Humboldt County is dangerous for people walking, and U.S. Highway 101 in Eureka is the most dangerous place to walk in our dangerous county. It’s time to do something about it.
If you already agree with that sentiment, I’ve got a petition for you to sign. But if you need a little more information, please read on.
The most recent rankings from the California Office of Traffic Safety show that Humboldt is ranked second in the state for pedestrian crashes. In other words, only one of the state’s other 58 counties has a worse record for pedestrian safety. And Broadway, Fourth Street and Fifth Street — collectively, Eureka’s portion of U.S. Highway 101 — are at the center of this safety crisis.
Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities’ recent report called Dangerous Downtown Streets found that over the last decade, 18 percent of pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries in the county — nearly one in every five — happened on Fourth and Fifth streets alone, despite these streets making up far less than 1 percent of the county’s road miles. These streets are also the site of a disproportionately high number of bicyclist and motorist injuries and fatalities.
For transportation safety experts, the fact that these streets are dangerous does not come as a surprise. Streets like Broadway, Fourth and Fifth streets are designed to carry as much car and truck traffic as quickly as possible, like a highway. But they also function as city streets surrounded by lots of homes, offices and businesses — and therefore lots of people walking and biking. People have no choice but to walk and bike on these streets in order to get where they need to go, but their safety was not prioritized in the street design.
These kinds of streets, called “urban arterials” in transportation jargon, are the site of most pedestrian deaths in the United States. Multi-lane, one-way streets often have especially bad safety records, because they encourage higher speeds and allow dangerous drivers to weave in and out of traffic.
The good news is that we know how to make these streets safer. Calming traffic is the most effective strategy, because lower speeds make it easier for drivers to avoid a crash, and make it much more likely that the victims will survive if there is one. Providing safer ways to walk or roll across the street is another key strategy. And there need to be safe places to bike, too.
All these kinds of improvements are currently under construction as part of the South Broadway Complete Streets Project. Caltrans has also developed plans to continue these upgrades north of the Bayshore Mall on Broadway but hasn’t funded them. There are no plans at all for significant improvements to Fourth and Fifth streets.
The Dangerous Downtown Streets report identifies several potential safety upgrades for Fourth and Fifth streets. The biggest recommendation is to convert one car and truck lane in each direction into a protected bike lane. This change would calm traffic, protect bicyclists and pedestrians, reduce the distance required to cross the street and limit opportunities for reckless driving — all at the same time. Other recommended improvements include intersection safety upgrades to protect people walking and biking, like improving visibility for both drivers and pedestrians, and installing new traffic signals in key locations.
If you agree that the safety crisis on U.S. Highway 101 in Eureka is unacceptable, we ask you to join us in demanding that Caltrans take action. And then, help spread the word!
Colin Fiske is the executive director of the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities.
This article appears in The Siren’s Song Returns at Jim Dunn’s.
Negative inflammatory article only blaming drivers. Pedestrians need to take responsibility for their own behavior and safety (e.g. look before they cross, cross at designated cross walks, wear light coloured clothing especially at night, instead of randomly crossing not 50 ft. from a cross walk). I’ve seen them run across the middle of the road at night in the rain in dark clothing – simply cannot see them. No amount of safety improvements will change pedestrian behavior short of fencing them in. I do agree bicycling is sketchy at best, but there are other places to bike. The State tried to run a bypass through/around Eureka to, in part, improve safety and transportation but got pulled.
You can sign the petition here: https://transportationpriorities.org/4th5thstreets/