The Collector
March 27, 2026
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.