The Collector
November 15, 2024
Transit Needs Hearing in Eureka Next Week
If you ride the bus in Eureka – or if you’d really like to ride the bus in Eureka but the system doesn’t work for you – please show up either in person or on Zoom to next Tuesday’s Eureka City Council meeting to speak up about the improvements you think are needed in our local and regional transit systems.
If you can’t make it to Tuesday’s hearing, there are more hearings in other parts of the county coming up. And if you can’t attend any of the hearings, you can submit your comments by calling or emailing the Humboldt County Association of Governments (go to this link and click on “Comment on Unmet Transit Needs”), or you can fill out an online survey. Responda la encuesta sobre necesidades de transporte insatisfechas en español aquí.
This is a particularly important time to document our local transit needs. The new federal administration is likely to cut transit funding over the next couple of years, but at the same time the recently passed Measure O will raise significant revenue for Humboldt County – and the Board of Supervisors has promised to spend some of it on transit. A clear demonstration of needs will help put pressure on decision-makers to invest more in transit.
Potential for Lower Speed Limits in Eureka and Arcata
Tuesday’s Eureka City Council meeting also includes a discussion of the city’s most recent “Engineering and Traffic Survey,” a legal document that is required by state law to be updated periodically in order to enforce local speed limits. Historically, because of the dangerous and counterproductive rules for setting speed limits, this process has usually meant raising speed limits.
Eureka city staff are not raising speed limits this time around, and are even lowering limits on some streets. We’re grateful for that, but we also know that more could be done. Recently reforms such as 2021’s AB 43 allow cities to lower speed limits in a number of different ways, including by designating “safety corridors” and “business activity districts,” and identifying land uses that generate lots of bike and pedestrian traffic. Check out this useful resource for all the details.
At another meeting next Tuesday, the Arcata Transportation Safety Committee will also talk about lowering speed limits by using AB 43’s provisions. We strongly encourage both Arcata and Eureka to use all available opportunities to lower speed limits as much as possible and in as many places as possible. While speed limits by themselves are not as effective as good road design at lowering driver speeds, they do make a difference. And when it comes to surviving a crash, even lowering speeds by a few miles per hour can mean the difference between life and death.
More on Those Election Results
If you want to hear more about how election results at the national, state and local level will affect climate, transportation, and other environmental issues, check out the most recent episode of the EcoNews Report.
Vote for CRTP!
If you’re a North Coast Co-op member, don’t forget to vote for CRTP in the 2025 Seeds for Change register round-up election. The deadline to vote is this Sunday! The money raised in a month of round-ups can make a really big difference for an organization as small as CRTP, and we would really appreciate your vote.
News from Beyond the North Coast
World Day of Remembrance for Victims of Traffic Violence
This Sunday is the annual World Day of Remembrance, an opportunity to reflect on the enormous toll cars and trucks take on human life each and every year.
Transit Benefits Everyone – Not Just Riders
Even in areas with great public transit, not everyone uses it. But a new study finds that changes in community land use patterns related to public transit cause all sorts of other improvements. Researchers concluded that even people who don’t ride transit still drive a lot less in communities with good transit systems. In fact, taken as a whole, the reduction in driving was many times greater for non-riders than for riders!
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.