The CalTrans Catch-22

In October a resident of the Springs area of Sonoma Valley came to me rather upset about an encounter she had with a car on the newly renovated section of highway CA-12 in Boyes Springs. This cyclist was riding in what she perceived to be a bike lane alongside CA-12 when a car took the bicycle lane to use as a turning lane for Thompson Ave and almost hit her.

I contacted the county and the employees were very responsive but the "answer" from CalTrans was, well, typical CalTrans.

The gist is that CalTrans has a policy that is biased against marking of Class II lanes even when a community plan call for them for on a section of state highway that passes through their "jurisdiction". Here is a key quotation from a Sonoma Co. employee regarding the issue:

FYI there was a right turn lane pre project at this location and we eliminated it in order to have room for the proposed bike lane. However Caltrans would not let us stripe it as a class 2 bike lane because there are no class 2 bike lanes at either end to connect to.

As I understand it, the Springs Redevelopment Plan does include a Class II bike lane along this section of CA-12 and I know the Countywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan has a Class II lane planned for that segment of road.

I would like to point out that we have a Class I bike path crossing CA-12 ("The Sonoma Bike Path" on the old Northwestern and Pacific RR right-of-way) and an approved and pending Class II lane (West Spain St) also terminating at CA-12. Of course, opponents of the Class II lane at on West Spain St. like to point out that there are no bike lanes on CA-12 as one reason why it's premature to put lanes on West Spain.

The end result is that CalTrans has only marked the sides of the road in this area as "shoulder" – not bike lane.

It seems absurd to be in this "Catch-22" and it's time to finally make the Class II bike lane up CA-12 official and, thus, a safer place for cyclists (and pedestrians) of all ages and stripes (so to speak)!