Page 35 - Sonoma County Gazette September 2019

By Walter Niederberger
Improving Healdsburg Bike Safety Reduces Climate Footprint
What does September mean to you?
Climate change is happening, and Healdsburg already feels the impact of higher temperatures and elevated fire risks like any town in Sonoma County. So, what can we do to protect the climate system?
To me, it means the days are starting to get shorter and evenings are cooler. What does this mean? It means that Fall is right around the corner. But honestly, for us it also means that we could easily still get a few 90-100-degree days. Welcome to the crazy world called “calling Windsor home”. You just cannot really depend on any true weather patterns. Temperatures can range from mid to high 60s to 100 in a week. When I was a kid, we used to call September “Indian Summer”, and I honestly do not know what the politically correct saying is these days.
In March 2018 the City Council adopted a resolution to provide carbon free
and renewable electricity by 2045, and has begun procuring green power for city operations. But what about emissions from fossil fuels used in buildings and cars? Half of the greenhouse gases from buildings are caused by heating and cooking with natural gas. Replacing it with 100 percent clean electricity (solar, wind and geothermal) therefore would be a significant contribution to fighting climate change. Berkeley’s City Council passed a historic ordinance in July, requiring that new buildings be all-electric beginning in 2020. This means no gas hook-ups in new houses, apartments, and commercial buildings. The Healdsburg City Council is considering such a building electrification ordinance.
One thing we can count on this year is power shutoffs from PG&E. As the President and CEO of the Windsor Chamber of Commerce, and as a 25-year resident of Windsor, I, with my whole heart, want to help businesses and my fellow residents get though the scary times. I am a believer of “we are all in this together” and I want to do my part to help businesses be prepared and to realize that their employees also need to be prepared.
But did you know that more than 60 percent of Healdsburg’s greenhouse gas emissions currently come from transportation, not buildings or power supply? The transportation sector contributes 50 percent more to our emissions than the statewide average. This presents a unique challenge and an unprecedented opportunity to improve our quality of life.
I have offered to work side by side with the Town of Windsor (TOW) to talk in the Windsor community about this. I will go to lots of meetings for various businesses and non-profits, like the Lions Club, Grange, Kiwanis Club, etc., with the TOW staff, as a Windsor resident, and representing the Chamber
(for businesses). I’m doing this so I can take some of the brunt of discussions and objections from people. WHY? Because power shutoffs will be our new normal. I’m also going to talk with the Windsor Unified School District Superintendent to see how to best deal with this in our schools.
Healdsburg needs a sustainable and much safer traffic infrastructure for all users, not just cars.
Like it or NOT, it is going to happen. We can be angry about it or realize
that we need to move beyond our feelings and be prepared. With the PG&E shutoffs it could mean up to 5 days without power. It is not going to be the Town of Windsor’s (TOW) responsibility to care for everyone during an outage. It is up to us to be prepare ourselves and have a plan.
Even though our City is one of the major bicycle hubs in California and attracts hundreds of touring groups, which contribute significantly to the local economy, the bicycle network is not up to a safe standard, as the recent fatal hit-and-run-accident just outside of town has shown.
If schools are closed due to an outage, it could mean taking time off from work to be with your kids, or it might mean making a plan for what to do with your children if you have to go to work. If someone in your family has medical issues, what is your plan to make sure they are taken care of?
A 61-year-old cyclist from Healdsburg was killed mid August on Westside Road, a cycling corridor that is used by thousands of cyclists throughout the year, yet without more coherent “share-the-road” signage or bicycle markings. The accident was not only tragic, but also preventable.
One lesson is that the City, in coordination with the County, has to ensure much better bike safety signage on all major cycling routes emanating from town, including Westside and Eastside Roads, in Dry Creek and Alexander Valleys and all connections to them.
PG&E will give us advanced notice, however (back to that being prepared part) it will mean that each of us is responsible for making sure that they have the correct contact information for us in their system. This is going to be our new normal. If they need to turn off the power, it could take days to have the go ahead to turn it back on. If that happens, what are your plans? Do you have an emergency kit with water, food, clothing? How about copies of your most important documents?
It is equally important that cycling becomes safer within the city limits. Families in Parkland Farms, for instance, would like to send their children to school by bicycle. But they are worried about the safety of the routes, and they are right. Healdsburg Avenue from the north to the south end of the city needs to be upgraded to a major bicycle route, since it is the most direct and the least hilly route to the schools.
We learned so much from the devastating Tubb fires in October 2017. Since the fires, almost everyone with a smart phone has signed up for Nixle alerts. Did you know that it had been around since 2007? Most of us had never heard of it, much less signed up for the messages.
STEP ONE is to create a dedicated bicycle lane with MORE signs indicating that cars and bicycle share the road and parking in bicycle lanes is prohibited.
STEP TWO is to modify the induction loops at red lights, to make sure that not only cars, but bicycles can trigger them to turn the lights green.
STEP THREE is to make intersections and roundabouts safe with green painted lanes and bike boxes, which allow cyclists to wait in front of stopped vehicles. The experience of other US cities tells us that it is safer to concentrate cyclists on fewer routes, where the car drivers can see them, rather than to disperse them to side roads with frequent crossings of major arteries.
Healdsburg with its climate and terrain is an ideal place for bicycling. More and more citizens are aware of that and would like to take advantage of
it. For instance the free bike parking at the Tuesday concerts at the Square is very popular. And the local Folk Spoke Bicycle shop sells and rents out more and more electric bicycles. E-bikes make cycling a viable alternative for more people (e.g., injured athletes, elderly) and more functions, such as shopping at the farmer’s market or touring the beautiful vineyards, while at the same time promoting healthy lifestyles, reducing car traffic and avoiding greenhouse gas emissions. According to the NPD Retail Tracking Service, sales of bikes with electric motors rose 73% last year at specialty shops, after more than doubling the year before. In contrast, traditional bike sales fell 8% last year.
If you have not signed up, please do so at www.nixle.com/
More trips by bike and foot will benefit the climate system and improve Healdsburg’s quality of life.
Comments or questions, please write to me. at lorene@mac.com
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Sonoma County Tourism has created a “Be Prepared” toolkit, housed on their website, to help guide our partners and visitors. They can be found here:
Partner Toolkit—sonomacounty.com/partners/be-prepared Visitor Toolkit—sonomacounty.com/information/be-prepared
Here are some very helpful resources from PG&E: 3-Minutes of your time—Watch Helpful Public Safety Power Shutoff Video:
players.brightcove.net/1688216792001/NyJ21yKYe_default/index. html?videoId=6035211692001
Power Safety Shutoff: prepareforpowerdown.com
Let’s face it! Having power shutoffs will be our “new normal”; it’s going to happen. Be proactive and be prepared before it happens. Don’t let yourself be caught off guard and find yourself in the dark. What’s the worst thing that could happen? You are prepared and find out you might not need
the emergency box. But then again, Windsor is in Sonoma County and in California, and we know that the next earthquake is coming eventually.