Humboldt Transit Authority Wants Your Input on Fare Changes

Posted on August 9, 2024 by Colin Fiske

The Collector

August 9, 2024

Humboldt Transit Authority Wants Your Input on Fare Changes
Did you know that when you ride the bus in Humboldt County today, your fare could vary depending on who you are, where you are, and how you pay? It all adds up to as many as 50 different prices for riding the bus! This bewildering system leads to a lot of inequities, not to mention confusion for new riders.

The Humboldt Transit Authority is proposing to change all that with a new system that standardizes fares across all local transit systems and charges everyone the same amount whether they pay with cash, a credit card, or a pass. With the new regular rate set at $2.00 (and $1.00 for discounted fares), this effectively means a reduced fare for most riders. We think the new proposed fare structure is more equitable and much easier to understand. But what do you think? Fill out this form to provide feedback to the Humboldt Transit Authority.

Mark Your Calendar for the 2024 Week Without Driving
This year, the Week Without Driving runs from September 30 to October 6, and CRTP is joined by the Humboldt County Association of Governments, the Humboldt Transit Authority, and Tri-County Independent Living as co-hosts here on the North Coast. Anyone can sign up to participate, but we are particularly focused on encouraging elected officials, committee members, public agency staff, and other transportation decision-makers to experience first-hand what life is like for non-drivers in our area. This year, we will also be holding walk audits and coordinating ride-alongs with transit riders as part of the Week Without Driving. Stay tuned for more information – and if you know a local transportation decision-maker, encourage them to sign up to participate.

Local Project Funding Allocations…and Delays
Several important projects in our region are on next week’s California Transportation Commission agenda. Perhaps most exciting, the South Broadway Complete Streets project is slated to receive its funding allocation for construction, a sign that work should start relatively soon. However, a separate agenda item shows that the project’s timeline has actually been delayed by four months due to negotiations with a neighboring property owner over right-of-way.

Other local project funding allocations on the agenda include $1.4 million for the Arcata Sunset Ave interchange project (see below) and $2.6 million for Fortuna’s Kenmar Road interchange project, as well as $1.1 million for the Elk Valley Cross Road project in Del Norte County and $600,000 toward improved bike lanes on Eureka’s Myrtle Avenue.

Great Redwood Trail Stars in New Video
If the video from NBC Bay Area’s Open Road program gets you excited about the existing trail segments and the potential for more, you might be interested to know that the Great Redwood Trail Agency is hiring! The agency is currently hiring an Operations Manager to oversee maintenance and operations of their property and right-of-way from San Francisco Bay to Humboldt Bay.

Arcata City Council Gets Update on Sunset Ave & US 101 Interchange Project
On Wednesday, the Council saw new designs for the project, which features a pair of roundabouts replacing the dangerous and complicated intersections on either side of the US 101 overpass. Responding to previous input from CRTP, the new designs provide a separate bike path and sidewalk across the bridge and through the southern ends of the roundabouts. Unfortunately, the designs do not provide any connections to and from the new bike path that do not require bicyclists either merging with car traffic or riding on the sidewalk. We are advocating to make sure these and other safety problems get fixed before the project is built.

Despite the shortcomings of the current designs, we know something major needs to happen here, in part due to the many Street Story reports. If you have experience walking or biking in this area, don’t forget to make a Street Story report! Participants to date have reported many crashes and near-misses due to the complexity of these intersections. Bicyclists report a bike lane that leads them to the intersection but no further indication on how they should engage with the intersection safely. They also have to cross wide lanes of often high flow traffic with people speeding. This area is clearly designed for cars, but the current design is poor and confusing even for people driving, let alone bicyclists, pedestrians, etc., who are traveling through this area. Haga clic aquí para hacer un informe en español.

A pair of maps shows the Sunset Avenue and US 101 interchange area, with dots and lines representing reports of hazards, near-misses and crashes made by members of the public through the Street Story platform

News from Beyond the North Coast

Help Get the Caltrans Complete Streets Bill through the State Assembly
Caltrans rules and policies have a huge impact on transportation safety and sustainability here on the North Coast, because state highways serve as main streets in many of our communities. SB 960 would create stricter accountability to ensure that the agency’s projects provide safe facilities for all users, not just motorists. But if legislators don’t feel more public pressure, the bill might get stuck in the Assembly without a full vote. Click here to help move SB 960 to the governor’s desk.

What Happens When Parking Mandates Are Removed?
A new study adds to the evidence that lifting minimum parking mandates for new development results in more housing, fewer unneeded parking spaces, and more density – all of which makes neighborhoods more walkable and bikeable and supports better transit service. In the future, we hope to see these kinds of results locally. Arcata is slated to become the first community in our region to eliminate parking mandates citywide in response to its recent General Plan update, and similar reforms are also proposed for the future McKinleyville Town Center.

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.