As a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition cannot endorse candidates for public office, but we are able to share information so that you can arrive at your own conclusion. Below are Cotati City Council candidates’ responses to our questionnaire on bicycling in Sonoma County. Thanks to the candidates for their time and thoughtful answers!
NOTE: Ben Ford is a member of SCBC.
GEORGE BARICH
The biggest challenge to Sonoma County is to admit the SMART Train has been a total financial and transportation disaster, and to do something about it.
Bicycling on city streets is extremely dangerous, yet it is legal. By far, riding my bicycle on public roadways over the last 50 years has been the most dangerous activity I have ever engaged in. I support the right of every citizen to risk their health and safety and bicycle ride on public streets. In some cities, as you know, motorcycle riding has been banned, I believe in Canada. Next, they will prohibit bicycles as well as an inherently dangerous activity, at any speed. I have followed people like Neil Hancock of Cotati just blow threw stop signs riding his bicycle at high speeds endangering our community, but the police will do nothing about it. I even showed the police the video, but the CPD did nothing. I will work hard to bring these dangerous people to justice.
Liberal/regressive/Marxists are leading this march for the government to “snatch” our property, like bicycles, away for our own good if we abuse the privilege (Kamala Harris, for one has said this. She loves to snatch our stuff). I will fight against confiscating our private property and denying us our basic rights to drive on roadways that we taxpayers have paid for.
In Cotati, it is still legal for children and adults to ride bicycles on city sidewalks endangering the public and their dogs on leash. I was almost killed by a bicyclist racing down the sidewalk while walking my dog. I went to the police department to complain only to learn that this activity of terrorizing pedestrians on sidewalks in perfectly legal in the City of Cotati. I will work hard to reverse this insanity.
Last time I checked, the City of Cotati is flat broke with unfunded liabilities in the millions of dollars (not reflected in city budgets). Cotati has no money unless it begs the state and federal government for more “free money” printed out of thin air to improve our transportation needs. The Hamas supporting democrats on our city council refuse to address the real problem telling the Bicycle Coalition total lies wearing their fancy suits and ties to gain their support. This fraud on the community is real and unacceptable.
On “Ride to Work Day” in Cotati, which the city council voted to support, I did my research and investigated Cotati City Hall that day taking time off work for the people of Cotati. I found that not one person at City Hall rode their bike to work that day. I even checked the Public Works Yard and found the same. Ride a Bike to Work Day has been all a big fraud insulting the intelligence of the Bicycle Coalition. We should all be ashamed of the City Hall propaganda to support more bicycle transportation. The Coalition itself should have done the investigative reporting that I did. Where were they? Do they really care? George Barich cared? I even brought my research back to the city council and complained. Yet the democrats did nothing and said nothing. Their silence was deafening. These are the questions I will keep asking, if elected. “Put your money where your mouth is, Cotati”.
Most bicyclists I witness don’t even wear a fricking helmet? Yet, I am forced to wear a helmet riding my moped? Does that make sense? Of course not.
I will bring common sense back to Cotati City Hall, if elected. I will stand for bicycle safety and bicycle sanity. I will recommend our Cotati police enforce the bicycle laws. Most children on bicycles are not even wearing helmets. Has Cotati Police ever cited anyone for not wearing a helmet while riding a bike? No. I did a public records request and learned the truth. Cotati City Hall, and my opponents in this race, do not give a squat about bicycle riders in Cotati other than to gain their votes. This is the truth. If bikesonoma.org wants real support for bicycle safety and sanity, they will support my candidacy of real accountability in government, and fair treatment under the law.
BEN FORD
Do you ride a bicycle in Sonoma County for transportation or recreation? How would you characterize the experience of cycling here?
I regularly commute by bicycle (short ride, 2.5 mi each way), on my road bike. My wife and I have for many years had only one car (an electric one, for the last 8 years), which keeps me honest and riding my bike even on bad-weather winter days. For the last 4+ years I have become more serious about road biking, averaging 100 miles/week.
Our cycling infrastructure in Cotati is slowly getting better. We have small disconnections that make some travel hard, but have filled some of those in during my first term. It is unpleasant (and unsafe-feeling for many) to get from one side of 101 to the other on Hwy 116. Heading North on Old Redwood Highway from downtown, the bike lane diverts onto a sidewalk for 1/2 block because of utility restrictions in a recent repaving project. On the other hand, we worked with Rohnert Park and early on completed the SMART path through Rohnert Park and Cotati very early, and we recently included good bike infrastructure in our West Sierra and Redwood Drive repaving projects.
As a member of our Planning Commission 2011-19, which acted as our Bike/Pedestrian Advisory Committee, we pushed for prioritization of bike traffic in all street planning. I served on our Wayfinding task force that used grant money to design a signage program for the city, with an emphasis on signage for bikes and pedestrians.
What are your community’s/Sonoma County’s biggest transportation challenges, and how does bicycling fit into your vision of future development? Poor public transit is probably the biggest challenge. We are poorly served by SCT routes. SSU students can’t even reasonably get back and forth between campus and downtown Cotati.
The Santa Rosa plain is so easily bikeable for so much of the year that we should really see a much larger proportion of our trips be by bicycle. Connectivity is a key. The SMART trail will make a big difference and is clearly a big priority (and will soon be complete from Petaluma to Santa Rosa, except for a small stretch north of Penngrove). Cotati has done a good job on some recent projects—e.g. Cotati’s portion of East Cotati Avenue, with continuous 7-foot bike lanes, is well done. Old Redwood Highway has not worked so well; the original plan for that work would have put that stretch of Old Redwood Highway on a lane diet and had good bike facilities.
So my vision of bicycling as a part of transportation in the city is that everyone can easily find their way to most spots in the city (and to connections to other towns) on safe, well-signed bike routes.
If elected, what will you do to improve cycling safety and encourage more people in the county to ride? During our recent Active Transportation Plan revision effort, I advocated for more & better bike & pedestrian infrastructure requirements for new development in Cotati, and I will continue to make that a priority. As best practices evolve, I think it is helpful to have an active bicyclist on the council to help our city standards stay up-to-date so that our project reflects the best current understanding. In the past, I coordinated Cotati’s Bike To Work Day station for several years in the past. I worked with the Cotati Police Department and Transition Cotati to organize smart cycling classes at the police department.
Our visions and goals are often tempered by available budgets, staff time and public focus. How will you seek to balance improving bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and safety with your other policy priorities? I don’t actually believe that most of what I support costs lots of money. Complete streets approaches should just be folded into normal street repaving projects; transportation planning (e.g. project prioritization) should refocus on bicycling needs (filling gaps in the bicycling network) and and away from increasing car throughput. Our planning department needs to be certain to apply for every bicycle infrastructure grant program that comes along. In concert with pedestrian-friendly land use planning and public transit improvements, better bicycle infrastructure can help us become a healthier, more-connected, and less planet-destructive city.
Are there any specific projects in your jurisdiction – either planned or imagined – that you are particularly excited to see implemented? We have much new housing in the queue for the West side of Cotati. With that will come significant improvements to Hwy 116 as it heads West out of town, and to the Hwy 116/West Cotati Ave intersection. While it will be piecemeal at first, I am excited to see more bicycle infrastructure and a critical mass of residents in that area, to bring more activity to bicycle & pedestrian corridors across the City.
While Cotati has long ago completed its portion, the SMART trail all the way to Windsor will make it much easier for me to bicycle commute to the many meetings I have to attend along the 101 corridor between Petaluma and Cotati.
SUSAN HARVEY
LAURA SPARKS
Do you ride a bicycle in Sonoma County for transportation or recreation? How would you characterize the experience of cycling here? No, I do not. While I am incredibly supportive of cyclists and bicycle safety, I personally do not have good spatial awareness, and I find the experience of cycling on roads shared with cars and trucks to be frightening. I cannot tolerate loud noise from passing vehicles, which causes me great anxiety. I know several folks personally who have been seriously injured in bicycle/automobile collisions. I am a vocal advocate for protected bicycle lanes. If we had a network of lanes and pathways that were separated from automobiles, I would cycle regularly. I have been a frequent cyclist during other periods of my life when I lived near a university and was able to ride without encountering vehicles as often.
What are your community’s/Sonoma County’s biggest transportation challenges, and how does bicycling fit into your vision of future development? Cotati’s biggest challenge within city limits is connectivity between the west side and east side of 101. There is a lot of new housing going in on the north side of 116. It will be a major priority for me during my second term to improve bicycle and pedestrian connectivity for residents in this area. Beyond city limits, most residents of Cotati commute to work in other communities using internal combustion vehicles; “vehicle miles traveled” are the main source of Cotati’s greenhouse gas emissions. We must do anything we can to improve transit options, including making cycling more attractive and feasible for commuting and errands.
My vision for future development includes planning secure bicycle storage and safer, more attractive protected bike routes whenever possible. These things should be the norm that baked into our planning process, not an afterthought.
If elected, what will you do to improve cycling safety and encourage more people in the county to ride? We recently approved our new Active Transportation Plan, which included many bicycle infrastructure improvements. Eris Weaver communicated many suggested improvements to the plan, which I thought made a lot of sense. I worked hard to make sure the improvements were incorporated into the plan. In my second term, I will be an advocate to bump up the priority of bicycle infrastructure improvements during our budgeting process. I have also already gotten the city to include non-road bicycle and pedestrian pathways in a more systematic way during planning for road repairs and routine maintenance. I will follow up to make sure that we are properly maintaining the pathways that we build.
Our visions and goals are often tempered by available budgets, staff time and public focus. How will you seek to balance improving bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and safety with your other policy priorities? Bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure should be given just as much consideration as road infrastructure that is oriented towards automobiles. I will continue to argue that bicycle infrastructure should be systematically improved and maintained as part of our regular process, so that we’re not in a position where we have to advocate to support particular projects. They should be prioritized and maintained as a matter of course, just as we treat our vehicle roadways.
Are there any specific projects in your jurisdiction – either planned or imagined – that you are particularly excited to see implemented? I am particularly eager to see a study done on the best option for a protected bike path connecting the SMART station to downtown along or adjacent to East Cotati Ave. This was included in our Active Transportation Plan, and I want to see a real solution built during my second term.