Soquel Drive is a critical bike corridor connecting Mid-County communities, but its protected bike lanes have deteriorated as safety bollards have been damaged and removed, write Mikey Cohen, board chair of Bike Santa Cruz County, and transportation activist Jack Brown. They say the current design no longer provides reliable protection and can even create hazards for cyclists and drivers. They call on Santa Cruz County leaders to invest in more durable bike lane barriers, traffic-calming measures and ongoing maintenance. They believe improving Soquel Drive would create a safer, more practical transportation corridor for riders of all ages and experience levels.
Jack Brown
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Santa Cruz’s moonshot: Build the trail now and stop chasing a rail mirage
Santa Cruz County faces a rare moment of alignment: a viable path to build the coastal trail without railbanking or surrendering the corridor, writes trail advocate Jack Brown. With a “peace deal” to build over the tracks before the Regional Transportation Commission, Brown says rail remains decades away and financially unrealistic.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Diversions and deceptions – in the rail-trail debate, Santa Cruz County is getting more rail and less trail
Transportation activist Jack Brown remains skeptical about the rail trail’s development after looking at the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission’s June design plan. “There simply is not room for a rail and a trail as has been promised by rail groups for over a decade,” he writes.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
RTC needs to answer hard questions about rail trail
The Regional Transportation Commission has not done its job on the rail-trail debate, writes local activist Jack Brown. Here, he offers 12 questions he believes commissioners have failed to answer. Brown supported Measure D, the 2022 Greenway ballot initiative calling for a trail-only option. He says Santa Cruz County has lost too much time and money on a flawed idea.