CRTP Report Finds Eureka’s 4th and 5th Streets Among County’s Most Dangerous Corridors
Press release from the Coalition for Responsible Transportation Priorities:
[On October 8,] CRTP published a new report entitled “Dangerous Downtown Streets: Safety Problems and Solutions for Eureka’s 4th & 5th Street Corridor (US-101).” The report identifies safety hazards for pedestrians, bicyclists, bus riders, and motorists by reviewing official police-reported crash data, crowdsourced street safety reports from the Street Story platform (https://streetstory.berkeley.edu), and the findings from walk audits in the corridor conducted in October 2024 and a bicycle safety audit conducted in May 2025.
The report finds that, despite representing only about 0.2% of the county’s road miles, the corridor has been the site of 18% of the county’s pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries in the last decade, meaning the rate of pedestrian fatalities and serious injuries per mile is 90 times the county average. The corridor also sees 4% of all bicyclist serious injuries (20 times the county average) and 3% of motorist serious injuries and fatalities (15 times the county average). The walk and bike audits and Street Story reports confirm that, along with Broadway, this is one of the most dangerous corridors in the region, especially for people walking and biking.
In conjunction with the release of the report, CRTP has also produced point-of-view videos using wearable cameras, documenting the experiences of pedestrians and bicyclists in the 4th & 5th Street corridor. These include videos from perspectives that are often underrepresented, including a child and people with disabilities.
“The local community has known how dangerous this corridor is for a long time,” said CRTP Executive Director Colin Fiske. “Unfortunately, not nearly enough has been done about it. We really appreciate Caltrans’ recent actions to improve some of the corridor’s crosswalks, which will result in meaningful safety gains. But much more significant action is needed to make this corridor truly safe. We call on Caltrans to put safety first and begin the process of redesigning these streets now. We can’t wait for more people to die before we take this problem seriously.”
Important hazards identified for all modes of transportation in the 4th and 5th Street corridor include high traffic speeds, as well as hazards related to high speeds, such as failure to yield (right-of-way violations) and traffic signals and signs violations (such as running red lights). Additional serious hazards include visibility limitations for motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists, the complete lack of bicycle infrastructure, and unpredictable driver behavior.
The report recommends a variety of evidence-based solutions for these safety hazards, including new traffic signals and bicycle and pedestrian intersection improvements. The biggest change recommended by the report is the removal of a general (car and truck) traffic lane from the current street design on each street and the use of the resulting street space to provide a separated, protected bikeway. This change would produce significant safety improvements for all street users resulting from reduced speeds, more predictable driver behavior, protection for bicyclists and pedestrians, and reduced crossing distances for pedestrians.
“The South Broadway Complete Streets Project currently under construction is a good start toward making the US-101 corridor in Eureka safer for everyone,” said Fiske. “We continue to advocate for Caltrans to fund and build the other two planned safety projects that will improve the rest of Broadway right away. But this other part of the corridor—4th and 5th Streets—is also very dangerous, and can’t be ignored.”
The report is publicly available and free to access at https://transportationpriorities.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Dangerous-Downtown-Streets.pdf.
Appendices to the report can be viewed at https://transportationpriorities.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Appendices-to-Dangerous-Downtown-Streets.pdf.
Point-of-view videos can be watched at https://tinyurl.com/4th5thPOV.
Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules
Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/
This county is ran like shit. It is way worse then it was 20 years ago. Why don’t you hire more of the Uvalde police to gain weight while doing g nothing.
Parallel parking on 4th and 5th is one of the biggest problems.
It creates congestion and traffic hazards as people pull in and out,
it blocks views for cars crossing the streets, and it prevents the construction of bike lanes.
And there is no bike racks for you.
True, and I’m sure the coalition against the working class would love to remove all of that parking.
Part of that very obvious and unsafe issue was to be mitigated by banning parking right up to the street corners. Not sure it’s had much of an effect anywhere north of 7th St, or a number of other through streets.
That’s the “Daylighting Intersections” law. No parking within 20′ of an intersection, 15′ if there’s a bulbout. The idea is that everyone can see what and who’s coming, making it safer for us all.
I sure hope that study did not cost much. Lets see 101 going through town with lights and crosswalks. Did it take a rocket scientist to figure out why??? You can’t fix stupid drivers. The police need to do that.extend critical enforcement on 101 through town. Impound cars going 20 above speed limit. As B Marley said” no punishment no crime”. People drive like shit head entitled brats.
To be fair, the design of the streets/highway encourages people to drive like shit head entitled brats.
Turn them into two lanes, slow everything down a bit, and make some of the other improvements recommended in the report, and downtown Eureka will become a much more civilized, pleasant place to be in. If you can, take a walk down 4th or 5th in downtown sometime; you can see where it used to be nice, with street-fronted shops and wide sidewalks. I do recommend ear plugs, because the noise is awful.
Time for a 101 bypass around Eureka.
That time came and went in the 70s.
Be simple to do. Bridge across the bay to north jetty side and straight up to McKinleyville. Bypass Eutweeka and the Communist-socialist enclave of Arcata. Would cost less than Newsom’s Train to Nowhere, too.
Motorists will get a beautiful view of the Humboldt bay, and the state would add more covered areas for the homeless to camp under.
Win-win!
Good luck. That’s got less of a chance than the Embarcadero Freeway.
It breathed its last gasp in the 90’s, but the need for it continues to grow. And all of the businesses that fought it because it would be “bad for business” went out of business because it became a choked carmageddon. Maybe in another 50 years Caltrans will try again. In the meantime, just say “ribbit” as you cross the street and hope for the best.
And Arcata.
People traveling through Eureka need a convenient route that avoids downtown. Autos also need an improved design that leverages AI to prevent unplanned events.
Harris and S Streets
Both of which are major routes for kids getting to and from school at Zoe Barnum/Lincoln and Zane – and Alice Birney.
Alice Birney’s kids are mostly from the south of Harris and come from around that area, unless they attend Pine Hill. They at least have a light to cross at Central, but people routinely blow through that light, sometimes driving the wrong way. Harris has been a racetrack since pavement was put on it.
Should have kept all those electric trolleys from a century ago, but nope. Had to get rid of them. A citywide system of them would be a fun ride today.
In theory. But in reality at this point AI create “unplanned events.”
And there are alternatives- 6th and 7th. It’s just through traffic following GPS doesn’t use them. Thank goodness.
IMHO:
>”The biggest change recommended by the report is the removal of a general (car and truck) traffic lane from the current street design on each street and the use of the resulting street space to provide a separated, protected bikeway.”
Yup. Sure… develop a bike way… from nothing… to nothing. Green Paint bonanza.
North Coast… 8 months of the year (well,hopefully) it rains.
Rest of year, it is followed by fog, north winds, frost, drizzle, and fog-rain.
(BTW: Attached photo is by Colin Fiske)
Bike lanes in Eureka are empty. Curb fart-outs are empty. ($5.5 million expenditure)
Eureka-Arcata bayside trail will be mostly empty until April.
If the weather is nice, it is mostly all ‘recreational’ users, not people using it for ‘transport’.
>”… 0.2% of the county’s road miles, the corridor has been the site of 18% of the county’s pedestrian fatalities”
Wacko statistics ? Hmm… Comparing Blocksburg road with Broadway ?
CRTP is like rust. They never sleep.
Gotta agree with you about comparing Broadway with Blocksburg. A better metric would be based on traffic volume.
While you may not love bike people, they are a big driver of the tourist economy. It’s about all we got up here so you should probably accept it/ learn to appreciate it. Or else you’re just an old guy shaking his fist at everything the world does, which is how you come across.
Tourists on bikes? Did they ride their bikes up here from Santa Rosa? Once they see the local “greeting committee”, any sane tourist is afraid to stop and get out of their cars.
Actually, on the west coast, bike tourists ride north to south due to the prevailing winds.
No they aren’t.
Bicyclists are pumping millions of sales tax dollars into local coffers? I think you mean former weed grow operations. You know where I do see bicycling tourists? In an RV with bikes attached to the back on the way to some other place to go camping. You have some touring cyclists, but they are not the economic flex you think they are.
Better ways of dealing with the volume of traffic along 101 going through town needs doing but this DEI-fad ridden non-profit is not likely to care to do anything but make it worse. They are so specifically Progressive politicized.
Bicycles, they envision bicycles everywhere. They have maps of parking lots and consider them “a great opportunity for new development, particularly housing.” But, as far as I can tell, are not at all concerned over the fact that almost everything in Humboldt is trucked in.
They talk about this being Wiyot land and the need to consult with them, complain about Duffy (Trump’s DOT secretary) threatening to withhold funding transportation funding if it includes DEI language “, which they see as almost everything Biden’s Administration funded because that Administration used “equity-related metrics to prioritize funding.” They mention Eureka and Arcata funding being threatened by their declared “Sanctuary status.”
Heavens to De Tucker Jebs
https://transportationpriorities.org/about/
https://transportationpriorities.org/parkinglotmaps/
Everything isn’t political. Bike trails are good infrastructure, it’s better than not having bike trails. So what if granola munchers are the ones who use them? IMO people who see everything as a political stance are THE problem. On the left and the right.
Yes. Basically everything has become political. I agree “people who see everything as a political stance are THE problem.” But if you bothered to look at the links, you would see that they are the ones making the political judgements. I just repeated them to point out the risks of such insane politicizing.
Which has come down to the schizophrenia of spending millions making a highway bypass at Indianola to facilitate driving while at the same time using funding for bicycle paths rather than fixing roads off the highway in order to get to the highway. The people who have gained political sway are flaming leftist fascists where their nationalism has transfered to political agenda rather that geography. It literally has become their way or the highway.
And their solution for those slots driving unsafe rural roads? No solution is their idea because people made the choice to live outside of cities. People literally say that. On here, all the time. And talk about California seceding from the US because they can’t compromise.
Yep I agree those stereotypes of a leftist would be very annoying to me, and I know they do exist. Those insufferable dug-in people are there on both sides. They seem to mostly exist in forums like this, not so much in everyday real life.
They exist in the real world. They are heard by people who get elected, having the loudest voices. They are not just stereotypes. They are actual people running the CRTP funded by other actual people, who, if stereotypical, are so by choice. I did not make them up.
There are plenty of people preferring not to stereotype. They get dismissed regularly. It’s hard to remain passionately in the middle. It’s hard to remain passionalty committed to compromise. The stones get thrown at you from both sides. Certainly government has stopped believing that has value.
That stupid overpass at Indianola is pure Caltrans.
What exactly is stupid about it?
The many, many millions of dollars that could have been better spent elsewhere. The safety corridor has been working well all this time, despite Caltrans’ dire predictions.
And WalMart has been quietly waiting, because they didn’t have to pay for it.
Almost everything everywhere is trucked in. What’s your point?
The point? They are not trucked in on bicycles.
What, exactly, do you mean by the bulb outs being “empty”?
Well… heck, drive on H and I streets…(most of the time)… there is nobody waiting at the curb fart-outs… and there are no bicycles in the massive green lanes.
All of that for 5.5 million dollars. City Council in progress of spending 2.6 million dollars to make C street a derelict zone.
I will note that warning signs are a good idea by the High School for about 3 blocks.
Go figure.
Could it possibly be that these things are efficient at moving people and that’s why you don’t see them? Also, a lot of this is funded with grant money; sadly, there aren’t a lot of grants for fixing potholes.
Oh, this area’s terrible weather.
I’d type a longer response, but I’m going to head outside.
The weather’s beautiful today.
Good for you being so privileged as not having to going out when it’s raining.
They didn’t say that. As for rain, I’ve walked in the rain before; nothing terrible happened. A rain jacket and a bus pass can get you pretty far. Or driving, when it’s necessary; just pay attention and be careful.
The failed city council will not let Eureka become a ghost town with a bipass. They want 101 in the middle of their town. It gives them power. CRTP are more of the same anti auto crowd of social justice idiots for climate change TAXation and 15 minute cities. You can bet they all ride the bus or bike every day.
There was a long term plan to run a freeway through Eureka at about 8th Street (help me out here, old timers). CalTrans bought up a lot of property, which was rented out for cheap in the meantime. However the idea was not popular and was eventually abandoned.
And there really isn’t another reasonable option. The west and north sides of town are too developed, and the south and east sides are hilly and also developed. Looks like we’re stuck with what we got.
I thought the bypass plan was to make 101 go around towards cutten / walnut drivish area, but I could be wrong. That would be so cool, no matter where they put it.
It could have been elevated, too, like the one around Willits. And I actually go into Willits-actual more now than I used to because I don’t have to sit in traffic. I can poke around.
I remember that. In the early/mid 70s friends rented a nice old Victorian pretty cheap because it was slated to be moved fairly soon. The idea was to save at least some of the Victorians instead of demolishing them. That house is still there around 10th and G.
If I remember right, downtown businesses didn’t want the bypass because it would take away people from shopping downtown. This was, of course, before Bayshore Mall. But I was young and didn’t pay attention to the politics/money so others could pipe in with more information.
That is correct. The good old boys killed the plan as they were afraid traffic would be diverted away from their businesses. The Mall was built, killing their businesses and now they have died too. Alternatives were considered with a route going over the North and South Spits and another coursing across the Elk River Valley, passing east of Redwood Acres and basically following the path of Old Arcata Road. The traffic issues and fatalities of Broadway, 4th and 5th Streets will not be solved until a bypass is built. Good luck getting a bypass built with radical environmentalists welding so much power. Which is worse disrupting some wetlands and Redwoods or killing people on a regular basis.
A freeway bypass of a too busy road is one of the most environmentally beneficial projects there is.
A 101 bypass would be the death of Eureka in the long run.
Eureka and Humboldt County are dying because we have no industries for a financial base. The City, County and State Fathers are unfriendly to business. Like it or not, we need industries for jobs and a tax base.
This is an honest question; what industries do you think would be successful here. Humboldt is a fairly isolated area (transportation issues and logistics). It made it’s bones on resource extraction, like logging and later pot.
Large companies- except government- no. But hundreds of smaller, creative entities run by people who in turn need the transportation to reach more populated places- yes. Aqua Dam, Wing Inflatables are here.
But anyone who needs a larger, responsible workforce will always run into the barrier of Humboldt’s limit on people who want to work. And having to defend themselves from those who don’t want or respect workers.
Responsible resource extraction would still viable for local industry. There used to be sawmills. There was the pulp mill. But then they turned into log decks to ship wood overseas to process. And is that even possible any more? Politically speaking government has become the only industry supported by government.
There was the pulp mill. But then they turned into log decks to ship wood overseas to process.
Yep that’s happening up and down the coast. Newport is going to start shipping logs again possibly this coming year.
If you look at the google map of western Oregon it is a mass of checkerboards, green uncut and tan cut. It’s a huge area. And yet at the same time, mills are still closing. Other mills are heavily automated (Sonny won’t be pulling green chain like his grandpa did…green chain was/is an honest days work, not putting it down).
The raw log market overseas is because our foreign markets require different measurements and it’s cheaper to send raw logs. Though with the tariff thing, I honestly don’t know how that will affect that.
It is sad because Humboldt Bay is the only actual large port between San Francisco Bay and Coos Bay. But it’s just not as convenient. Even Coos Bay, which is somewhat isolated, can access I-5 in less than two hours.
“The raw log market overseas is because our foreign markets require different measurements and it’s cheaper to send raw logs. Though with the tariff thing, I honestly don’t know how that will affect that.” Foreign markets are not the problem. It’s sending our resources elsewhere to have foreign labor benefit then shipping them back. It is not the glory of the metric system. Logs can be milled to other. But the government, especially thr California government, has imposed expensive regulations, which is not necessarily a bad thing, then they refused to apply the same rules to imported good. That only works so long before those cheaper imported goods become too expensive for those suppressed by the government regulation to buy.
Well I do know what to do. Stop government from subsidizing corporations who do that. Prioritize American workers getting the benefit of their own tax dollars. The isolation you complain about is the result of California (and laterly the Federal government ) choosing not to connect Humboldt county. The problems are not accidents of nature. They are government choices, draining the workers to spend money on everything else but what benefits the US workers. Stop worrying about everyone else and focus on the US.
Other sizes.
Services. Particularly ones that can be “exported” like call and data centers. I’ve seen these in other cities that have similar issues like ours. A transit hub or middle stop for products could help. Something that AI can’t run, which is getting to be a real threat to tech personnel and customer service. But we have to be an exporter of something other than natural resources, and those are finite and limited now. The fish farm would have helped,d but that seems dead now. We very much need something that can provide at least a couple thousand jobs at levels above just minimum wage grunt work.
Depends on the bay. There aren’t so many bays along the coast that it won’t have someone who wants to get there.
That’s what they said about Willits and Cloverdale. They were wrong.
They weren’t wrong. It’s just a slow death.
https://www.neilsberg.com/insights/willits-ca-population-by-year/
https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/california/cloverdale
That corridor is not exactly a hopping place to shop. You know what gets the most traffic that stops and parks? The jail and the courthouse. And the gas stations. The first two will always have people around it, even if you put it 10 miles out of town.
Do you travel up 101 very often? You have to drive through Crescent City, through Brookings and Gold Beach, through Coos Bay, through Florence, though Newport, through the the hell that is the 20 miserable miles, technically called Lincoln City and it’s little burgs etc. That last one is in desperate need of a bypass, but the town business people bitterly oppose it.
This isn’t a problem just to Eureka.
You are so right. Although 101 still rus through Eureka look at all the empty store fronts at the Bayshore Mall, on Broadway and on 4th and 5th streets.
Hmm… that is a common problem elsewhere.
Population (working and retired) are now constrained by inflation.
Disposable incomes are going to taxes, gas (more taxes), groceries, insurance and medical care.
Younger generation is now on cell/internet phones.
Don’t go to malls/stores anymore.
Just sit and watch or text on the phones.
You can read an SF Gate article about it here.
>”https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/downtown-slo-dying-21086622.php”
But you presume that they are not already government.
So… who elected them ?
Elimination of parking on one side of fourth and fifth streets.
Making them into protected bikeways.
Can you see any other alternative?
Hello? Unless concentrating bicyclists on a few crossings over the highway and building bridges for them, which mostly few would use, everyone still has to get across the highway because most of the county does not live where you say to build bike paths.
IMHO: Other alternatives ?
Sure: It is to get rid of bikes.
Make Humboldt County a ‘NO-BIKE’ zone.
That completely eliminates bike accidents !
Then make Humboldt County a ‘NO SHOPPING CARTS’ zone.
Reduces pedestrian accidents !
The alternatives are there.
Wow, think of the congestion! It’s a problem that would solve itself; cars get so packed that they can barely creep along, making it much safer for people to cross the street on foot. Sweet! <–sarcasm
Bozo, you left out make it an auto, truck, etc., NO-ZONE.
Bill, a few years ago we had a chance to have the main 101 highway skirt around Eureka, but like other ideas it failed to pass which leaves us with this mess. Cars, trucks, bicycles, pedestrians, etc., are now all over the place and a few want to get through town as fast as they can go putting other folks at risk. I think at one point there was even mention of an elevated highway through town.
Make Broadway, 4th, and 5th a toll road. Then less people will want to drive on them.
Well… here’s a ‘constructive’ hint:
1) Put speed cameras in.
— web stuff.
Yes, speed cameras are effective at reducing accidents, with evidence showing significant reductions in overall, injury, and fatal crashes, especially in areas with high speeding issues. Studies show reductions of up to 54% for all crashes and 47% for injury crashes on urban principal arterials where cameras are used. Reductions can be even higher in specific contexts, like school zones, where speeding is a major concern
2) Put red-light cameras in.
— web stuff
Red light cameras can reduce fatal crashes by 21% in large cities and decrease right-angle collisions by 24%, but they also tend to increase rear-end collisions. In the U.S., red-light running causes over 1,000 fatalities and around 116,000 injuries annually.
However, some studies suggest mixed results, with some showing no reduction in total accidents or injuries and others reporting significant increases in rear-end accidents at camera-equipped intersections.
—
Bet you… I hear… ‘Crickets’.
Yanno, I’ll start reading some of these comments and think, “hmmm, interesting, something to consider,” and then I’ll get to the “ENVIRONAZI RADICAL LIBTARD!!!” part and think, “Why would I want to subject myself to this?”
I mean, what are some of you doing here, anyway? This isn’t how you convince anyone of anything other than, “yeah, not somebody I want to talk to.”
FWIW I am a big pedestrian and now bike rider, and Eureka really can be a great city to get around in without a car. Not always and not everywhere. But it’s something we should take advantage of, IMO. Believe it or not, a lot of people like to walk and bike because, you know, we live in a pretty place. The Bay Trail is awesome! Makes sense to me to expand and improve our tourist infrastructure. It’s not a good idea to have your economy overly dependent on tourist, but let’s face it, tourism is one of the better opportunities here.
I think they should make both 4th and 5th, 2 way streets. One for trucks and one for cars. They could merge at Broadway, keeping all accidents in one place. Build a small hospital by Nelson Feed, Starbucks, and a tow truck facility too. Maybe a shooting range so people can take out their frustration. Last but not least, a podium so city and county officials can make speeches while you’re sitting in your car.