After Last Week’s Tragedies on Broadway, the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities Asks Community to Sign Petition to Caltrans
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Law enforcement at the scene last Friday night after a pedestrian was struck by multiple vehicles.
The Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities extends its condolences to the family and friends of Michael Wray Robinson, who was killed by a driver while biking through the intersection of Broadway and Henderson Street last Friday, October 8, 2021. As members of the community in which he lived, we grieve Mr. Robinson’s death alongside those who knew him personally.
We also extend our wishes for a full and rapid recovery to the man who was struck by three drivers and critically injured while walking on Broadway on the same night. Our thoughts are with the victim and with his family and friends.
When tragedies like these occur, it is incumbent upon the community not just to publicly grieve our losses, although this is important, but also to take action to prevent future tragedies of the same kind. Appallingly, we have failed to take action many times before. Just in the last few years, we failed to take action when Oudom Douangdao, Robert Mitchell and Russell Busch were killed on Broadway in 2014. We failed when a 70-year-old man, whose name has not even been publicly reported, was killed in 2017. We failed when Raymond Severns was killed in 2018. We failed when Ashley Madonia and Zachary Herbert were killed in 2019. We failed when Kelsey Diffin, Matthew Sullivan and Thomas Burns were killed in 2020.
We cannot fail again.
Caltrans is responsible for building, repairing and maintaining Broadway. As transportation planning research makes clear, the built environment significantly influences the rate of pedestrian strikes, and changing it offers the clearest path for reducing similar tragedies in the future. Caltrans deserves credit for planning safety improvements to parts of Broadway, but the improvements are not comprehensive enough, nor are they coming fast enough.
The Coalition is currently collecting signatures on a petition asking Caltrans to make significant, evidence-based, near-term improvements to Broadway before more lives are lost. Members of the community can view and sign that petition here: https://
transportationpriorities.org/ broadway/. We welcome everyone to join us in asking Caltrans to take action now.
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
Lower the speed limit. All that is required is signage.
Place pedestrian activated stoplights at crossings.
Build barriers between vehicle traffic and sidewalks.
But pedestrians are not the only humans who use the roadways.
A bypass around Eureka would really cut down on traffic…
Most of these pedestrians/bicyclists do not use cross walks etc. many of them are spun up on meth and jump in front of cars and weave in and out of moving traffic expecting you to stop for them both on foot and on bicycles. The real problem here is meth heads not traffic, speed limit or engineered read safety. The poor drivers that hit them usually can not help it and can be traumatized by the event. Until you get a handle o the drug problem in Humboldt this will continue to happen.
My brother was hit on this street March 2nd while going to get dog food. He was neither homeless or mentally ill like I have seen some posts. Where he was hit there is three lanes of traffic and cars do not stop at the cross walk for anyone. I tried to see if a car would stop for me in daylight and nobody did. Something needs to be done before anyone else is hurt or killed. My brother is permanently disabled due to being struck by a car.
No, actually what needs to happen is the transients and junkies need to quit playing frogger on public roads. It is comical to me that you people actually think doing these things will make a bit of difference to the people who already don’t follow laws. As far as barriers go that is about the dumbest idea I’ve heard of…….. keep spending money on irrational and oblivious ideas you THINK are going to do something when all you’re doing is spending more money on shit criminals don’t care about…….
Unacknowledged by Mr Fiske is the contributing factors of homelessness, drug addiction and mental illness to these sad events. We cannot design our way out of this. Maybe he could work on the contributing factors before he spends our money on civil works projects that won’t yeild results.
A bypass for Hwy 101 around Eureka would be awesome and would save lives.
>”A bypass for Hwy 101 around Eureka would be awesome and would save lives.”
So… where are you going to put it ?
Samoa would have been good… with a bridge over the bay at the south end. Greenies would have a fit.
Now if the sea level rises… not good.
Down the bay ? Swamp there… Greenies won’t allow it.
East of Eureka… lots of expensive homes and landowners.
Cut a freeway wide swath through Eureka ? Destroy 500 to 1000 homes ?
In the 1970s the plan was indeed to put it through town, diagonally. A friend was renting an old Victorian cheap, because it was going to be moved for the coming bypass (G street and 10th or thereabouts). Of course it never happened.
Hahaha Hahaha Hahaha
People already drive 65mph on Old Arcata Road…
no shyt! I go 10 over posted limit and people are on my ass.
Balances out with the people doing 25
So would pedestrians using the actually crosswalks and bike paths……. It is insane to me how you people would rather spend billions of dollars instead of people just being responsible for their own lives…….
The roads in Eureka are completely unbikeabale. Broadway feels like a death trap. I don’t drink or do drugs. I am writing this from a bed, that is mine, in a house that I pay money to live in. But I do ride a bike.
The intersection at Henderson, where the guy died last week? Try biking down that hill and stopping there safely and tell me fixing the damn pavement and infrastructure won’t help save lives there in the future.
It literally is a matter of building a fourth crosswalk in an intersection that already has 3, in some cases. Another comment below has a good list. This is easy stuff.
And doing this IS actually solving an underlying issue to a larger problem: climate change. Build walkable, bikeable structures and you incentivize folks to get out of their cars. Especially with the advent of e-bikes, especially in a place like this where many who live and work in town have short commutes.
A motor vehicle should not be the requirement in order to move around in a community safely.
water front drive works for me
You shouldn’t bike down that incredibly steep hill. Do you want them to grade the hill for you?
Lmfao, wtf do you expect them to do for you on that hill? It really is comical the things you people complain about and want to spend tax money to fix all because you’re too incompetent to find an easier route for you…. FYI it’s not that hard to stop, you just can’t be speeding down the hill blindly, JUST LIKE THE CARS!!!!!!
One solution is to reduce the population of transients and druggies and to to send criminals to prison. And just maybe avoid driving on Broadway on a bicycle. Use the waterfront trail instead. Use the crosswalks like the pedestrians dont. I see people crossing in the middle of the block in hi traffic all the time. Its like they have a death wish. And many of the bicyclists have an I own the road attitude. Like they are superior because they are being green. Some roads just aren’t compatible with bicycles. This attitude that government must protect you from your own poor judgement has been carried way too far. This entire area has grown too big for its britches. Why the civic leaders want to advertise it is beyond me. Why they have allowed so much development there with virtually no alternate road access is ridiculous. Who cares about chipotle, in and out burger and kfc. Its big corporate junk food. The mall roads are like a maze. Waterfront drive is cluttered with transient rvs and trucks.First and second streets are a nightmare of congestion. Poor planning gets these results. And I havent even addressed all the potholes and deadend routes yet.
typically ignored when I speak to Mr. Fisk about the issue you mentioned.
Fiske annoys with his overuse of “we”…
we grieve
We extend our wishes
we have failed to take action
we failed to take action
We failed
We failed
We failed
We failed
We cannot fail again
Typical executive director type. JMNSHO
The Ashley Madonia death occurred just down the street from a newly installed light and crosswalk at Hawthorn. There was absolutely no reason for her to be crossing where she did. That was pure negligence. Fortunately, her daughter in a stroller wasn’t hurt.
They’ll do the same thing between Adels and the gas station. Crosswalk literally 20 feet away and they come running out of no where to cross the street. These people have no idea how the people they virtue signal for operate and it is quite honestly scary. These same people are how we ended up with a Biden……
Perhaps Eureka shouldn’t have shot down the bypass CalTrans wanted to build in the 80’s – no easy way out of the hole they dug with that stupid and short-sided decision.
I remember that proposal. A bunch of properties were purchased, if memory serves, to provide for the bypass. My guess is that the business community shot it down on the fear that they would lose business. We live with the result. Any info on how the Coverdale and Willits bypasses worked out?
some bought property so as to have it purchased from the state
a majority of the funds for the project were diverted to L A after the San Fernando earth quake
I wish there were a way to convince people not to play frogger. I remember a couple years ago driving out of town north on 5th during rush hour. I was in the far right hand lane and out of the corner of my eye I saw the traffic in the left lanes slowing down and then suddenly stop. I couldn’t see anything noticeable in the other lanes (my view was blocked by other vehicles) or in front of me, but I slowed and instinctively stopped. (Something I would never normally do if there is not something in the road) Less than half a second later, a barefooted and dirty young woman wrapped in a blanket stumbled slowly in front of the vehicle. She was talking to herself with head swaying side to side eyes looking through everything and clearly not aware of her current situation. If I had not slowed and stopped for no reason other than gut instinct, she would’ve probably been killed. The vehicle I was driving was a tall and heavy one.
“Something I would never normally do if there is not something in the road”
If other vehicles are stopping or slowing, maybe, just maybe, there is a reason that you should also. I can’t count the number of times I’ve waited, and waited to cross at a crosswalk, have the nearest lane driver stop to let me cross, only to nearly get flattened as I stepped into the next lane. And, AND, my head was swaying side to side also… looking for idiot, oblivious drivers like you.
Many thanks to the drivers who do stop for pedestrians. But, please don’t be offended if I wave you on to wait for the clearest crossing possible.
There was no way to see anything on the road or any indication of of anything other than slowing traffic. Stopping abruptly for no reason in the middle of the road puts a driver at risk for a collision into the back of your vehicle and potentially a chain reaction accident with other motorists. I wasn’t driving recklessly or speeding. Although, pedestrians have the right of way, it’s not a great idea to step out into traffic during rush hour. If you do, you’re a bigger “idiot” than me for not only putting your own health at risk unnecessarily, but also those other drivers that may have an accident trying to avoid your poor decisions. Looking both ways before you cross the street is pretty basic. Figure it out or use a crosswalk or both. My point is that I suspect a lot of these broadway deaths are basically people playing in traffic or jaywalking on a highway and that they are not cognizant enough to understand or care about the positions they are putting themselves in. Yes, it’s downtown in a small city, but still a highway. There are plenty of stoplights on broadway with attached crosswalks for pedestrian crossing. Build a bunch more, I dont care, but you have to get people to use them and that still seems to be an obstacle.
Your indicator is the other vehicles. They are on the road and could see. It wasn’t a gut instinct really you were just doing the same thing as the other cars which is what you’re suppose to do……
Bypass Eureka.
that resemble the old green route.
Makes sense. But, I don’t think the Cutten-ites will like their property values lowered. There would probably be an off-ramp right at Cutten for the zoo.
they will if the benefit from it travel time wise
Lmfao, no they won’t. That’s why most of them moved there in the first place. If they wanted to be close to the freeway they could have picked Arcata……
That is the bypass route that I support.
Just build a ramp on both sides
put a 10 foot fence up both sides.
That would be the cheapest.
Please do not sign this petition until you read the specific changes they want to make to Broadway.
The pedestrian scale lighting they want MUST be approved by the Internatinal Dark-Sky Association. The blue led street lights going in everywhere are horrible for night vision and wildlife.
ihttps://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/light-pollution-solutions/
Increasing the number of light controlled crosswalks will dramatically increase carbon pollution. I want an EIR done before we agree to this. Can we at least make sure the lights will be synchronized and controlled by vehicle sensors instead of timers?
Will the plants in the medians be native?
No… probably from L.A. like everyone else around here.
google each of the names listed in the press release. They are mixing in people who made the choice to walk into traffic outside of a crosswalk.
read this post
https://kymkemp.com/2021/10/11/pedestrian-suffers-critical-injuries-from-collision-with-three-vehicles-friday-night/#comment-1435193
Or… alternatively. We could say these self entitled “Me first” individuals played a game of “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.” No, that won’t work. That implies personal responsibility. The last this California wants to promote.
101 has always had problems like this. There’s no lighting whatsoever! Also, people have fuck’d up cars with no defrost, no turn signals, drug addled drivers, no bike lanes…. it’s the City of Eureka & CalTrans at fault here! The city zoo has a flashing light in the crosswalk, so why can’t they do it for the 101? Plus, I believe the State of California should have vehicle state inspections every year.