Bike Advocates Argue for More Bicycle Space, Safer Paths

Rohnert Park this spring will undertake plans to expand the network of bicycle lanes in the city, and weigh the safety of the existing paths. 

The Bicycle Advisory Committee said Feb. 28 plans to stripe in an additional 3.6 lane miles on the streets are moving forward, and they OK’d a project to tear up and repave parts of the Copeland Creek trail between Snyder Lane and Sonoma State University. The committee still has to take recommendations to the City Council.

Eydie Tacata, who runs the Bicycle Advisory Committee, often hears complaints about how dangerous the Copeland Creek bike trail is, she said.

“We’re reconstructing parts of it that are badly deteriorated,” Tacata said. “There are big huge tree roots that push up the sidewalk in places. We get a lot of complaints about that area.”

“I’m very familiar with it,” said Creighton Bell, chair of the Bicycle Advisory Committee. “Part of the support to the bike path has given way and there are big lateral cracks in it. If you’re not real careful, or you swerve the cracks are big enough to hit with a tire and cause you to flip."

“We talked about fixing this two or three years ago, and it’s finally getting some funding,” Bell added.

Funding for all projects include a mix of Measure M dollars, gas taxes and federal grants. Funding for painting in the bike lanes comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant that's being used to finish repaving swaths of the city's deteriorating streets. Parts of the project have been put on hold due to the rains. After the repaving is done, workers will simply stripe in bike lanes in accordance with the city's Bicycle Master Plan.

Currently, there are about 30 lane miles of bike space on the roads in Rohnert Park. — that is, each side of the street equipped with a bike lane counts separately, so a one-mile stretch of road with bike lanes on either side counts as two lane-miles. The city has added 14 miles of bike lane between 2007 and 2011, with the current retrofit.

“What the city’s done is pretty good, but there’s still a lot of work to be done,” Bell said. “It takes time, funding and politics to get street space [allocated] for bikes.”

Though residents complain that the Copeland Creek trail is unsafe, Tacata said she hears most complaints about bike lanes when they interfere with parking.

“The main one was Country Club between Rohnert Park Expressway and Southwest Boulevard,” Tecata said. “But now I see people using it.”

In addition to the Copeland Creek repaving, bike advocates are expected next month to consider creating a defined bike path along East Cotati Avenue, between Snyder Lane and Bodway, where traffic merges from two lanes to one, and often creates a safety hazard for cyclists.

Bell said another problem area for cyclists in Rohnert Park is the stretch of Country Club Drive from Rohnert Park Expressway to Golf Course Drive. There, cyclists are forced to contend with cars, both of which use the popular north-south corridor to commute. During peak morning and evening hours, often cyclists are forced to either stop or use the sidewalk, or motorists are forced to come to a stop to wait for cyclists to swerve around parked cars.

“I’d like to see some kind of modification there, to limit parking on the street,” Bell said. “I used to ride it often, and it’s just not quite wide enough to have parking and a bike lane.”

Vice Mayor Jake Mackenzie, who rides his bike daily, said the city has made progress since the first Bicycle Master Plan was drafted in the early '90s.

"We haven't gotten there quite yet, but every year, a little more gets added," Mackenzie said. "I think also we're very fortunate in that we have a city engineer [Darrin Jenkins] who's an avid bicyclist himself, and that's helped us make sure that when streets are being resurfaced, we get a class two pathway where ever possible."

Mackenzie said another path that needs repair is along Five Creek, from Snyder to Country Club. 

The current Bicycle Master Plan, drafted in 2008 by the city and Sonoma County Transportation Authority, recommends a class three bike lane for that stretch — which means bike lanes don’t have to be striped in, but the space should be safe.

Furthermore, the plan in the future calls an increase of space designed around alternative transportation, and a city designed so commuters and residents don’t have to depend wholly on fossil fuels for transportation.

Two local examples included in the bike plan is a focus on travel patterns around incomplete developments such as and the University District Plan. The bike plan also calls for adequate bike lanes to and from the station.

The plan acknowledges that Rohnert Park was built as a commuter city, but indicates that best population estimates put Rohnert Park’s at 50,400 by 2020, and that’s going to require a deeper look at the city’s built environment.

Statistics derived from the 2000 census, the most recent one available on a city level, report that of Rohnert Park’s 42,388 population then, the vast majority of commuters drove alone to and from work — 17,226. The report stated that 213 people biked, 500 walked, 753 took public transit and 2,653 carpooled.

Here’s the list of stretches of street to get new bike lanes this spring. The Copeland Creek repair is scheduled for next year. 

• Redwood Drive, between Martin and Willis avenues
• Commerce Boulevard, north of Expressway to Professional Center Drive
• Snyder Lane, from Baumgardner to Heritage lanes
• Seed Farm Drive, form Southwest to Enterprise Drive
• Enterprise Drive, from Seed Farm to State Farm
• State Farm Drive, from Enterprise to Expressway