Five million dollars per year.

That is what California appropriates for bicycle infrastructure. It might sound like a lot of money, but not when you consider that Caltrans is working up the Environmental Impact Report for a frivolous $60 million project to save motorists 60 seconds on their trip to Eureka.
Compare that with $5 million for bicycle infrastructure spread over the most populous state, a state that has plenty of dangerous places to bike, and you can see the imbalance in our transportation policy.

Stay tuned for more on Caltrans’ plans to save us 60 seconds on the 101 safety corridor. Today I will focus on the positive: Arcata’s little sliver of that $5 million bicycle pie.

The source of funds is called the Bicycle Transportation Account (BTA). Arcata has already secured funding for projects to stencil share-the-road arrows (“Sharrows”) on 11th Street, add bike lanes on South G Street all the way to 101, and install bike lockers at the transit facility.

This time around we are going to do something new, designating 10th Street and I Street as “bicycle boulevards” in their entirety. Motorists, don’t scream bloody murder yet! You will still be allowed to drive on these streets. The Office of Transportation in Berkeley, Calif., where some of these street designations were first instituted, defines a bicycle boulevard as “a street where all types of vehicles are allowed, but the roadway is modified as needed to enhance bicycle safety and convenience.”

Milvia Way is a bicycle boulevard in Berkeley, where I used to live in the 1990s. It is still my favorite street. Picture a street gently snaking back and forth in the right of way with parking on alternating sides. Planted areas that fill out the curves are abundant with a variety of flowers and shade trees. The few cars proceed slowly, sharing the road with lots of cyclists as pedestrians amble along the generous sidewalks.

This glorious reality, or something like it, could be ours, although it looks like we will take a more gradual approach. Given that there is only $5 million in the pot for all of California, our little city is not likely to get very much. So Arcata is applying for new BTA funds to designate 10th Street and I Street as bicycle boulevards, add signage and stenciling and provide planning money for possible future improvements such as stop sign realignments, diversions and calming measures.

The stop sign realignment and diversions may be important to get these boulevards to their full potential. Right now, many cyclists still prefer 11th Street to 10th Street for travel between downtown and the Greenview neighborhood, despite the heavier traffic on 11th. If you take 10th, you have to contend with K, J, I, G, and F Street intersections where you have a stop sign and perpendicular traffic does not. Making 10th Street a more attractive street for cyclists could save motorists a little time too. Since 11th Street will not have bike lanes east of Q Street in the foreseeable future, motorists often have to wait for a gap in oncoming traffic to pass all these cyclists on the main artery.

So if all we hope to do in the near term is to designate and stencil these streets without making any real physical improvements, is it still worth doing? Heck, yes! This is about helping people to see the vision of a city that is comfortable for biking.

A gradual approach may be best given some technical challenges. If we make these intersections more convenient for bicycle boulevard users, we may end up also encouraging motorized traffic to use 10th instead of 11th. Stop sign realignments might have to be balanced with diversions to keep motorized traffic light on 10th. Diversions are tricky because we don’t want to negatively affect traffic volumes on nearby streets. Hopefully we can recognize the importance of encouraging bicycle commuting and tackle these details in the near future.

In the meantime, we need to get our state-level elected officials, Wes Chesbro, Patty Berg and Arnold Schwarzenegger, to see the vision of a state that is comfortable for biking and put more than $5 million per year into the BTA Accounts!

Judging by some frivolous freeway projects, we could probably get the money from Caltrans’ budget.

Chris is waiting for the graduate coordinator to sign off on his thesis. In the meantime he’s applying for jobs.