For the introduction to the issues of the double-roundabout design, see:
Part 1 – Sunset and LK Wood / Highway 101 roundabouts — Where are the bike lanes?
Part 3 – Sunset and LK Wood / Highway 101 roundabouts — Letter to the City Council

This article was first published  on February 21, 2024. It is being “bumped up” with a newer date so that it shows up on “New Articles.”

The multi-road intersections of Sunset Avenue, L. K. Wood Boulevard, G Street, H Street, and the four on-ramps/off-ramps for US Highway 101 are an acknowledged difficult situation.

The solution that’s provided is not, in my view, a good solution. I think this design would be the source of all kinds of problems. I believe there must be a better solution for us at this intersection. We can do better.

Arcata’s City Engineer, Netra Khatri, replied promptly to my inquiries about the double-roundabout design.

What I learned:

• The light gray strips are pathways, at least 8 feet wide. They are “Class I” bike paths, meaning that the pathway is share between cyclists and pedestrians. 
• Where the pathways cross a motor-vehicle traffic lane, there are no stop signs. There will be a pushbutton-actuated rapid flashing sign. There are a total of 10 places where the pedestrian/bike pathways cross a traffic lane.
• At each pedestrian/bike pathway crossing, there will also be yield signs on the road surface.
• The bike lanes on L.K. Wood, G Street, and Sunset Avenue do end abruptly, as shown on the diagrams. (The bike lane on H Street, going south, starts abruptly.) Where the bike lane ends, the cyclist has a choice:
  • Ride on the shared pathway, with pedestrians.
  • Ride out into the road and merge into the stream of motor-vehicle traffic.
• If riding in the road, the cyclist goes around each circle to the desired turnoff, just as a car would — and riding in the traffic with cars and trucks.
• If a cyclists opts to not ride in the roadway and merge with the car/truck traffic, the travel is on the shared pedestrian/bike pathways. Each time this pathway crosses a vehicle traffic lane, the cyclists would (in theory) stop, actuate the flasher signals, wait for the cars to stop, and then proceed.
• For a cyclist who is coming south on L.K. Wood and wants to go west on Sunset, and is riding on the shared pedestrian/bike pathways, there are a total of 10 times that the pathway crossed a motor-vehicle traffic lane. For someone walking south along L.K. Wood and is on the east side of the street, and wants to go west on Sunset, there are 8 places where the pathway crosses a traffic lane.
• There will be bike lanes (on both sides) on the bridge across Highway 101 — but a cyclist would have to ride in the traffic lane of the roundabout to get to those bike lanes.

Here’s what it’s like for a cyclist who is coming south on L.K. Wood and wants to go west on Sunset, and does not want to ride in the street. The yellow arrows show the path that the cyclist would need to take. There are ten places where the pathway crosses a motor vehicle traffic lane.

If the cyclist wanted to just go south on L.K. Wood, and opted to ride with the car and truck traffic in the road, this would be how it’s done.

The same situation — south on L.K. Wood, riding with the car and truck traffic. This image shows cars and trucks. The red arrows show where bikes would ride.
The vehicles are bunched up because pedestrians and cyclists are crossing at the pathways in front of them..

Where the shared pedestrian / bike pathway crosses a traffic lane, if the cars are stopped, the string of cars will back up into the roundabout. This situation would be terribly unsafe.

In the image above, the dashed red lines indicate two places where the shared pathway crosses a motor-vehicle traffic lane. When a pedestrian or cyclist activates the flashing yellow lights, then the cars stop. Two examples are shown in blue where the pathway is downstream from an exit on the roundabout.

There is not sufficient distance from the turnoff on the roundabout to where the pathway crossing is. When just 2 or 3 cars are stopped, they cars back up into the roundabout.

If a shorty semi-truck or even a box truck was stopped for the pedestrian / cyclist crosswalk, the backup into the roundabout would be worse than what’s shown.

Is this design safe?

I don’t think it is safe. I don’t think it’s safe for pedestrians, for cyclists, or even for cars. (They might get hit from behind.) City Engineer Netra Khatri wrote: “Examples of similar on and off bicycle ramps can be seen at the intersection of Foster Avenue and Sunset Avenue roundabout.”

Netra Khatri, Arcata’s City Engineer, replied on February 20, 2024, to an inquiry that I’d sent to him on the previous day. This is what he wrote:

Based on the past feedback and limited ROW [Right of Way] available we are not proposing bike lanes inside the roundabouts. The concept here is that a bicyclist can take the lane in the roundabout, vehicles are always in the curve motion inside the roundabout so it’s better to take the lane rather than being side by side inside a roundabout. For a bicyclist who does not feel comfortable taking the lane, we are proposing on and off bicycle ramps so they can jump to Class 1 shared path ( min 8 ft wide) along the roundabouts, so they don’t need to take the lane. 

Currently not shown but we will include bike lanes on the overpass portion of the project, we have sufficient ROW for bicycle lanes for both eastbound and westbound bicyclists.

Also, below are responses to your specific questions.

I wrote: It appears that the bike lanes for all the streets involved — in these images, the bike lanes just kind of disappear. The bike lanes just end abruptly. And there’s no indication on these renderings of where bike riders are supposed to go.

Netra Khatri’s reply: 

• G Street going north: Two options: a bicyclist can take the lane in the roundabout or use the Class 1 share path to go to appropriate direction.
• L. K. Wood Boulevard going north and going south: same as above.
• H Street Street going south: same as above.
• Sunset Avenue going east and west : same as above.

I wrote: There’s also the question:  Are there stop signs where a pedestrian walkway crosses a lane of traffic? I count ten pedestrian crossings.

Netra Khatri’s reply:  There will be pedestrian crossing signs with yield marking on the pavement and pedestrian actuated rapid flashing signs at all crossings. There will also be yield signs at entrance legs of the roundabouts.