Improved crosswalks, bulb outs and a bus pullout in front of Oaks Park sound cool, but many worry that the bike lanes planned for Front Street will wipe out much of the parking in downtown
Genuine question: Explain to me why cyclists need a bike lane through downtown Forestville at all when the West County Trail (which runs from Forestville to Sebastopol to Santa Rosa) is just a block west of Front Street. As a former, longtime cyclist, I don’t understand the logic.
I mean, isn't the proximity to the trail a point in FAVOR of having bike lanes? I know that personally one of my biggest pet peeves with the trails is that they love to abruptly spit you out onto an open highway with 40 mph car traffic and no bike lanes. You can't really "share the road" in conditions like that, it's just not safe! Making the end point of the trail more bike-friendly is good for connectivity.
Also, the trail runs perpendicular to Front Street, not parallel, so it's not actually a viable alternate route if you're trying to bike in and around Forestville, unless I'm missing something? It would just take you out of town toward Sebastopol.
I'll turn the question around: why does Front Street need the street parking so badly? Even if the parking lots are usually full (and I feel like they're not usually full), what's wrong with parking on a side street and walking?
So, I live in Forestville and I used to regularly bike to work in Santa Rosa. The West County Trail is only perpendicular to 116 briefly because it loops up to connect to it at the north end of downtown Forestville. Otherwise, it parallels 116 until it spits you out on Occidental. If you don’t wanna take Occidental to the continuation of the trail on 116, you can go up Barlow, which is beautiful and has that nice challenging hill at the start.
Back to Forestville: From the trail, there is an entrance into Forestville from the south end of town (connecting to Covey) and from the north end of town (connecting to Mirabel). Downtown Forestville is only like two or three short blocks long. It is narrow and congested. As a cyclist, it’s just seems unpleasant to ride there—bike lane or no—especially with the gravel trucks.
I’m actually going to do a reported story about this in which I will be talking to Caltrans, the folks at the county’s public infrastructure department, and Eris Weaver from the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition — in addition to Forestville Chamber. I’ll report back on what they all have to say.
Talk to some of the businesses in Forestville, too. The impact of the parking loss is huge for some of them. What on earth is the point of two or three blocks of bike lanes, if there aren’t any at either end?
These bike lanes would help cyclists who enter town via the West County Trail, access destinations in Forestville, restaurants and stores on Main Street, schools and residences via connecting streets.
Bureaucracies would lose a lot of arrogance if their proposals within a community's boundaries required majority support in a referendum on their plans. It would make for a fun state initiative to force them to serve the public rather than walk all over it.
There is an increasing number of outstanding restaurants and shops in Forestville, not to mention the attraction of the West County Trail, so parking already is at a premium. Eliminating the majority of those precious spots could be the death knell for many businesses. Caltrans already has a right of way just south of Main Street that was intended as a bypass. Could that be improved sufficiently to accommodate bicycle traffic? Also consider all the gravel trucks barreling through town. Narrowing the roadway would seem to reduce safety, not enhance it.
Talk to people in Sebastopol who now have one less lane coming into town because of a bike lane. People are constantly saying they've never seen a bike there. I'm in town often and I think I've seen 7 since the bike lanes were installed. What a waste.
"Class III bike lanes" is just a euphemism for "No bike lanes at all"
Genuine question: Explain to me why cyclists need a bike lane through downtown Forestville at all when the West County Trail (which runs from Forestville to Sebastopol to Santa Rosa) is just a block west of Front Street. As a former, longtime cyclist, I don’t understand the logic.
I mean, isn't the proximity to the trail a point in FAVOR of having bike lanes? I know that personally one of my biggest pet peeves with the trails is that they love to abruptly spit you out onto an open highway with 40 mph car traffic and no bike lanes. You can't really "share the road" in conditions like that, it's just not safe! Making the end point of the trail more bike-friendly is good for connectivity.
Also, the trail runs perpendicular to Front Street, not parallel, so it's not actually a viable alternate route if you're trying to bike in and around Forestville, unless I'm missing something? It would just take you out of town toward Sebastopol.
I'll turn the question around: why does Front Street need the street parking so badly? Even if the parking lots are usually full (and I feel like they're not usually full), what's wrong with parking on a side street and walking?
So, I live in Forestville and I used to regularly bike to work in Santa Rosa. The West County Trail is only perpendicular to 116 briefly because it loops up to connect to it at the north end of downtown Forestville. Otherwise, it parallels 116 until it spits you out on Occidental. If you don’t wanna take Occidental to the continuation of the trail on 116, you can go up Barlow, which is beautiful and has that nice challenging hill at the start.
Back to Forestville: From the trail, there is an entrance into Forestville from the south end of town (connecting to Covey) and from the north end of town (connecting to Mirabel). Downtown Forestville is only like two or three short blocks long. It is narrow and congested. As a cyclist, it’s just seems unpleasant to ride there—bike lane or no—especially with the gravel trucks.
I’m actually going to do a reported story about this in which I will be talking to Caltrans, the folks at the county’s public infrastructure department, and Eris Weaver from the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition — in addition to Forestville Chamber. I’ll report back on what they all have to say.
Talk to some of the businesses in Forestville, too. The impact of the parking loss is huge for some of them. What on earth is the point of two or three blocks of bike lanes, if there aren’t any at either end?
These bike lanes would help cyclists who enter town via the West County Trail, access destinations in Forestville, restaurants and stores on Main Street, schools and residences via connecting streets.
Bureaucracies would lose a lot of arrogance if their proposals within a community's boundaries required majority support in a referendum on their plans. It would make for a fun state initiative to force them to serve the public rather than walk all over it.
There is an increasing number of outstanding restaurants and shops in Forestville, not to mention the attraction of the West County Trail, so parking already is at a premium. Eliminating the majority of those precious spots could be the death knell for many businesses. Caltrans already has a right of way just south of Main Street that was intended as a bypass. Could that be improved sufficiently to accommodate bicycle traffic? Also consider all the gravel trucks barreling through town. Narrowing the roadway would seem to reduce safety, not enhance it.
Talk to people in Sebastopol who now have one less lane coming into town because of a bike lane. People are constantly saying they've never seen a bike there. I'm in town often and I think I've seen 7 since the bike lanes were installed. What a waste.
Fair warning:
Saunter over to Guerneville and ask the locals about thier Caltrans experience.
Who should I talk to about this?
Thanks Laura,
I'm not sure, maybe start with the Chamber of Commerce.