Advocacy Update, March 9-13

Sonoma: Caltrans will be restriping Broadway and there is an opportunity to influence how the street can be made more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly! Among the options are protected bike lanes. Click here to take the survey and indicate your favorite option (we favor the parking-protected version) – you don’t have to live or work in Sonoma to take it! The survey will be live through March 27.

Windsor: Windsor is also doing an online survey in order to improve their network of bicycle paths. (Their first question asks where you live or work in the town.)

Media Advocacy: We participated in a webinar about a piece of interesting and useful research: “Does News Coverage of Traffic Crashes Affect Perceived Blame?”  The answer: hell yes! We will be sharing this information with our local media contacts and law enforcement agencies. You can read a summary of it here.

SMART:  Ballot Measure I was defeated. What might this mean for the future of the bike path? We are still figuring this out. We’ve met with our colleagues from the Marin County Bicycle Coalition and Rails to Trails Conservancy to discuss next steps.

Measure M renewal: We continue to meet with Board and staff members of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority as well as other stakeholders, seeking to craft an expenditure plan for this measure that will satisfy enough constituencies to pass, thereby keeping a local source for transportation funding.

Healdsburg: The Healdsburg City Council held a meeting to discuss their goals for the coming year. We attended the meeting, and shared our thoughts about how specific bicycle policy and infrastructure actions would help achieve their objectives.