Council Candidates Share Their Vision for Our Streets

What do City Council candidates think about our streets? To learn more about their visions, Bike Davis sent all candidates a questionnaire focused on three themes: making Davis more livable, reducing injuries and fatalities on our streets, and transportation infrastructure and zoning.

Some common themes emerged from the candidates’ thoughtful answers. All candidates are in favor of creating a locally-owned and operated bike share system as other cities have done (eg Biketown in Portland, or PeaceHealth Rides in Eugene). Almost all candidates walk or bike regularly. Some ride a bike for daily errands, others walk or ride for exercise. All candidates support preventing traffic deaths and severe injuries in Davis by implementing a Vision Zero approach.

On the other hand, Bike Davis was surprised to find that only four of the nine candidates mentioned bicycling as a way to reduce transportation-related GHG emissions and contribute to Davis’ climate neutrality goal.

Below are the candidates’ answers to some of the questions. The complete answers to all questionnaires are available at bikedavis.us/vote

Question: Streets are the City’s most valuable, abundant, and accessible public space. One avenue for improving the quality of life for all residents is to allocate more street space to healthy, sustainable and community-building activities. What permanent improvements to our streets will you propose to accommodate and encourage such activities?

Will Arnold (District 2)

Many such efforts have already been undertaken by this Council and exist today. The 3rd Street corridor between A and B is a prime example of a shared street space making for a much more comfortable and pedestrian/bicycle friendly space while still accommodating vehicular transportation needs for nearby residents and business deliveries. Space like this can readily be closed to motor vehicles for special events. Advancing more of this type of infrastructure evolution is crucial and we are actively planning for it right now.

These shared spaces, narrowing of streets, widening of sidewalks, creating cycle tracks, pedestrian amenities and plazas, spaces for ride hailing services and transit – they are at the very foundation of the Downtown Plan Update currently underway and will result in permanent improvements to our downtown landscape to build upon those that we have already undertaken (3rd Street corridor, 2nd and 3rd Street bulb-outs, creation of outdoor dining plazas, and most recently with street and parking lot closures to accommodate COVID business support for outdoor dining and sales). The Downtown Plan calls for re-envisioning the space allocation in key areas and will allow for the periodic closure of key streets, and the consideration of possible longer term closures.

We have also empowered neighborhoods to utilize streets for the arts and to use streets as gathering places for events like Neighbors Night Out and 4th of July, and this Council updated our street standards to require narrower vehicle lanes in exchange for more space for bicycles and pedestrians

Finally, the health and vibrancy of our street tree canopy is crucial to keep our streets cooled and to create a special aesthetic and welcoming environment. We are in the process right now of updating our tree ordinance and have charged our Tree Commission with the review of the draft. We have also been awarded a $500K grant from the Department of Forestry to create an Urban Forest Master Plan and to plant 1,000 trees in partnership with Tree Davis.

Dillan Horton (District 2)

In my day job I work for a local non-profit supporting people with developmental disabilities. A lot of my clients have some degree of a mobility imitation where tripping hazards can become a big risk. In fact if you add together folks with developmental disabilities and many of our senior we have a large population of residents with a mobility limitation. Addressing uneven pavement to make sure sidewalks are safe and walkable will be a top priority of mine if elected.

Colin Walsh (District 2)

I see safe and accessible bike transportation as a cornerstone of how to meet Davis’s transportation needs. Fixing the L and Covell intersection and making 3^rd street between B and A bike only would be 2 high priorities. I am also very concerned about the safe route to Harper Jr. High for cyclists coming from East South Davis. The Mace overcrossing seems like one of the more dangerous bike and car interchanges in town and does not have good alternative routes. I would also advocate for more secure bike parking downtown, and bike parking better suited for cargo bikes at all shopping centers and downtown.

In addition, I am a big proponent of the recent city decisions during Covid to block off certain streets at certain times to allow for walking and dining unimpeded by traffic. I would support expanding and continuing this process and making it a regular feature of downtown life.

Lucas Frerichs (District 3)

I’d like to see some of the Open Air Davis downtown parklets remain after COVID has subsided. I’d also like to see some ability for parklets to flourish on residential streets- especially in the areas of town where no greenbelts or major parks exist today. In a variety of locations, there is plenty of room to install additional green space, while maintaining usable biking/driving space, as well as ample space for parking.

Larry Guenther (District 3)

This is a discussion that really needs to include the whole community. On the Downtown Plan update Committee, there was relatively little discussion about changing our streets from the current paradigm. I would work to increase the use and safety of other modes of transportation on our streets. The streets in Old East Davis and Old North Davis are very large and making some of that space more available to pedestrian and bike traffic could and should be done. Traffic calming measures are critical to increasing the safety – and therefore the use – of streets where multi-modal transportation occurs. On the Downtown Plan Committee, I advocated for reducing the speed limit and changing street design to make it safer and more comfortable for bikes to share the roads.

Josh Chapman (District 5)

As a member of the Downtown Plan Advisory Committee, I support the recommendations included in the Draft Downtown Plan, and the vision for Downtown as one in which users choose to meet their daily needs by walking, bicycling, taking transit, and ridesharing. Streets are to be safe and comfortable for all modes of travel.

A common feature for all the streets is that they should be multimodal and have the attributes of Complete Streets. Complete Streets give top priority to space-efficient modes of transportation—to pedestrians, bicycles, and transit—when allocating space on streets, in order to maximize the capacity of streets to move people and goods.

An important aspect of Complete Street design is to consider universal access and design features, to make them safe and comfortable for people of all ages and abilities.

Kelsey Fortune (District 5)

I believe downtown should contain bicycle and pedestrian only areas to provide more outdoor space to local businesses, an environment with reduced noise and local pollution, and a true destination where people spend time. My suggestion would be Third Street between campus and G.

Connor Gorman (District 5)

First, as some recent commenters and Commissioners have pointed out, I think more trees would improve our streets, especially by providing shade, regardless of what these streets are used for.

In terms of the actual uses, I do think accommodating cars and car parking to some degree is important, especially for those who have accessibility needs or can’t afford to live near their work, school, etc., but I would be in favor of allocating more land to other purposes. In particular, I think more and larger sidewalks and bike paths are important and I also support examining other potential uses like more public green space or seating areas. Such spaces would also benefit local businesses, though I’d want them to remain accessible to everyone, at least under normal conditions, rather than being exclusively reserved for certain businesses (public land should remain public).

I’d also like the City to examine the possibility of making some roads one-way to increase the room we have for other uses. I think this would be especially feasible in the downtown where the grid system means that finding an alternate path due to one-way roads shouldn’t be too burdensome.

Rochelle Swanson (District 5)

In Downtown, create permanent quality parklets between B – G, 2nd – 4th as appropriate on each block. Permanent closures to vehicle traffic on an agreed upon east to west street and Thursday – Sunday programming that would have more closures — all contingent on providing additional adequate parking to accommodate visitors to the community and those for which biking is not an option. I continue to be concerned that our limited mobility residents and young families are routinely left out of transportation discussions.

I support comprehensive bold striping throughout the community to clearly delineate bike lanes with colored traffic arrows to support new and experienced riders alike. In addition, reviewing speed restrictions on roads to provide traffic calming measures and speed reductions, where appropriate to create a safer more welcome space.

I would love to list far more upgrades, yet feel it would be inconsistent with the economic realities. I wholeheartedly support Davis being more proactive to learn and implement best practices and re-prioritizing transportation projects where we can secure funding – except where the reprioritizing would take away from safety upgrades throughout or greenbelts and bike paths. The degraded condition of many of our pathways is the barrier to greater ridership and walking. This has been raised consistently this entire campaign season.