When it comes to active transportation, the City of Santa Rosa is setting the standard.
The city’s Transportation and Public Works Department, led by Director Dan Hennessey, continues to make strides in advancing bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, reflecting the city’s commitment to sustainable, safe mobility.
After installing the county’s first protected bike lane on Armory Drive, the city has continued to install protected lanes in other parts of Santa Rosa and make improvements to thoroughfares like Sonoma and Santa Rosa Avenues. They have helped spearhead Safe Routes to School audits that have resulted in improved bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure near schools. They continue to work through a long list of transformative projects that will improve connectivity around the city, including protected bike lanes on the Hearn Avenue Overcrossing and North Dutton Avenue, and the long-awaited Highway 101 Bicycle and Pedestrian Overcrossing near Santa Rosa Junior College. This year, the city also took a lead role in organizing the Bike-In Block Party, a Bike Month event meant to celebrate and encourage mode shift.
Over the past couple of years, SCBC has been especially happy to work closely with Transportation Planner Torina Wilson and Active Transportation Planner Alexander Oceguera, but we know it has been a department-wide effort. It is easy for municipalities to put off, ignore or become mired in squabbling over proposed improvements to active transportation infrastructure. We laud the Santa Rosa team for taking this work seriously and finding collaborative ways to get it done. As Alexander notes, this is not just about making streets safer for cyclists, it’s about making streets safer for all users.