This Caltrans Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant process has had me thinking a lot about walkability versus driveability. The city council voted to proceed with a plan that prioritizes bike and pedestrian infrastructure downtown; the walkable two-way option approved by the planning commission. I believe this decision will result in a more pedestrian-oriented downtown that will improve safety and downtown vibrancy.

Much of the debate in the community during the planning process has been around whether the restore the two-way street system downtown or to continue with the one-way couplet system for vehicular traffic. Everyone seems to agree that improving the pedestrian environment with wider sidewalks, bump-outs at intersections for shorter street crossing distances and other pedestrian-oriented ammenities are beneficial and should be included in the final plan.

But some people were pretty fired up about the restoration of the two-way road network. The opponents to two-way streets are convinced that two-way streets will result in a traffic nightmare. I’ve previously written about my unscientific analysis of traffic through downtown Sebastopol. In a nutshell, according to Google Maps, it typically takes 8-9 minutes to drive through Sebastopol in the north-south direction most of the day. There is a definite increase in travel time in the late afternoon, when school ends. The worst average time to get through town then was 12 minutes. But by 5 PM, we’re back to 8-9 minutes. And after 7 PM, it takes about 7 minutes. Sure, congestion can be frustrating, but really not such a big deal in my mind.

I’m not sure why people who drive are surprised when they encounter congestion. Especially regular congestion. Everyone around here knows that late afternoon is busy on the primary roads through town. If you must go somewhere at that time, plan ahead. You know it is going to be busy. You are not the only person who wants to get someplace else. And if you need a car to get to that place, you are part of the congestion.

I moved to downtown Sebastopol because I wanted to live in a place where I didn’t need to get in my car for every little outing. I’m super grateful that I’ve been able to create a life for myself where I can walk and bike to pretty much all of my daily needs. I am fortunate to live the transportation life that I want because of where I live and work. And I understand that not everyone wants to live the walkable/bikeable city life that I want to live. And that’s fine.

There are many people that live in the ‘rural’ areas of ‘West County’ outside of Sebastopol. I used census data to determine how many. The census tracts do not neatly fit into what people would consider ‘West County’, but there are approximately 30,000 in the area bounded by Valley Ford/Bloomfield to the south, Bodega Bay to the west and Forestville to the north. There were 7,521 people in the city limits of Sebastopol according to the 2020 census. There are nearly 40,000 people living in and around Sebastopol. And many of them need a car for their daily lives.

I have nothing against people’s decision to live in the rural areas of West County. You want land. Fine. You want views. Fine. You want open space. Fine. You want solitude. Fine. But when you live in such a place, you are committing yourself to a car-oriented lifestyle. That’s fine. Live that life. But let me live mine. I understand you need your car to drive to and through Sebastopol. But that is your decision. If making Sebastopol better for pedestrians and cyclists creates congestion, which I’m not convinced is true, that is also fine.

Just because many care trips from West County pass through Sebastopol, doesn’t mean Sebastopol has to be treated like a highway (although it is the crossroads of two state highways). Sebastopol has an area of 1.9 square miles. It should be a walkers and bikers paradise. But the one-way couplet system that currently exists in our downtown is designed to move people in cars through town as quickly as possible. And this has been at the expense of people who want to walk and bike. If making my downtown more pedestrian and bike-friendly slows down your travel through town, so be it. I’ll respect your driving lifestyle, but you also have to respect the choice that I and other people that want to be able to walk and bike through town safely have made. Sebastopol does not exist to get you from one side to the other as quickly as possible. Our streets should be designed so that drivers in town feel uncomfortable driving faster than 20 mph. That is a safer speed for pedestrians and cyclists. That will make people on foot and bike more comfortable which will in turn encourage more people to walk and bike.

One of the people giving public comment at the city council meeting commented that many people were talking about pedestrians versus cars. She wanted to point out that people are in cars, and traffic congestion impacts them. That’s true. But if you are buying into living a car-oriented lifestyle, I don’t think you should be surprised when you end up in congested conditions from time to time. That’s what happens when we go all-in on designing our transportation system pretty much exclusively for cars. I believe we need to de-prioritize cars and put some balance back into our transportation system. We need to design for people that want to experience their community outside of a steel box with wheels. Fred Kent founder of Project for Public Spaces said ‘If you plan a city for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.’

Sebastopol should be designed for people and places. Of course we will have cars passing into and through town, but we have a choice about how we design our community. I believe we should focus on creating places for people. I believe the design that was approved through the Sustainable Transportation Planning grant is a great step to getting us to that place.