopted last fall, we celebrated along with other advocates for safer streets and more walkable communities. After all, the ordinance includes major safety overhauls for both Central Avenue and Hiller Road, including protected bike lanes, wide sidewalks, street trees, traffic calming, and more. Less than six months later, however, we’re already being reminded that none of these improvements are guaranteed.

The Humboldt Commons senior living project recently requested to be excused from a requirement to pave an extra 13 feet of Hiller Road along the project’s frontage. The extra paving is intended to serve as the eastbound lane of Hiller in the future, when the rest of the Hiller Road upgrades are complete. But there’s currently no funding or timeline for the rest of those improvements, and in the meantime extra-wide paving is the opposite of a safety upgrade.

The Humboldt County Planning Commission denied Humboldt Commons’ request, but gave them five years to coordinate the paving with other improvements and directed the county to seek funding for the rest of the street upgrades. We hope this is an opportunity to move forward with the comprehensive safety upgrades we were promised. But it’s clear that the journey toward safer streets may not be fast or direct. We will have to stay vigilant and continue to advocate for the promised improvements to both Hiller Road and Central Avenue in the months and years to come.

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You Could Win a Cargo E-Bike! And Support CRTP!

CRTP is currently raffling off a dual-battery BLIX cargo e-bike! Tickets are $5 each or 5 tickets for $20, and all proceeds benefit CRTP. To buy tickets, email cemone2@reninet.com or contact any CRTP Board Member. The drawing will be May 1st – the first day of Bike Month!

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Another Opportunity to Comment on That Big CPH Parking Lot

The environmental review comment period for the proposed new Cal Poly Humboldt (CPH) parking lot in the Arcata Bottoms has been reopened due to some proposed changes in the project. Specifically, the university has added a bike and pedestrian trail from the parking lot to the the eastern portion of Foster Avenue, which would allow people walking from the parking lot to campus to avoid the sections of Foster and 17th Street without sidewalks. The university has also reduced the promised frequency of shuttles between the parking lot and campus from every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes. You can find the revised environmental document here.

We applaud CPH for mitigating some of the bike and pedestrian safety concerns raised by CRTP and others during the initial round of public comment. However, the new trail does not solve all the problems with the project. For one thing, many neighborhood residents will still be exposed to safety risks from increased traffic on nearby streets without bike or pedestrian facilities. In fact, the reduced shuttle frequency will make it much less likely that neighbors will use the service, as CPH claims they will, rather than walking or biking on those streets. Furthermore, the new environmental document does nothing to address the other big problem CRTP highlighted in our previous comment letter: the fact that the university can’t “take credit” for the cancellation of plans to build an unrelated parking structure somewhere else, and therefore the project needs to mitigate for the increased driving it will cause.

We encourage responsible transportation advocates to submit new comments telling CPH that they still need to add sidewalks and bike lanes to Foster Ave and 17th Street, and they still need to mitigate the increased driving the project will cause. We also strongly support the demands from our friends at Humboldt Waterkeeper for the university to fully assess contamination at the site (a former lumber mill) and address the impacts of the toxic tire chemical 6PPD-q on Coho salmon in nearby waterways. Comments are due via email by April 2 to ceqa@humboldt.edu, with “Foster Campus Connectivity Project” in the subject line.

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4th & 5th Street Safety Campaign Still in Full Swing!

If you haven’t signed the petition for safer 4th & 5th Streets yet, please sign today! Then, email the petition link to family and friends, share the link on social media, or re-post CRTP’s posts about it. To help with the campaign even more, email kelsey@transportationpriorities.org for more information.

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Local Communities to Receive Complete Streets Safety Assessments

The Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, and the City of Fortuna have all been selected for a program from UC Berkeley’s Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) to assist in assessing conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists and planning safety improvements. CRTP looks forward to progress toward safer and more equitable transportation systems in these diverse communities.

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Better Parking Management & More Bikes in Eureka

Eureka is moving to an app-based system for paid parking in city lots, starting on April 1st. The move is part of a broader city effort to manage downtown parking more efficiently, including increasing rates and providing more information and flexibility for drivers. Local employee and resident parking passes will remain valid. The city has previously said it intends to extend the same paid parking program to street parking in the future, and that there will be a way for drivers without smart phones to pay, although that option is not yet available.

In other news from Eureka, the city appears to be moving forward with long-awaited plans to install bikeshare stations. The stations will be an extension of the successful system already operating in Arcata. Eureka is requesting funding from the Humboldt Association of Governments to help support two stations for 5 years, and intends to add another station to the EaRTH Center transit hub when that project is complete. CRTP has been advocating for this bikeshare expansion for years, and we’re excited to see it finally moving forward.

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Great Redwood Trail Master Plan Approved

Several years into the planning process for the Great Redwood Trail, the trail agency’s board of directors has approved an official Master Plan for trail development. CRTP is excited to see progress on this regional priority for active transportation, which will eventually connect communities from Humboldt Bay to San Francisco Bay. Additionally, since the state legislature has exempted the trail from environmental review, we continue to work with our allies to advocate for clear environmental commitments and public engagement policies from the agency.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

California Just Keeps Pouring Money Into Highway Expansions

While Governor Newsom touts relatively small investments in public transit – “transportation for the future” – the vast majority of funding continues to go toward massive highway projects that double down on the congesting, polluting, climate-destroying transportation system we already have.

Don’t Be Fooled About Road Safety in the US

American road safety statistics almost always use a specific metric: fatalities per million miles driven. In other developed countries, a different statistic is typically used: fatalities per capita. Why does this seemingly small difference matter? Because one of the reasons so many Americans die on the road is that we drive so much. The statistic commonly used in this country hides just how bad our safety record is, and ignores the fact that one of the most effective safety interventions is to get people to drive less.

More Bicyclists Are Dying Outside of Cities – and Painted Lanes May Not Help

A new study shows that over the last twenty years, the population density of census tracts where bicyclist fatalities occurred has decreased. In other words, more bicyclists are dying in suburban and rural areas. Meanwhile, another study has concluded that most paint-only bike lanes in the US are high-stress, because they’re on high-speed, high-traffic roads. Absent other safety interventions, paint on the road does not necessarily create a safe and comfortable place to bike. This study adds to the growing evidence that busy streets need bike lanes that are protected by more than just paint.

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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

March 20, 2026

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Help Shape the Future of Fortuna

The City of Fortuna is hosting a public workshop next Wednesday from 5:30 to 8:00 pm at the River Lodge, and another workshop the following week. Both workshops are open to “everyone who lives, works, raises a family or simply cares about Fortuna.” The first workshop will help establish a vision for the future of the community, while the second will begin to develop strategies for achieving that vision. Want to see a more walkable Fortuna? Better public transit and bike infrastructure? More affordable homes? This is a great opportunity to have your voice heard!

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Help Shape the Future of Eureka

If you have experience with housing, transportation policy, zoning and land use, you could be the next Senior Planner for the City of Eureka. But you have to act quickly! Applications are due on Monday.

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Help Us Get Support for Safer 4th and 5th Streets!

Every day more people are signing CRTP’s petition to Caltrans for safer 4th and 5th Streets in Eureka, but we still need your help! The more people and organizations who sign onto this petition, the stronger the message to Caltrans will be.

You can help by emailing the petition link to family and friends, sharing the link on social media, and re-posting CRTP’s posts about it. If you own a business, you can post a flyer encouraging your customers to sign. If you’re a local community leader, you can endorse the petition. And if you have a little extra time, you can help us collect signatures in person! For more information or to volunteer, email kelsey@transportationpriorities.org.

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“Now I can feel safer when I ride to Old Town”

Local musician extraordinaire Moss Gross is out with a new ode to Eureka’s C Street Bike Boulevard. It’s destined to be a hit.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Rep. Huffman Introduces E-Bike Safety Bill

North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman recently joined several other lawmakers in introducing the “Safe SPEEDS Act,” which would finally set clear definitions for e-bikes at the federal level and mandate accurate labeling by manufacturers. By clarifying definitions, the bill could help local and state governments support the powerful potential of e-bikes to get more Americans on bikes while addressing the safety concerns that have arisen from high-powered, deceptively marketed e-motos.

Cars, Wars, and Oil Spills

The events of recent weeks are shining a bright light on some of the impacts of Americans’ dependence on fossil-powered vehicles. Predictably, the US and Israel’s war on Iran has led to a dramatic global spike in fuel prices. Afraid of the reaction of voters to high gas prices, the Trump administration has in turn taken steps including removing sanctions on oil from authoritarian regimes like Russia and ordering the reopening of a California pipeline responsible for one of the worst oil spills in state history. What the administration has refused to do, however, is back away from its reckless pursuit of an entirely fossil-fueled economy. And even here in deep Blue California, leading Democrats push for deregulating gas refineries while the state’s main pension fund refuses to divest from oil companies and air quality regulators give away billions to those same companies in the name of climate action.

In the face of all this horrifying news, we can’t help but wonder: how might our world be different if, instead of compromising our health, our environment, our morals, and our bank accounts to support our addiction to gas-powered cars, we committed our resources to a clean, healthy transportation future?

What’s At Stake in Federal Transportation Reauthorization

Congress is in the midst of negotiating the next five-year funding bill for surface transportation, and the stakes could not be higher. The federal highway trust fund has historically received the vast majority of federal transportation funding, but has nevertheless been essentially bankrupt for years. The Trump administration’s dismantling of clean vehicle rules will lead to drivers paying billions more in gas taxes, but will do nothing to keep the highway trust fund solvent. Meanwhile, all that highway spending is so bad for the climate that just forcing the trust fund to balance its budget each year – which one Republican senator has proposed – would dramatically reduce emissions, despite also slashing climate-friendly transit funding.

Tragically, however, most politicians and lobbyists are not rethinking the current broken system, but instead treating this five-year reauthorization as business as usual. For example: the vast majority of federal funding has always flowed to the states to spend more or less as they want, and – despite the abject failure of states to produce any safety improvements, emissions reductions, or even congestion improvements with prior funding – state transportation departments are now lobbying heavily to get even more funding with even less accountability.

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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

March 13, 2026

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The Impacts of High Gas Prices

Gas prices are spiking across the country, and are especially high in Humboldt, as war rages in one of the globe’s key fossil fuel-producing regions. In some ways, high gas prices are not a bad thing. Some progressive economists and environmentalists have long argued that US gas prices are too low, partially as a result of massive government subsidies, and that prices should increase in order to reflect the true cost of burning gasoline on public health, the economy, and the planet.

Nevertheless, we can’t overlook the fact that most Americans rely on fossil-powered cars to get around. For many of them, it’s difficult to switch to other modes of transportation, because of the car-centric way we’ve built many of our communities, and because of our collective failure to invest adequately in public transit and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. But increased fuel costs will still put driving out of reach for more low-income people and families.

So if the high prices continue, expect to see more people riding local buses and walking and biking on local streets. Some of them will discover a comfortable and pleasant new way to get around, but many will be forced to confront dangerous road conditions and inconvenient new travel schedules. It’s a stark reminder of the work that needs to be done to give people true freedom of mobility by providing options beyond the automobile.

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Eureka Safety Petition Gaining Momentum

CRTP’s petition to Caltrans for safer 4th and 5th Streets in Eureka has nearly 400 individual signatures as of this writing. It’s also been endorsed by groups including EPIC, Tri-County Independent Living, and the Caltrans District 1 Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee, as well as Eureka City Councilmembers Leslie Castellano and Renée Contreras-DeLoach. Several businesses in the corridor have posted flyers or have copies of the petition for customers to sign.

We are reminded every day of the need for these safety improvements. This week, a driver was arrested after speeding down 4th Street at 74 mph. It’s lucky that no one was hurt or killed.

The more people and organizations who sign onto this petition, the stronger the message to Caltrans will be. If you know an organization, business, or public official who should endorse our petition, please share it with them. And if you haven’t signed it yet yourself, sign it today!

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Appeal of Housing Allocation to Be Heard Next Week

As we previously reported, the Eureka City Council has filed what we believe to be a misguided appeal of its allocation of affordable housing through the state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Assessment. The city objects to the use of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) 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. That appeal will be heard by the Humboldt County Association of Governments at a board meeting next Thursday.

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. Groups like Legal Service of Northern California devoted to ensuring fair housing in our region agree that locating new affordable housing in low-VMT areas like Eureka improves access to resources and lowers household cost burdens. 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. The city has done a good job of getting walkable, affordable housing built in recent years. It shouldn’t turn back now.

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Open House on Potential Samoa Roundabout Next Week

Caltrans is proposing to install a roundabout at the intersection of Highway 255 and New Navy Base Road, and they’re holding a public open house about the plan next Thursday from 6:00 to 7:30 pm at the Manila Community Center. The existing intersection is confusing and dangerous, especially for bicyclists. We’re cautiously optimistic that a roundabout could improve the situation. However, as usual, the details matter. Despite the lack of bike infrastructure, this area is well-used by bicyclists riding on highway shoulders to access homes, jobs, and the beach. To be truly safe for bicyclists, the roundabout should provide a way for them to navigate it without mixing with cars and heavy truck traffic.

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What Safety Projects Should Arcata Prioritize?

Next Tuesday, Arcata’s Transportation Safety Committee will recommend a list of five low-cost safety improvement projects for the city to focus on in the coming year. Got an opinion about what should be on that list? Show up to the meeting and have your say!

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Bike to the Seed, Plant, and Scion Exchange!

The Humboldt Permaculture Guild’s 25th Annual Seed, Plant, and Scion Exchange is this Saturday from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Arcata Community Center. CRTP will be there providing free bike valet, so you can pedal on over to swap seeds without any worry about finding a place to secure your bike!

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Support a Fee for Heavy Vehicles!

The California Transportation Commission has complete a Vehicle Weight Safety Study draft report to the state legislature on the relationship between vehicle weight and pedestrian and bicycle safety. The legislature requested the report to inform a decision on whether to implement some kind of weight-based fee for heavier passenger vehicles. Unfortunately, the draft report does not recommend a fee.

The Commission tries to justify this decision by claiming that any fee large enough to discourage people from buying bigger vehicles would just be too big (in whose judgement is not made clear), and by skirting around the indisputable fact that heavier vehicles are more likely to kill a pedestrian or bicyclist in a crash.

CRTP thinks a weight-based fee is needed, both to discourage the purchase of unnecessarily large and dangerous vehicles and to help fund better bike and pedestrian safety infrastructure. You can weigh in on the report and its recommendations by emailing Cayla.McDonell@catc.ca.gov.

Draconian State & Local Laws Are Taking Away the Freedom to Ride

This commentary in the Washington Post says it clearly: “Bicycles offer genuine freedom of movement in a world that offers less of it every year. E-bikes extend that freedom…But policymakers are hard at work designing regulations that curtail this freedom.”

Speaking of Draconian E-Bike Laws…

Streetsblog has a new roundup of transportation-related bills recently introduced in the California legislature. Some are good, some bad. Among the bad bills is AB 1942, which would require many e-bike owners to register with the DMV, display a license plate, and carry ownership papers with them at all times. If you want to discourage e-bikes and get more people back in their cars, this would be a good way to do it.

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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

March 6, 2026

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Two Big Wins for Responsible Transportation

On February 19th, the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) adopted its updated Regional Transportation Plan. Thanks to advocacy from CRTP and our members and supporters, the HCAOG Board first voted to fix the three big problems we had identified with the updated plan: (1) they included a financial consistency policy, requiring that HCAOG prioritize funding projects that best promote goals of safety, sustainability, and equity; (2) they restored the policy for 80% of new housing to be non-car-dependent; (3) they restored use of the phrase “climate crisis” throughout the plan to reflect the urgent need for action on climate change.

CRTP is also celebrating the updated plan’s designation of new “major transit stops” at busy bus stops throughout the county. This designation helps encourage transit-friendly infill development, because state law prohibits local governments from imposing costly and arbitrary parking mandates on new buildings within half a mile of a major transit stop.

In another big win, the Eureka City Council this week adopted significant updates to its zoning code which will also promote walkable, bikeable, transit-friendly development. Among the code improvements are more stringent bike parking requirements (including provisions for larger bikes and e-bikes, thanks to CRTP’s advocacy), more pedestrian-friendly building designs, and streamlined approval for infill development that meets the city’s standards. Plus, at CRTP’s urging, the council directed staff to return next year with a proposal to finally remove one-size-fits-all parking mandates for new development citywide.

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Traffic Violence Is a Leading Cause of Death in Humboldt

Humboldt County has an unusually high rate of motor vehicle deaths. Among people aged 55 and under, it is one of the top 4 causes of death. And all this carnage is most concentrated on the US 101 corridor in Eureka.

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’m proud to live in a community that values alternative transportation”

Testimonial from Eureka resident Alyssa O’Keefe

“I moved here just over a year ago with my husband and we decided to share one car. 

“We made this decision because I am able to ride my bike here safely. I ride my bike every day to work, rain or shine.

“I take C st all the time, I know when I take that route I’m safe to do so. I’ve lived closer to work before but had to drive because the route would have been too dangerous.

“A cop actually yelled at me not too long ago for riding my bike on 4th st when I was trying to go from I st to H st. He said no riding your bike on the 101, get on the sidewalk. 

“I’m proud to live in a community that values alternative transportation to cars and it would be a disappointment to not continue progress.”

You can join Alyssa 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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Where’s All That Transit Funding We Were Promised?

It’s been more than a year since the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors directed that 15% of revenues from the new Measure O sales tax go to support public transit. Bus riders and others may be wondering how much revenue has come in, and what it’s been spent on. This week, we got some of the answers.

The Humboldt Transit Authority (HTA) has proposed its spending plan for Measure O revenues next year. We’re pleased to see that some of the funding will be spent on increasing frequency on the well-used Redwood Transit Service. But we’re dismayed that, due to increasing costs and reduced state revenue, much of the funding will have to be spent just to maintain existing bus services.

We are also dismayed that, according to public comments from HTA officials this week, none of the Measure O revenue the county has received so far has actually been provided to HTA. Instead, HTA has been forced to spend money on its promised Measure O investments for nearly a year without any reimbursement. Apparently, nearly a year after the tax money started coming in, county staff are still haggling with HTA over the terms of the funding contract.

Additionally, at another meeting this week, Humboldt County Public Works Director Tom Mattson explained that the county is prioritizing spending the other 85% of Measure O funds on paving and other road projects, rather than paying down the negative balance of its Roads Fund. Here’s why that’s a problem: when approving 15% of projected revenues for transit, county supervisors were so concerned about that negative Roads Fund balance that they decreed that no revenue above current projections would go to transit until the fund balance was positive. If the county makes no effort to pay down its fund balance, transit could be cheated out of millions of dollars in potential revenues over the next several years. We’ll be watching closely as the situation unfolds.

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We’ll Say It Again: Enforcement Isn’t the Solution

The Eureka Police Department this week announced “Operation Gateway 101,” which combines a continuation of the department’s recent and dramatic increase in traffic stops with a new focus on combating blight on the US 101 corridor. However, as we’ve noted before, this approach has not done anything to reduce traffic violence. Traffic stops in the city were up 241% last year, but there was essentially no change in the number of collisions. We pointed this out to the city council, emphasizing that there is ample evidence of solutions that do actually work to improve safety – most of which involve changing the infrastructure.

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Show Up for Richardson Grove!

Our friends at EPIC are still battling Caltrans in court over the highway expansion project in Richardson Grove State Park, and we are eternally grateful for their efforts. In just over a week, they’ll be back in a courtroom in San Francisco, and they need supporters to show up and pack the room! Click here for more details.

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Support for Local EV Drivers Available

The Redwood Coast Energy Authority has launched a program offering discounted charging for low-income EV drivers at the agency’s network of public chargers. Find out more about this and other aspects of owning an EV in Humboldt in this handy myth-busting article.

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News from Beyond the North Coast

Demand More Responsible Projects from Caltrans!

The California Transportation Commission is about to adopt a new State Highway Operations and Protection Program (SHOPP), a biannual process that involves committing billions of dollars to state highway projects across California. Unfortunately, the projects proposed by Caltrans are missing the mark. According to CalBike: “Only 25% of projects include meaningful bike, pedestrian, or transit infrastructure. The plan funds just 11% of the bikeway miles California’s own targets require. And 62% of projects claim exemptions to [complete streets law] SB 960 with no public documentation explaining why.” Click here to send the commission a message asking them to demand better from Caltrans.

American Streets and Highways Appear to Be Getting a Little Bit Safer

New data from the National Safety Council estimate a 12% drop in traffic deaths nationwide in 2025 – including a 40% drop in California! Experts are divided about what’s behind the trend, and whether it will last. One theory is that the big Biden-era investments in proven safety projects across the country are starting to pay off. Another is that the reduction in serious crashes is the result of increasing congestion following the pandemic, because cars caught in traffic usually aren’t going fast enough to kill someone. Either way, it’s good news.

Senators Introduce Bill to Increase Rural Transit Funding

A bipartisan group of US senators this week introduced the “Investments in Rural Transit” Act, which among other things would increase funding for rural transit operations. Operational funding is usually the hardest thing for transit agencies to get, and the bill has the potential to make a big difference to agencies on the North Coast. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the bill’s progress.

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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.