I wanted to share a few more thoughts about Arcata before I depart tomorrow to hike and kayak with my retired friend, Stephen Walton, in Redwood National Park. As a reminder, I am still writing this post on my phone because I decided to leave my laptop at home. “Arcata at Eye Level: Part 2” is a reference to “The City at Eye Level”.

Importance of flipping stop signs on bike boulevard

I seeked out biking on Portland’s neighborhood greenways when I lived in Portland because I could avoid having to stop at every minor crossing. Unfortunately, Arcata did not design its bike boulevard (aka neighborhood greenway) the same way. While Arcata signed bike boulevard routes, I believe there were stop signs at every intersection. Flipping the stop signs at intersections with two stop signs or removing the stop signs on the bike boulevard at four-way stops is an easy and cheap way to prioritize people using the bike boulevard. As I have also been observing in Petaluma, it can be challenging to gain support from motorists for this idea because cyclists would be prioritized over motorists. Has your city flipped any stop signs to prioritize people over cars?

Car parking access using trail looks similar to approach used in Houten, Netherlands

I was so surprised by seeing car parking access provided using a trail in Arcata that I asked people walking by whether cars actually drive on the trail to access car parking. While the people walking did not understand what I was asking because they just said it’s a trail, I plan to ask the City of Arcata staff how this arrangement works. Since the intersection sign shows L Street and not a trail name, it appears that this section of L Street was converted to a trail. Due to this being a trail, I am also curious why the sign has “road” in it. A trail is not a road, so does the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) not have a sign that states “Trail Closed To Thru Car Traffic”?

The photo below is from when I biked in Houten, Netherlands. The car parking connection to the trail looks very similar to the approach used in Arcata. While I am not sure whether people in Houten actually drive on the trail, do you see how the car parking is connected to the trail?

Future Blog Post

My vacation continues tomorrow in an area of northwest California that I have not explored yet. My friend and I plan to hike and kayak in Redwood National Park through Friday. Since one of my vacation goals is to be off the grid as much as possible, I am looking forward to having limited or no internet and cell services through Friday. While Arcata put the bar high in weird and surprising approaches to transportation planning, I hope to see more weird transportation planning approaches that surprise me. Am I surprised too easily, or are you also surprised by what I found?