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 Petaluma City Council candidates’ responses to our questionnaire on bicycling in Sonoma County. Thanks to the candidates for their time and thoughtful answers!
NOTE: Frank Quint is a member of SCBC.
JEFFREY “JJ” JAY, District 4
Do you ride a bicycle in Sonoma County for transportation or recreation? How would you characterize the experience of cycling here? I ride for transcreation? Recreportion? My wife and I like to substitute our car with our bikes when we can, often riding from our house to downtown Petaluma to spend the day (almost always for things like The Antique Faire) and to some of our favorite restaurants (Two Niner Diner at the Petaluma Airport is one). We enjoy the experience, but are challenged with a safe route to downtown (we need to use some busy streets) and the poor condition of the roads we have to use. Micro-cracks on the neighborhood streets in Petaluma make for a bumpy ride!
What are your community’s/Sonoma County’s biggest transportation challenges, and how does bicycling fit into your vision of future development? Petaluma’s major transportation challenge is the congestion that occurs during busy rush hour times, especially when crossing 101. Our city needs to complete the planned crosstown connectors that include more biking options (though not at the expense of cars). I would love to see a more diverse, integrated network of bike paths throughout the city.
If elected, what will you do to improve cycling safety and encourage more people in the county to ride? Petaluma is already on a great trend with their Complete Streets, Vision Zero resolutions and their Local Road Safety Plan. If elected, I will support this trend.
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? One way to keep bicycle and pedestrian safety and infrastructure in the forefront of future planning is to push for the concept of the 15-minute city; some major resource (shopping, entertainment, etc) within a 15-minute walk from everywhere.
Are there any specific projects in your jurisdiction – either planned or imagined – that you are particularly excited to see implemented? I really like the idea of the 15-minute city and plan to continue to research, understand, and advocate for the concept as Petaluma plans development on available city sites.
FRANK QUINT, District 4
Do you ride a bicycle in Sonoma County for transportation or recreation? Yes, I ride for both transportation and recreation. Most of my riding is within the boundaries of Petaluma but I also take the occasional ride in the county west of Petaluma and I’ve commuted to Corte Madera using my Bike and the Smart Train.
How would you characterize the experience of cycling here? I love riding my bike through Petaluma and I find ways to not let the lack of quality active transportation infrastructure get me down. Petaluma is making improvements but there is a lot of work to be done to give the average person a safe alternative to driving.
What are your community’s/Sonoma County’s biggest transportation challenges, and how does bicycling fit into your vision of future development? Petaluma’s biggest issues are housing and climate change. Both of these major issues require material upgrades in our active transportation network in order to give our people safe alternatives to cars.
If elected, what will you do to improve cycling safety and encourage more people in the county to ride? I will support investment in active transportation infrastructure. I will also lead community engagement in ways that promote more cycling. For example, showing up to and leading community bike rides, supporting safe routes to schools so kids can ride their bikes, supporting bike train initiatives, and supporting special bike events such as the Cyclovia or the lighted holiday ride. I would also support initiatives that subsidize Ebikes for high school kids as an alternative to driving to school.
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? Climate change is one of, if not the most pressing matter of our time. Providing safe alternatives to driving is key if we ever want to make a difference. Not to mention, this also contributes to our health as well. Because this is so important, we have to make it our priority.
Are there any specific projects in your jurisdiction – either planned or imagined – that you are particularly excited to see implemented? Yes, I’m excited to see our ATP come to life and I’m excited for the Caulfield Bridge project. The Caulfield Bridge will help active transportation in several ways.
ALEXANDER DECARLI, District 5
BLAKE HOOPER, District 5
BRIAN BARNACLE, District 6
Do you ride a bicycle in Sonoma County for transportation or recreation? How would you characterize the experience of cycling here? Riding my bike is my primary form of transportation for local trips. The cycling (and walking and driving) experience is far less safe and convenient than it should be. I have made creating a safe and connected network for cars, bikes, and pedestrians of all kinds one of my highest priorities. We still have a long way to go, but I am proud of the progress we’ve been making around Petaluma on infrastructure, education, and encouragement.
What are your community’s/Sonoma County’s biggest transportation challenges, and how does bicycling fit into your vision of future development? Be it speeding, swerving, infrastructure, or other driving behaviors, safety is a major issue in Petaluma. Additionally, funding, deferred maintenance, lack of public understanding all slow progress in making our roads safer. I have been a big supporter of all ages and abilities approach to road reconstruction projects and have been a major advocate for quick build projects. With the rise of e-bikes, more people will be biking in the future regardless what the city does. However, it is the council’s responsibility to provide safe infrastructure so that we do not see a rise in injury and fatality collisions.
Petaluma has all the right policies to support all ages and abilities, but we need a council that will not backslide on implementation. That is what distinguishes me from my opponent. I believe that well done is better than well said, and he waffles when it is time to implement safety improvements.
If elected, what will you do to improve cycling safety and encourage more people in the county to ride? We have a long way to go, but overall I am very proud of my record and accomplishments. Since I took office, I have championed:
- Safe routes to school
- Safe streets nomination program
- Slow the fast down campaign
- Safe streets policy platform
- Multiple quick builds citywide to encourage biking on city streets
- Closing sidewalk gaps and adding safe bike lanes on McDowell
After 3 years of dogged advocacy, I was elated to see that Petaluma was very well represented at Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition Golden Spoke awards – something I look forward to being a regular occurrence each year!
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? When I drafted and passed the city’s initial safe streets policy platform, I included an annual funding level that would have put us on par with the most pro-safe streets city’s in the country. Since then, I have fought in every budget to secure funding for this important work. Because of my efforts, the city is investing 8X more into safe streets than before I was seated. Beyond a dedicated budget for safe streets, we are investing 5X more in road paving and I have been vigilant in ensuring that these large capital projects address safety issues for all road users.
Are there any specific projects in your jurisdiction – either planned or imagined – that you are particularly excited to see implemented? District 6 has collector streets that are in very poor shape and I am looking forward to improving these streets, including Howard, Webster, Western, Madison, and D Street. I am also working to help move forward several small-scale safety projects that address very specific local issues in my district.
MIKE HEALY, District 6
Do you ride a bicycle in Sonoma County for transportation or recreation? How would you characterize the experience of cycling here? I used to, but now I walk a lot. When I was biking, I didn’t consider it to be very safe, either in town or on country roads with narrow or no shoulders.
What are your community’s/Sonoma County’s biggest transportation challenges, and how does bicycling fit into your vision of future development? One of Petaluma’s biggest challenges is getting from the east side to the west side and back (so-called crosstown connectors), crossing 1) Highway 101 2) the SMART tracks & 3) the Petaluma River. Most folks are probably familiar with the Rainier vs. Caulfield debate on which auto cross-town connector to prioritize. But over the years I have supported our two bike / ped crosstown connectors, the Lynch Creek trail and the SMART trail. Please see response to Question #5.
If elected, what will you do to improve cycling safety and encourage more people in the county to ride? I will continue to look for cost-effective opportunities to extend bike / ped trails and to make city streets safer for bicyclists. What I will not do is what one of my rivals in District 6 has advocated for, which is reducing the amount of roads in Petaluma by 50% to encourage people to ride bikes; I regard that as extremist and sure to alienate non-bicyclists.
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 supported the new 5th Street bike upgrades because those respected neighbor input. Conversely, I did not support the recent D Street bike lanes because that project did not respect neighbor input. I do support funding additional bike / ped projects, but such projects are often competing with other critical unmet needs, such as modern police & fire stations.
Are there any specific projects in your jurisdiction – either planned or imagined – that you are particularly excited to see implemented? Yes, the potential extension of a bike /ped path along the eastern bank of the Petaluma River from the Riverfront subdivision under the 101 bridge and the SMART trestle to the Petaluma Marina, and potentially extending to the east towards Shollenberger Park and to the west across the McNear channel to Petaluma River Park.
LANCE KUEHNE, District 6
Do you ride a bicycle in Sonoma County for transportation or recreation? How would you characterize the experience of cycling here? I used to bike over 9 miles a day 5 days a week in San Francisco for many years, and I have logged thousands of miles on my bike which strongly shapes my views about bicycling in general.
I occasionally ride my bicycle in Sonoma County, and I used to ride a lot more when I moved to Petaluma over 20 years ago, but a bicycling network was almost nonexistent back then. I don’t have enough recent experience to really characterize the experience of what riding a bike is like now in Petaluma (except between my home and studio, which I do on occasion).
What are your community’s/Sonoma County’s biggest transportation challenges, and how does bicycling fit into your vision of future development? The biggest challenge is getting around quickly and safely. Due to a lack of biking-specific infrastructure, bicycling can be dangerous which makes more people use their cars, and this exacerbates traffic, and is unhealthy to the commuter and the environment. Making bicycling safe and convenient is very important to my vision of future development.
If elected, what will you do to improve cycling safety and encourage more people in the county to ride? I would create biking and walking paths that are physically separated from motor vehicle traffic. The safety of bikers and pedestrians should not depend on the alertness or sobriety of motorists. I would also make sure that these paths are “re-wilded” as much as possible with native plants and trees dotted along each side of the path. I would also have benches and bike parking dotted along the way.
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 would create a comprehensive “wish list” of an ideal biking/pedestrian network in Petaluma and make sure that any new developments fit in with that plan. It is hard to retrofit bike lanes into roads that have been solely design for motor vehicles. Painting a few stripes in the road is better than nothing, but it is not a complete solution either.
Are there any specific projects in your jurisdiction – either planned or imagined – that you are particularly excited to see implemented? I am not seeing anything that excites me that is being planned (except the long-term plan to create safe bike routes between all Sonoma County cities). If the Petaluma Park People create a bridge within their park connecting the peninsula to Hopper Street, that will be a nice path for bikers and pedestrians heading between downtown and the Caulfield/Lakeville area.
I don’t understand why after the road diet on Petaluma Boulevard South, there haven’t been trees and raised planters with native plants put in place. Painted lines in the road are not a “complete street” in my opinion.
I would also like the entire Corona Reach to become a big central park. It would be an ideal way for bikers and hikers to cross between west and east without any conflicts with motor vehicles.