Tag: santa cruz

Santa Cruz transportation commission appoints new director

Richard MasonerSeptember 5, 2024Leave a Comment

This Santa Cruz Regional Transportation Commission is the agency responsible for deciding how transportation funds are spent in Santa Cruz County, and is governed by a board composed of representatives from each of Santa Cruz County’s five districts, and each of its four incorporated cities. I’ve worked with Sarah Christensen for several years. She’s been the de facto voice and face of the SCCRTC for several years now. She knows how to navigate her way around in both local and state politics, and handles herself deftly when a certain RTC board member (*koff*ManuKoenig*koff*) try to trip her up. She really knows her stuff and I think the RTC board has made the correct choice. I’ll paste the news release from the RTC word for word now:

The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) is pleased to announce that, after an extensive search, RTC Senior Transportation Engineer Sarah Christensen has been hired as the agency’s new Executive Director.

Christensen has over 19 years of experience in organizational leadership, planning, and implementation of major capital projects along the Central Coast and in the Bay Area. As the RTC’s Senior Transportation Engineer since 2017, she has overseen engineering and capital project delivery for the agency. Her accomplishments with the RTC include managing the $350 million Highway 1 Auxiliary Lanes & Bus-on-Shoulder Program; leading the implementation of the first permanent bus-on-shoulder facility in the state of California; developing and delivering the equity-focused Watsonville to Santa Cruz Multimodal Corridor (WSCMC) Program of innovative and sustainable transportation projects along major transportation routes through Santa Cruz County; developing the funding strategy along with leading the grant application process to successfully secure $107.2 million of Senate Bill 1 funds and $30 million of Federal Mega funds for the WSCMC program; and managing the RTC’s Rail Program including development of Zero Emission Passenger Rail, storm damage repairs, and infrastructure preservation of the RTC-owned 32-mile Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line.

“I am excited to announce that Sarah Christensen will be the next executive director of the RTC,” said RTC Chair Kristen Brown. “Sarah is a proven leader who will bring her nearly two decades of experience managing and delivering transformative transportation projects across the region to her new role. I look forward to working with her in this new capacity as she continues the great work she has already begun to develop and deliver equitable and sustainable transportation solutions for our county.”

Prior to her position at the RTC, Christensen was a transportation project manager in private consulting where her work included delivery of multimodal projects across the state including highway, interchange, bicycle/pedestrian overcrossing, complete streets, trail, Bus Rapid Transit, tolling, and express lanes projects. She specialized in delivering and developing funding strategies for multijurisdictional and complex projects, including the $500 million Silicon Valley Express Lanes Program for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) along State Route 237, 85, and US 101.  

Christensen has a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from San Jose State University, a Master of Science degree in Transportation Management from the Mineta Transportation Institute, and is a licensed civil engineer. She will bring a wealth of experience in engineering, capital project delivery, project programming, construction management, and financing of multi-modal transportation projects to her new role leading the RTC.

“During my time with the RTC, I have enjoyed engaging with the community, fostering partnerships, and delivering results that will create a lasting positive impact on the quality of life for Santa Cruz County,” Christensen said. “In my new position as executive director, I look forward to continuing to provide high-quality transportation solutions for the community and leading the Commission into its next successful chapter.”

Christensen will enter into a three-year contract with the RTC and will report directly to the Board of Directors. She will start on Sept. 9.

Posted In politics | santa cruz
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Public comments open for Santa Cruz Rail Trail Segment 12 Draft EIR

Richard MasonerMay 30, 2023Leave a Comment

The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) will hold a public hearing to solicit community input on the Draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Assessment (DEIR/EA) for the proposed Coastal Rail Trail Segment 12 Project and Highway 1 Auxiliary Lane/Bus-on-Shoulder project.

The proposed project includes construction of northbound and southbound auxiliary lanes between the State Park Drive and Freedom Boulevard interchanges on Highway 1, extends the bus-on-shoulder facility by 2.5 miles, widens the Highway 1 bridge over Aptos Creek and Spreckles Drive, reconstructs the north Aptos and south Aptos railroad underpasses, and constructs drainage facilities, retaining walls, and sound walls. The project also includes the construction of an approximate 1.25-mile-long segment of the Coastal Rail Trail (Segment 12) along the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line between State Park Drive and Rio del Mar Boulevard.

The DEIR/EA identifies the project’s potential impacts and potential avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures. A public hearing will be held to provide the public with the opportunity to learn more about the project’s environmental process and submit comments for consideration in the Final EIR/EA.

View the DEIR/EA documents online at the SCCRTC project website; at the RTC office at 1101 Pacific Ave., Ste. 250, Santa Cruz (located upstairs from my favorite ice cream shop in Santa Cruz); and at the Capitola, Live Oak, and Watsonville public libraries.

The hearing takes place during the Santa Cruz County board meeting at 9:30 AM, Thursday June 1, 2023, at the County Board of Supervisors Chambers, 701 Ocean St., Rm 525, Santa Cruz, CA. During this meeting, the RTC commission will also receive information about a proposed GO Santa Cruz County Bicycle Incentives program that was discussed during the Santa Cruz bike committee meeting earlier this month.

If you cannot make the hearing, written comments may also be submitted by mail to Lara Bertaina, Department of Transportation, 50 Higuera Street, San Luis Obispo, CA, or by email to lara.bertaina@dot.ca.gov. All comments must be received by 5 p.m. on June 2, 2023.

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Bike news digest for the first of May 2023

Richard MasonerMay 1, 20231 Comment on Bike news digest for the first of May 2023

Happy USA Bike Month 2023! I intend to re-launch San Jose Bike Train Real Soon Now. This is a casual morning bike commute on the Guadalupe River Trail. We’ll begin in downtown San Jose from San Pedro Square Market for coffee from Voyager Craft Coffee, hit the trail, and ride north on the trail to River Oaks, with people peeling off along the way for their destinations that can include the Santa Clara County buildings, SJC Airport, and VTA HQ. The trail is mostly clear with some minor work still needed underneath Hwy 101. Please comment below for your thoughts on day of the week and start time.

Events and News

  • Early registration is open for the Safe Routes to School Summit 2023, celebrating the People, Places, and Possibility of Safe Routes to School. This three-day virtual summit will be held October 24-26, featuring innovative presentations and networking opportunities for Safe Routes practitioners, partners, and champions. Early Bird registration opens today and continues until September 1. Learn more in this FAQ.
  • The next Viva Calle San Jose takes place Sunday, June 11, 2023. Learn more https://www.vivacallesj.org/
  • Santa Cruz County celebrates Bike Month with a Bike Challenge, encouraging participants to get around on two wheels and win prizes. Santa Cruz County Bike Challenge info.
  • The Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship encourages you to take part in what they hope is their largest trail work day ever on National Trails Day. They’ll team up with over 20 other local organizations to host 19 different events throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains. After a morning of trail work, they’ll host a big after party at DeLaveaga Park. Learn more at their Trails Day event page.
  • What do you think of solar panels as a shade covering over exposed bike paths?
  • Cycle of Influence summit September 12-14, 2023 in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Remember: let me know what day and time works for a casual morning ride from downtown San Jose towards the Bay. And feel free to comment with your bike event and news below.

Posted In news | san jose
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Parking reform’s negative impacts bicycle parking? What?

Richard MasonerDecember 15, 2022Leave a Comment

We’re excited in California for AB 2097 to take effect with the new year. This law bans parking minimums for new developments within a half mile of transit. Cycling advocates and others who care about housing and the climate fought for this bill, and we celebrated when Governor Gavin Newsom signed 2097 into law last September.

But did you know this law might also eliminate bike parking requirements in some California cities and counties?

A bicycle leaned against a wave rack near a white wall, with "BICYCLE PARKING" stenciled above the rack.

I was reviewing plans for a new restaurant for the city of Campbell, California because planners there seem to overlook their town’s bike parking requirements. The developer application includes this paragraph:

Under the recently adopted AB-2097, the City “shall not impose or enforce any minimum automobile parking requirement on a residential, commercial, or other development project if the project is located within one-half mile of public transit.” As such, this project is no longer subject to a parking requirement as of January 1, 2023.

Cool, right? The application, though, makes no mention of bike parking, so I looked up Campbell’s bike parking rules. Campbell adopts by reference the California Green Building Standards Code (“CalGreen”), which in turn stipulates “permanently anchored bicycle racks within 200 feet of the visitors’ entrance, readily visible to passers-by, for 5 percent of new visitor motorized vehicle parking spaces being added.”

Do you see the problem? Five percent of zero is … zero bike parking.

Alarmed, I next looked at city code for cities in Santa Cruz County. Each of the cities of Santa Cruz, Capitola, and Watsonville have at least a portion of their bike parking requirements defined as a percentage of car parking. Update: The city of Santa Cruz already started work to amend their bike parking code in light of AB 2097; good job!

The County of Santa Cruz just yesterday finalized and approved an overhaul of the Parking and Circulation section of their planning code which significantly improves bicycle requirements for new developments. Guess how this brand new code specifies bike parking? Yep: as a percentage of car parking.

As a member of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission Bicycle Committee (whew, that’s a mouthful), I’ve already asked the committee chair for an agenda item and action in which we’ll send a letter to each of these cities and the county asking them to update their bike parking code to reflect the new reality of AB 2097.

While most cities I’ve looked at have this problem, I found three cities that define bike parking requirements with a formula based on building square footage or occupancy: San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland. Well done to those cities.

I encourage you to look into your city and county zoning code. You can find this by Googling [ your city or county ] planning code bicycle parking. I’d love to know your findings so comment what you find here.

Posted In advocacy | bicycling advocacy | california
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Brigading Caltrans for safety improvements

Richard MasonerApril 2, 2019Leave a Comment

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. After community input, Caltrans agrees to safety improvements for Highway 17 drivers, so let’s grab this opportunity to improve the shoulder along California State Route 17 from Bear Creek Road to Alma Bridge Road along Lexington Reservoir.

CHP lane splitting

Caltrans responds to petition for Highway 17 safety improvements

Caltrans is driven by data, but they also pay attention to online problem reports, especially when they see a spike in reports. I don’t know if it’s possible to game this system, but Caltrans District 4 (which covers the San Francisco Bay Area, including Santa Clara County aka the “South Bay”), responded very quickly after an effort organized on Facebook resulted in an inundation of problem reports regarding hazardous conditions on the infamous “Highway 17.

Highway 17 is the main thoroughfare between homes in coastal Santa Cruz and jobs in Silicon Valley. The highway is a winding, mountain road that rises from near sea level, up to 1800 feet, and back down to 100 feet above sea level where State Route 17 becomes I-880 at I-280. Challenging geography and budget constraints meant engineers compromised on design features when they constructed this road in the 1940s. Danger increases in wet weather.

After a decade of drought during an era of significant population and job growth, a series of atmospheric rivers slammed northern California this past winter, resulting in a dramatic increase in collisions on this highway.

Some Facebook group members organized an effort to plead with Caltrans to improve safety on Highway 17. They won’t get the significant engineering they wish for, but Caltrans did move quickly to begin smaller safety improvements, namely higher friction pavement and improved guardrails. This project covers State Route 17 from Summit Road north to Alma Bridge Road just north of Lexington Reservoir.

Rumble Strips and bicycles

Interestingly (for me), safety improvements like this come in a package, a bit like a combo meal from a fast food restaurant. The Highway 17 safety package will include shoulder rumble strips. Rumble strips are used where run-off-the-road crashes due to inattention are a problem. Those who routinely travel 17 understand inattention probably is not a problem on this road.

Nonetheless, Sergio Ruiz, who runs the Pedestrian a Bicycle Program for Caltrans D4 out of Oakland, reached out to cyclists who ride over the Santa Cruz Mountains due to the hazards of rumble strips for cyclists. Several of us pointed out that almost everybody avoids Highway 17 altogether by riding other mountain roads, so Caltrans can add rumble strips to their heart’s content.

We do have one very important exception: Several people scramble along that 4/10ths of a mile of Highway 17 from Bear Creek Road to Alma Bridge Road. 500 people have logged rides to Strava so far along this stretch of Hwy 17 during a very rainy start to 2019. Sergio assured me there are no plans to rumble strip that portion of 17.

As an aside, though, I mentioned the drainage grates and crappy condition of the shoulder forces us to move out into the auxiliary lane here.

Sergio picked up on this and said he would try to get shoulder improvements for cyclists added into this overall safety project.

Can we encourage Caltrans to leverage an existing project and add this small bit of shoulder to their much larger safety project? If you ride this short stretch of Highway 17 on your bicycle, drop a note to Caltrans PIO for
Santa Clara County, Victor Gauthier (Victor.Gauthier@dot.ca.gov) and mention that you would like the shoulder improved here as part of an existing safety project, since Caltrans has to tear the pavement up anyway.

The motoring group also contacted the California Office of Traffic Safety, Santa Clara County Supervisor Mike Wasserman, the California Transportation Commission, the office of Senator Jim Beall, and various other decision makers. I’m told some of these people received upwards of 1,000 emails, which is enough to get anyone’s attention.

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