bicycle paths – Enviro Updates

SuzanneMay 7, 2025May 13, 2025Transportationbicycle paths, Highway 37, salt marsh, sea level rise, trains

Op-Ed: Highway 37 traffic jam fuels fight over endangered mice, marsh birds

Ryan Sabalow, CALMATTERS

A bill by Assemblymember Lori Wilson could help finally break the Highway 37 gridlock despite worries about harming endangered species.

During his eight years on the Santa Rosa City Council, Chris Rogers spent hour after tedious hour in local transportation meetings discussing a proposal to reduce congestion on one of the main traffic arteries into the Napa-Sonoma Valley corridor.

That’s why Rogers, now a rookie Democratic assemblymember, said he had to chuckle when environmental groups complained that a bill making its way through the Legislature was somehow “fast-tracking” the long-stalled Highway 37 widening project in the North Bay.

“When you’re talking about a project that was started or at least conceived before you were born … and somebody’s calling it ‘fast tracking,’ it just doesn’t track,” Rogers said at a committee hearing last week. “The project should have been done already.”

Assembly Bill 697 by Lori Wilson, a Democrat from the Fairfield area, would allow state highway officials to potentially harm three protected bird species and endangered mice as workers add new lanes to a stretch of Highway 37 to wine country.

It’s another example of California Democrats trying to speed up major construction projects such as housing and public infrastructure that can sometimes stall for decades due to the state’s stringent environmental regulations.

Last week, the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee voted to advance the measure. The 13 members of the committee, including Rogers, weren’t persuaded by the objections from a Native American tribe, environmentalists and transportation advocacy groups that oppose widening highways. They argue that research shows that adding lanes doesn’t reduce congestion.

SuzanneApril 11, 2025April 12, 2025Climate Change & Energy, Land Use, Transportationbicycle paths, CONGAS, fossil fuel infrastructure, gas station ban

Has the last gas station in Sonoma County already been built?

Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations (CONGAS)

Santa Rosa Planning Commission votes down what could be the last proposal for a new gas station in Sonoma County – ever

Santa Rosa – On Thursday, April 10, the Santa Rosa Planning Commission voted 6-0 with one Commissioner recused, to deny a Conditional Use Permit for a gas station that would have been built at 874 North Wright Road, at the western edge of Santa Rosa where highway 12 and Fulton/Wright roads intersect.

(874 North Wright Road, November 2024. Photo credit: Woody Hastings)

A strong showing of over 20 concerned neighbors, healthcare professionals, bicycling enthusiasts, members of the Coalition Opposing New Gas Stations (CONGAS) and others attended and spoke to share concerns including the fact that the site is a seasonal wetland (see photo), is adjacent to the Joe Rodota Trail, and is at an address where more than ten gas stations already operate within a five-mile radius. Several speakers also pointed to the fact that Santa Rosa adopted a climate emergency resolution in 2020 and imposed a permanent ban on new gas stations in 2022 and that we Santa Rosa should not be permitting new gas stations in 2025.

This proposal at 874 N. Wright Rd. was exempted from the ban on new gas stations and was still under consideration by permitting authorities because it was already “in the pipeline” with a complete permit application already filed when the ban was imposed.

The reason this may be the very last proposal for a new gas station in Sonoma County is that between 2021 and 2023 Sonoma County and six cities in the county adopted ordinances permanently prohibiting new gas stations. Only three cities have not taken the action: Cloverdale, Healdsburg, and the City of Sonoma. Each of them have stated that there is little to no chance that a new gas station will be proposed within their boundaries. So, with no other live proposals for a new gas station in Sonoma County, the last gas station to be built in the County has likely already been built.

Continue reading “Has the last gas station in Sonoma County already been built?”

SuzanneMarch 1, 2025March 3, 2025Transportationbicycle paths, bike & pedestrian safetey, Highway 101, Highway 101 bridge, pedestrian, Santa Rosa Junior College

Long-planned Highway 101 bike and pedestrian bridge in Santa Rosa finally moving forward

Paulina Pineda, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The crossing, in the works since the 1990s, will provide a safer route for residents to access commercial, government, employment and health care hubs around Coddingtown Mall and Santa Rosa Junior College.

A long-awaited $40 million bike and pedestrian bridge over Highway 101 in north Santa Rosa is expected to break ground later this year after nearly three decades of planning and efforts to line up funding.

The crossing, stretching across the six-lane highway, will link Elliott and Edwards avenues. It will provide a safer route for residents to access commercial, government, employment and health care hubs around Coddingtown Mall and Santa Rosa Junior College as well as the passenger rail line.

The 14.5-foot-wide, 1,000-foot-long cable-stayed bridge will feature a dedicated footpath and a two-way cycle track.

Santa Rosa leaders and project backers say it will close a significant gap in the local bike network and reduce traffic risks for those who now get around on foot or bike on busy Steele Lane and College Avenue.

SuzanneMarch 24, 2019March 26, 2019Transportationbicycle paths, SMART

With only 16 miles finished, cyclists upset by SMART’s delays in completing promised bike path

Kevin Fixler, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Nearly a year and a half since the North Bay rolled out its commuter rail, cyclists in the region feel slighted over how little of the paved path SMART promised along the tracks is finished.

The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit is scheduled to extend by year’s end its train operations more than 2 miles south to Larkspur, completing 45 miles of the planned 70-mile line that will eventually stretch up to Cloverdale.

However, just 16.2 miles of the separated bicycle and walking trail linking each of the stations has been built. That includes short segments totaling about 5 miles across Novato, San Rafael and Cotati completed in the past two years.

Another 1-mile segment northwest of the downtown Petaluma Station is set to be built this summer.

Still, that will represent about a third of the 54 miles SMART pledged as part of Measure Q, a ¼-cent sales tax hike Sonoma and Marin county voters approved more than a decade ago to create the North Bay commuter rail system. Another 16 miles of existing trail next to the train corridor is to receive upgrades.

Critics, including two cycling advocacy groups in the region that boast thousands of members, contend what’s accessible now falls far short of SMART’s obligation.

SuzanneFebruary 18, 2019February 25, 2019Sustainable Living, Transportationbicycle paths, bike lanes, bike/pedestrian bridge, pedestrian safety, safety, Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa planning commission approves ambitious bike pedestrian plan

Will Schmitt, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

A Highway 101 overcrossing connecting Coddingtown Mall to Santa Rosa Junior College and a contentious railroad crossing with an uncertain future are among the bicycle and pedestrian projects proposed in an aspirational city plan that would more than double the number of bikeways in the city.

“It is an ambitious list,” said Nancy Adams, a city transportation planner. “Once you get the road map, now we have to start talking and having the hard conversations on how do you start and get something accomplished.”

The updated bicycle and pedestrian master plan, which contains dozens of projects meant to make it easier to travel around Santa Rosa without a car, won unanimous approval from the Planning Commission on Thursday. It is set to go before the City Council in March.

The plan is inherently optimistic about the city’s ability to pay for future expansions of its walking and biking network. But cash-strapped Santa Rosa’s leaders have devoted recent budget discussions to cutting spending and replenishing reserves depleted by the October 2017 wildfires to pay down pension liabilities.

The city doesn’t have funding for all of the plan’s projects at this time, Adams acknowledged. The proposed Highway 101 crossing connecting the mall and college campus in north Santa Rosa has funding for its design, but the city hasn’t identified how to pay for its construction, she said.

In all, the city has proposed adding 129 miles of bikeways throughout Santa Rosa, increasing its network of bike paths to 242 miles. Alongside the expansive list of potential projects comes data showing that bikes and feet are far from the most popular ways to get to work in Santa Rosa.

SuzanneFebruary 1, 2019February 3, 2019Transportationbicycle paths, pedestrian, SMART, trails

SMART in line for $12.6 million transit grant to extend planned bike path

Kevin Fixler, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Bay Area transit planners have recommended the North Bay’s commuter train agency be granted $12.6 million to support the build out of its planned bicycle and pedestrian pathway, SMART announced Thursday.

If approved by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission as early as this month, the funding would go toward 4.7 miles of new paved pathway in Petaluma, Rohnert Park and Santa Rosa. SMART’s original plan envisioned completion of 54 miles of trail adjacent to the rail corridor and upgrades to an existing 16 miles designated for bicycles and pedestrians, together running the 70-plus miles from Cloverdale to Larkspur.

Only 16.2 miles of the pathway are complete. About 5 miles of the multi-use path across San Rafael, Novato, Cotati and Rohnert Park were completed in 2017-18, with another 1-mile segment in Petaluma due to be built this year, according to SMART.

Should SMART receive the MTC grant, funded through state gas and vehicle weight taxes, the agency will build new segments from McDowell Boulevard in Petaluma to Main Street in Penngrove and from Golf Course Drive in Rohnert Park to Bellevue Avenue in Santa Rosa. SMART also has another grant application submitted for funding to complete another 12 miles of trail between Windsor and Petaluma.

SuzanneJune 10, 2018July 20, 2018Land Use, Sustainable Livingbicycle paths, Great Redwood Trail, hiking trails, horse trails, trails

North Coast’s ‘Great Redwood Trail’ wins approval in California Senate, but lacks funding

Guy Kovner, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Imagine a 300-mile trail from San Francisco Bay to Humboldt Bay taking hikers, bicycle and horseback riders through a stunning North Coast river canyon and old growth redwood forests.

It would cost untold millions of dollars and won’t come soon, but the idea for what’s called the Great Redwood Trail is embodied in state Sen. Mike McGuire’s bill, which would also abolish a debt-ridden public agency and put commuter train operator Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit in charge of railroad freight service in its two counties.

The buzz is all about a trail along railroad tracks through some territory most people have never seen and which advocates are likening to the 210-mile John Muir Trail through the Sierra Nevada.

“It’s an amazing prospect,” said Alisha O’Loughlin, executive director of the 1,000-member Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition. “Something we’re very enthusiastic about.”

The trail, affording “gorgeous recreational opportunities,” would draw cyclists and equestrians from far and wide, she said.

The coalition’s only concern is that work on the trail not take priority over completion of pathways along the 70-mile SMART corridor in Sonoma and Marin counties. Just 16 miles of pathways have been built to date in segments from Healdsburg to San Rafael.

SuzanneMay 17, 2018July 20, 2018Transportationbicycle paths, commuters, safety, walkable community

Santa Rosa bicycle commuter beaten while riding through homeless camp on Joe Rodota Trail

Martin Espinoza, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

A bicycle commuter riding Tuesday along the Joe Rodota Trail was assaulted as he passed through a homeless camp on the popular bike and pedestrian path connecting Santa Rosa to Sebastopol.

Bill Petty, 42, was pedaling home when he said a group of eight to 10 people blocked his path. As he tried to walk his bike through the crowd, he said someone pulled on his shirt, an argument broke out and then a man punched him.

Petty said he suffered fractures just above his left eye and on his nose, which he had treated at the hospital.

“I didn’t even see the punch coming,” said Petty, a Roseland resident who for more than a year had been riding his bike every day to and from work on Auto Row on Corby Avenue.

He said he called out to the group as he approached on his bike but no one moved.

“They’re telling me that I should go around, I said, ‘I can’t go around because there’s tents on both sides of the trail,’” Petty said.

SuzanneMay 15, 2018July 20, 2018Transportationalternative transportation, bicycle infrastructure, bicycle paths

How to build a bike lane network in four years

Michael Anderson, STREETSBLOG USA

Here’s one way to understand the story of biking in Sevilla, Spain: It went from having about as much biking as Oklahoma City to having about as much biking as Portland, Oregon.
It did this over the course of four years.

Speaking last week at the PlacesForBikes conference, one of the masterminds of that transition — which is only now becoming widely known in the United States — filled in some of the gaps in that story.

Manuel Calvo had spent years in Sevilla bicycling activism and was working as a sustainability consultant when he landed the contract to plan a protected bike lane network for his city. The result was the Plan de la Bicicleta de Sevilla, mapping the fully connected protected bike lane network that would make Sevilla’s success possible.

But as Calvo explained in his keynote Wednesday and an interview afterward, the story might not have played out that way.

Here are some things for U.S. bike believers to learn from Calvo’s account:

1) Driving had been rising sharply in Sevilla for years before 2007
2) Politicians’ support for a major biking investment came from a single poll
3) The network was built so fast because leaders saw a chance to deliver it within a single election cycle
4) Sevilla created its network by repurposing 5,000 on-street parking spaces
5) Bike lane designs were shaped by public input – but only after officials made clear that doing nothing was not an option
6) Once the network was built, its benefits were obvious

Read the complete article at https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/05/07/six-secrets-from-the-planner-of-sevillas-lightning-bike-network/#new_tab

SuzanneFebruary 21, 2018July 19, 2018Transportationbicycle paths

The ride stuff

Alex T. Randolph, NORTH BAY BOHEMIAN

After years of planning, Sonoma County Regional Parks has just come one step closer to starting work on a proposed 15-mile bike trail that would connect the cities of Petaluma and Sebastopol.

Sonoma County Regional Parks presented the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors with an extensive feasibility study on Feb. 6. The purpose of the study was to determine the safest and most feasible route for a currently unnamed pedestrian and bike trail between the two cities, and also to consider routes to connect unincorporated areas of Sonoma County. The board accepted the findings and recommendations of the study on Feb. 13, allowing Regional Parks to receive final reimbursement and meet obligations of the grant used to pay for the study.

According to a summary of the study, the ideal route for the paved trail is the corridor next to Highway 12 and Stony Point Road. However, according to Fifth District Supervisor Linda Hopkins, there is some debate between those who want the trail to follow the highway and others who want it elsewhere.

Environmental Center of Sonoma County

Tag: bicycle paths