El Cerrito/Richmond Annex Walk & Roll blog

In its Local Road Safety Plan survey , El Cerrito asked participants whether the city should pursue becoming a Vision Zero city. Cities across the world, confronted by increasing fatality rates, are adopting Vision Zero and its Safe Systems Approach , with the ultimate goal of eliminating traffic-related fatalities and injuries on city streets by transforming how they are designed. In 2019, Berkeley became a Vision Zero city and adopted a plan with the goal “to eliminate traffic deaths and severe injuries on our city streets by 2028.” Hoboken, New Jersey , a city of 60,000 people, adopted a Vision Zero policy and hasn't had a traffic death in 4 years. Vision Zero is an international movement to increase street safety by changing how cities approach transportation. Presently our culture seems to believe that death and injury on our streets is just a price we pay for the convenience of automobility; the burden for making our streets safe is on the individual to drive safely, walk wi

Back in September we reported that El Cerrito was initiating work on a Local Road Safety Plan . With the help of transportation consultants Kittelson & Associates, the city achieved enough work on the plan to help with applying for street improvement grants. But recognizing that there is more that can be done, the city is refining the plan by asking locals to complete an El Cerrito Road Safety Questionnaire .  Let the city know about your traffic safety priorities! Question number 10 asks, “Should El Cerrito commit to being a Vision Zero City?” This commitment would help move our community toward safer streets and a multimodal transportation future in which all modes of mobility, no matter what speed, will be viable. And by making possible safe use of micromobility, El Cerrito will be better able to meet its goals of reducing community greenhouse gas emissions as envisioned in the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan .  If you have questions about the Local Road Safety Plan, write to

By Steve Price and Janet Byron Who knew that the wine country could be so accessible without a car? We walked over to El Cerrito Plaza BART, rode one stop to Del Norte BART, and then took Vine Transit buses to the wine country of Napa Valley. The bus ride to the city of Napa didn't take much longer than a car ride — less than an hour. It required a quick bus transfer in Napa to get downtown, and a short walk to our hotel in downtown Napa. Downtown Napa has densified in recent years, and the waterfront along the Napa River has multiuse trails, restaurants, and shops. It's pretty upscale—understandable considering that it's the gateway to the wine country. The next morning we took another Vine Transit bus to Yountville, where we wandered around the residential areas admiring the many houses with attractive porches and gardens. We walked by the famous French Laundry restaurant (too rich for our budget), then we shared a flight of three wine samples at Jessup Cellars (more affo

By Steve Price "Transportation" is a misnomer. When getting into a car or bus, most people are usually not transporting stuff. They travel in order to get themself to a destination: medical appointment, haircut, job, entertainment, meet friends, meetings . . . or to buy something. More often than not, their purchases are small, less than what you’d call “cargo.” The primary reason we travel is not "transport"-ation, it's for "access"-ation.  Transit planner Jarrett Walker explains in his book, Human Transit, that a primary purpose of transit is to provide people "access to opportunity." “Access is turning out to be a remarkably good predictor of ridership,” Walker says. We build transit systems not just to physically move people, but to deliver people to the things they want or need for living. They work best when transit goes in straight lines, not making lots of circuitous jogs. That way riders get to destinations directly and quickly, muc

We often hear motorists complaining about bicycle riders flouting traffic laws. A Danish study put that notion to the test by analyzing video footage recorded at intersections. It found that 14% of bicycle riders violated traffic laws, but when separated bicycle lanes were present that number dropped to 4.9%. Interestingly, the study found that 66% of motorists violated traffic laws, and observations elsewhere in Europe confirm similar proportions.  In the United States’ more libertarian culture, the problem of lax respect for traffic laws is probably worse. It’s not uncommon to see motorists running red lights, speeding, rolling through stop signs, stopping on top of crosswalks, looking at phones while driving, and parking on top of bike lanes. Why are bicycle riders held to a higher standard? It could be that the unlawful behavior of motorists has become normalized and traffic enforcement has relaxed. Irresponsible behavior by bicycle riders is also easier to spot, such as ignoring r

The chart above shows the relative greenhouse gas emissions for various transportation vehicles. TNMT, a data analysis group of the Lufthansa Innovation Hub aggregates data for the chart with the caveat that the numbers are not exact (for example, cars vary greatly in their gasoline consumption, but an average can be approximated). Emissions are often not obvious; for instance, a vehicle may have low emissions while driven, but the manufacturing of it may produce a lot. The chart is useful for making individual decisions as to vehicle choices or frequency of vehicle use. It shows that we can make big reductions in our carbon footprints if we are deliberate in our use of travel technologies. If we choose to use one for short errands and another for long-distance travel, that will be significantly beneficial. — Steve Price