El Cerrito/Richmond Annex Walk & Roll blog

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