Safe Streets Petaluma
Transportation Questionnaire
2024 City Council Candidates 

Introduction and District Overview

Thanks for checking out the Safe Streets Petaluma Transportation Questionnaire for 2024 City Council elections!

In recent years Petaluma has transitioned to district elections — the city was divided into six districts of roughly 10,000 citizens each (see map below or find my district tool). In this November 2024 election three of the districts are up for election: Districts 4, 5, and 6. Only voters who live in a given district can vote for that district’s city council seat. We organized this questionnaire into three sections, one for each district, with candidates ordered by their last name.

All seven of the 2024 City Council Candidates participated in this Transportation Questionnaire. Thank you to the candidates for giving their time and energy into sharing their thoughts on this important topic. And thank you for reading the responses below, to help inform yourself as a Petaluma voter.

District 4 Candidate Responses

Safety

Petaluma’s Complete Streets, Vision Zero, and Local Road Safety Plan policies all call for reducing traffic fatalities. Petaluma has 2-4 traffic fatalities per year, the majority caused by unsafe speeds. What needs to change to make our streets safer for everyone? What will your role in this be if elected?

JJ Jay: Our streets, pedestrian walkways, and bike paths and lanes all need to be evaluated and updated to make our roads safer for everyone. We also need more enforcement of traffic laws regarding vehicles entering crosswalks inappropriately; I see this happen all the time at great risk to pedestrians. As a city council member, I would support efforts to reduce and eliminate traffic injuries and fatalities.

Frank Quint: As stated in our General Plan Update Transportation framework, I will support the adoption of Complete Streets roadway design standards to ensure modal priorities, the Safe, Equitable, and Inclusive framework, and All Ages and Abilities Bikeway Design are accounted for in transportation planning, programming, design, construction, reconstruction, retrofit, operations, and maintenance activities and products. Standards should allow for flexibility given existing constraints, costs, and conditions.

Climate Goals

Per the Climate Emergency Framework, Petaluma’s policy goal is to be carbon neutral by 2030. 67% of the city’s emissions are from transportation. The draft Blueprint for Carbon Neutrality states “To reach climate neutrality by 2030, Petaluma will need to … transition 75 percent of all travel trips to modes other than single-occupancy vehicles”. How do you think Petaluma should accomplish this transportation mode shift? As an essential part of this, what changes to public transit are necessary to achieve these goals?

JJ Jay: First and foremost, Petaluma needs to provide adequate alternatives to cars without trying to force people out of them. Public transit, for example, is a great alternative to single-occupancy vehicles in many cases, but the inconvenience of sparse scheduling makes the option impractical for people pressed for time. On-demand, micro-transit is one way to help this. For those not living near the downtown area or major shopping sites, it can be difficult to use bicycles when safe, navigable routes are challenging. For example, the micro cracks on local roads, while seemingly smooth, can make that trip to the store a little more difficult for the casual cyclist to commit to its frequent use.

Frank Quint: I support the decarbonization of our City Transit system by investing in green vehicles. I also support efforts to evolve our City Transit system to meet the needs of our community (i.e. make it easier to ride public transit). I also support efforts to build out our active transportation network to give our community safe alternatives to automobiles. I don't believe local policy alone will get people to change and I believe policy that feels heavy-handed could have adverse effects. As a result, I support aggressively building the infrastructure to give people options and incentivizing the behavior we aim to achieve.

Traffic Congestion

Many Petalumans share that a) people drive too fast and b) traffic congestion gets bad during certain times of day. How do we solve these apparently contradictory problems? How would you trade off optimizing streets for rush hour versus the rest of the day?

JJ Jay: Congestion can be mitigated by finishing the Rainier crosstown connector. If the funds are there in the future, the Caulfield connector would also help with congestion. I can only ask the question since I am not a traffic engineer, but can we use traffic lights that adjust to peak travel times to reduce congestion? One idea might be to super load public transit schedules to make them more convenient for rush hour times.

Frank Quint: I've spent considerable time traversing our town on my bike and in my car. Our roads were designed decades ago when designing Complete Streets wasn't considered. Many of our streets were not built with modern safety elements. Incorporating Complete Street standards when improving roadways will improve safety and traffic flow. I also believe investing in our active transportation network and our transit system is critical for reducing congestion.

Parking

Should car parking change in Petaluma in the coming decade? If so, in what ways? How do you see the interconnected topics of parking, transportation, and land use in our downtown area?

JJ Jay: I am against the notion of reducing parking in order to force people into other modes of transportation without first making those other modes readily available, safe, and convenient. 15-minutes city locales will help with this, for example.

Frank Quint: Economic and housing growth are likely to occur in our downtown in the coming decade. Expanding the kind of parking we have today isn't sustainable and it will need to change. I don't yet know what the change in parking should look like. However, creating efficient alternative ways for our community to access downtown needs to be part of the solution.

Candidate Summary

Given the above context, what are your top priorities for transportation in Petaluma? What is your experience advocating for transportation safety in Petaluma? Recognizing that transportation changes often come down to tough votes for the Petaluma City Council, how will you approach difficult transportation votes?

JJ Jay: I would love to greatly increase dedicated bike paths without sacrificing parking, though lane reductions are fine. I can ride (almost) completely off-street on the east side from south to north. However, getting from east to west on two wheels without using roads is still challenging. As mentioned above, 15-minute city locales can be used to reduce the use of cars and get more people on bikes and feet. If elected, I plan to push back on using the "stick" of limited parking, for example, to discourage car use and instead advocate for the "carrot" of first providing more alternatives.

Frank Quint: Most roads in Petaluma were designed and built decades without modern safe design standards. We've just begun to address these problems with recent road repairs. My plan is to prioritize the incorporation of Complete Street Standards into our repair projects so that not only are we fixing potholes but we also make the streets safer and calmer. I also plan to prioritize our ATP and advocate for its build out and I will continue to advocate for our transit system. The transit system should continue to evolve to become greener, accessible, and meet the changing needs of our city. I'm currently the vice chair of Petaluma's PBAC and chair of TAC.

District 5 Candidate Responses

Safety

Petaluma’s Complete Streets, Vision Zero, and Local Road Safety Plan policies all call for reducing traffic fatalities. Petaluma has 2-4 traffic fatalities per year, the majority caused by unsafe speeds. What needs to change to make our streets safer for everyone? What will your role in this be if elected?

Alex DeCarli: To make Petaluma streets safer for everyone, it starts with learning how to drive. I feel that California state requirements for learning how to operate a vehicle and general knowledge of the law are far below where they should be. Many European countries, for example, have an extremely high standard for driving skills and obeying traffic laws.

Using data to identify high-risk areas or “hot spots” for traffic collisions allows us to focus interventions where they are needed most. Petaluma’s Local Road Safety Plan already emphasizes the importance of data-driven decision-making. We should regularly analyze crash data, conduct safety audits, and engage the community to identify problem areas and develop targeted solutions.

We should work with local schools, community groups, and businesses to raise awareness about safe practices, such as adhering to speed limits, yielding to pedestrians, and the benefits of active transportation. Vision Zero cities have found success in reducing traffic fatalities through consistent, community-focused education efforts.

I will work to ensure that our city adopts a Vision Zero approach by supporting policies and investments that prioritize human life and safety. I will push for increased funding for road improvements, advocate for more robust data collection and analysis, and engage with the community to create a shared vision for safer streets.

Blake Hooper: We can only make our streets safer by focusing on pedestrians first. The majority of crosswalk accessibility features also naturally reduce speeds: bulb-outs, crosswalk warning lights, and median islands provide safety for pedestrians, but also encourage drivers to drive more smoothly and at speeds that are less likely to cause severe accidents.

If elected, I want to reshape how our city approaches public engagement, so that we can all have a voice in how our roads, pedestrian infrastructure, and bike network can work together.

Climate Goals

Per the Climate Emergency Framework, Petaluma’s policy goal is to be carbon neutral by 2030. 67% of the city’s emissions are from transportation. The draft Blueprint for Carbon Neutrality states “To reach climate neutrality by 2030, Petaluma will need to … transition 75 percent of all travel trips to modes other than single-occupancy vehicles”. How do you think Petaluma should accomplish this transportation mode shift? As an essential part of this, what changes to public transit are necessary to achieve these goals?

Alex DeCarli: While transitioning 75% of all travel trips to modes other than single-occupancy vehicles by 2030 is an ambitious goal, it's important to recognize that this target may not be realistic for every resident or business of Petaluma. And those goals may shift as electric cars become more prevalent and reduce vehicle-based emissions calculations. However, we should still promote diverse transportation options, reduce unnecessary trips, and improve our land use planning to minimize the need for long-distance travel.

Petaluma could encourage more residents to use public transit by making it more convenient, reliable, and accessible. This includes increasing the frequency of buses, expanding routes to underserved areas, and ensuring transit stops are safe and comfortable. 

Creating safer, more connected, and more pleasant walking and biking routes would help. Investing in appropriate bike lanes, well-maintained sidewalks, and crosswalk improvements can make these modes of transportation more appealing and practical for short trips. It’s important to support all forms of mobility while maintaining balance and ensuring that all road users, including drivers, can coexist safely.

Reducing the need for frequent long-distance travel requires thoughtful land use planning. Encouraging mixed-use development, where housing, shopping, and work are located within proximity can help residents access their daily needs without cars or a lower number of car trips. Incentivizing more job creation in Petaluma can also help reduce the number of commuters that need to leave the city for work. This could make other modes of transportation, such as walking or cycling, more practical and convenient.

It’s essential to involve the community in these discussions to understand their needs and preferences. Raising awareness about the benefits of reducing car trips, such as improved air quality, reduced traffic congestion, and better public health, can help our community make informed decisions about transportation options in Petaluma.

I support balanced and practical strategies that promote diverse transportation options while respecting the reality that not all trips can or should be shifted away from cars. I will work to improve our public transit system, maintain infrastructure that supports safe walking and biking, and champion job creation and smart land use policies to help residents avoid long commutes. My focus will be ensuring everyone in Petaluma has safe, reliable, and sustainable ways to move around.

Blake Hooper: Firstly, we need to prioritize repairing our sidewalks. Right now, on the streets closest to Downtown, it’s not safe to walk Downtown. Without prioritizing pedestrian infrastructure, we can’t tell people not to drive. The city should continue to build new bike lakes – with real community consultation that builds trust in the process – but sidewalks need to be our top priority.

We need to work on expanding the frequency and range of public transit options in Petaluma. The free public transit program that Petaluma recently launched is a good start. With good data tracking, we can see exactly when and where there is demand for public transit. The city should use demand data to plan for route frequencies that match our increased demand, and invest in an expanded fleet of buses.

Many people in my district don’t take the bus, because the nearest bus stop is a 3-mile walk away. That means we need new bus routes, and the city should invest in figuring out where there is demand for public transit. Petaluma should run a pilot program that increases the pool of eligible customers of paratransit, and use the increased demand to decide on locations for routes that reach more of Petaluma.

Traffic Congestion

Many Petalumans share that a) people drive too fast and b) traffic congestion gets bad during certain times of day. How do we solve these apparently contradictory problems? How would you trade off optimizing streets for rush hour versus the rest of the day?

Alex DeCarli: We can address both of these issues through a balanced approach that enhances safety and traffic flow without resorting to anti-car policies or deliberately inducing congestion.

To address the issue of speeding, we should implement targeted traffic-calming measures in areas where speeding is a known problem—such as near schools, parks, and residential neighborhoods. This could include speed bumps, raised crosswalks, and better signage. These measures are designed to slow down vehicles without significantly impacting traffic flow during non-peak hours or on major thoroughfares.

Optimizing traffic signals can help manage congestion during rush hours while allowing smoother flow during other times of the day. Intelligent traffic signal systems that use sensors and real-time data can adjust signal timing dynamically based on current traffic conditions. This means longer green lights during rush hour to move more cars through intersections and shorter wait times during off-peak hours to reduce delays.

Streets should be designed to accommodate all modes of transportation—cars, bicycles, pedestrians, and public transit—without prioritizing one mode over another and without negatively impacting parking options in our city. For example, bike lanes and improved sidewalks can provide safe alternatives for shorter trips, reducing the number of vehicles on the road without hindering car travel. By creating streets that work for everyone, we can improve safety and efficiency without compromising the needs of drivers.

We should explore opportunities to develop alternative routes that help distribute traffic more evenly across the city. This could include new road connections or expanding existing ones. In addition, reconfiguring key intersections to include roundabouts or dedicated turn lanes can help reduce congestion points without negatively impacting overall traffic flow.

I would advocate for strategies that optimize streets for both rush hour and the rest of the day. This involves using smart technology to manage traffic flow, implementing targeted safety measures where they are most needed, and fostering community input to ensure that solutions are balanced and fair.

By combining these approaches, we can make our streets safer, reduce congestion, and create a transportation system that serves everyone—whether they drive, walk, bike, or use public transit.

Blake Hooper: Firstly, traffic is congested in southwest Petaluma because too many people are using the D Street Bridge. We need to prioritize getting the Caulfield connector built, so that when we make crosstown journeys, we don’t contribute to congestion on D Street and the Boulevard.

We’ve seen that thoughtful road design reduces congestion and speed at the same time, projects like the Petaluma Boulevard Road Diet have both made it easier and safer to drive on Petaluma, and the road is less congested (even though there’s one less lane). I want to see more thoughtful road design programs, with real community consultation so that our city can address the problems that affect people who live here.

Parking

Should car parking change in Petaluma in the coming decade? If so, in what ways? How do you see the interconnected topics of parking, transportation, and land use in our downtown area?

Alex DeCarli: Yes, I believe car parking in Petaluma should evolve in the coming decade, but our approach must balance accessibility, convenience, and the economic vitality of our downtown. Parking is crucial to supporting local businesses and ensuring that our downtown remains a vibrant and attractive destination for residents and visitors alike. Here’s how I envision these interconnected topics of parking, transportation, and land use working together:

Keep parking free! Free and accessible parking is essential to maintaining the economic vibrancy of downtown Petaluma. Residents and visitors rely on parking to support local businesses, attend community events, and enjoy downtown amenities. By keeping parking free, we can encourage more foot traffic and support our small businesses, which are the heart of our community. Instead of dis-incentivizing parking, we should focus on optimizing our existing spaces to ensure they are well-managed, safe, and easy to use.

While I don’t advocate for paid parking or restrictive management systems, we can improve the efficiency of existing parking through better signage, lighting, and accessibility features. This makes it easier for drivers to find parking quickly, reduces traffic congestion caused by vehicles searching for spaces, and improves overall safety. We can also consider adding technology like digital parking maps to help visitors locate available spaces more easily.

Although parking is necessary, we should also focus on enhancing transportation options to reduce the demand for car parking. By expanding public transit services, creating safe and inviting pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, and improving connections between different modes of transportation, we can provide more choices for how people access downtown. A balanced transportation network can benefit everyone, including those who prefer or need to drive.

It’s crucial to preserve and possibly expand parking availability near key destinations such as shopping areas, medical facilities, and community centers. This ensures that downtown remains accessible to everyone, including those who may not have access to alternative transportation options or who have mobility challenges.

While we explore long-term strategies to encourage more sustainable transportation modes, we must acknowledge the current reality: many Petalumans rely on cars, and businesses depend on accessible parking. The goal is not to deny or eliminate parking but to ensure it is integrated with a broader strategy that includes diverse transportation options and smart land use planning. I will advocate for a balanced approach to parking and transportation in downtown Petaluma. I will support initiatives that keep parking free and accessible while also investing in a well-rounded transportation network that includes public transit, safe biking and walking paths. This strategy ensures that downtown remains economically vibrant and accessible to all, regardless of how they choose to travel.

Blake Hooper: Firstly, we need to do what we can to reduce demand on parking downtown without penalizing people who can afford it least.

Right now, it’s impossible for many of us to choose to make a trip downtown without driving. We need to make it possible to make more of our journeys to Downtown by public transit or active transit: this means repairing our sidewalks and crosswalks on the historic streets near downtown, it means expanding public transit so that it reaches the people who need it, and it means expanding our bike lane network through real community consultation.

Secondly, I believe that Petaluma’s parking minimums for new developments are too high, and that’s resulted in us building parking spaces instead of vital housing. I want more housing in places where people want to work and enjoy their town, and we can’t achieve that if we need to build more parking spaces than bedrooms.

Candidate Summary

Given the above context, what are your top priorities for transportation in Petaluma? What is your experience advocating for transportation safety in Petaluma? Recognizing that transportation changes often come down to tough votes for the Petaluma City Council, how will you approach difficult transportation votes?

Alex DeCarli: My top priorities for transportation are based on creating a balanced, inclusive, and sustainable system that works for everyone. My priorities are:

1. Prioritize Safety: My first priority is to ensure the safety of everyone who uses our streets—drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, and transit riders alike. This means implementing targeted safety improvements, such as traffic-calming measures where speeding is an issue, and investing in better infrastructure for walking, biking, and well-maintained sidewalks. We need to focus on solutions that make our streets safer without unduly penalizing any specific group of road users.

2. Support a Comprehensive Transportation Network: I will advocate for a transportation system that provides options for everyone. This includes enhancing public transit services, maintaining free and accessible parking downtown, and improving connections between different modes of travel. By investing in a multi-modal transportation network, we create a resilient system that offers choices to residents while reducing congestion and emissions.

3. Improve Traffic Flow and Manage Congestion Sensibly: I understand that traffic congestion is a concern for many Petalumans, especially during peak times. I support optimizing traffic signals and improving key intersections to enhance flow and reduce bottlenecks. We should also explore better land use planning that reduces the need for long commutes by bringing housing, jobs, and services closer together.

4. Balance Economic Vitality and Accessibility: I believe that keeping parking free and accessible in our downtown area is essential to supporting local businesses and ensuring our economic vibrancy. I will work to maintain this balance while still promoting alternative modes of transportation that complement, rather than compete with, the needs of our community.

My Experience Advocating for Transportation Safety

Throughout my time engaging with community organizations, local businesses, and residents, I have consistently advocated for practical transportation solutions that enhance safety and accessibility. I have supported community-led initiatives to improve pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure, backed efforts to optimize traffic management, and listened closely to the concerns of all residents, from drivers to public transit users. I have worked with local stakeholders, including our business community, to find common-sense solutions that meet our community's diverse needs.

Blake Hooper: I’ve served on the Transit Advisory Committee and Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee in the past, and learned from my time on these committees that so many people truly depend on Petaluma having reliable public transit and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods.

When difficult topics come up, I want proper community consultation. If elected, I will encourage the city to train their public engagement staff in facilitation and conflict resolution techniques to make sure that more of us can have our voices heard. I believe that the city makes better decisions when they listen to the people who live here.

District 6 Candidate Responses

Safety

Petaluma’s Complete Streets, Vision Zero, and Local Road Safety Plan policies all call for reducing traffic fatalities. Petaluma has 2-4 traffic fatalities per year, the majority caused by unsafe speeds. What needs to change to make our streets safer for everyone? What will your role in this be if elected?

Brian Barnacle: Per our Local Road Safety Plan, there are “5 Es” of road safety. My job as an elected official is to ensure we are doing everything possible to save lives. We need to improve our infrastructure to support safe multi-modal transportation. We need to educate people on how to use new infrastructure. We need to enforce our laws. We need to improve emergency response times. We need to adopt emerging technologies that enhance the four points above.

My job as a councilperson is to champion all five pillars of traffic safety in our policies, plans, programs, and projects. Since joining the council, I have done that. My opponent voted for the policies and plans, but has lacked the courage to follow through with implementation. If you are looking for a council person who believes well done is better than well said, vote for Barnacle.

Mike Healy: Beginning in January and in compliance with new state law, parking will be prohibited near crosswalks; this will improve sightlines for pedestrians and motorists alike.  I also support bulb-outs where appropriate.  Until recently our police department had been issuing an average of six traffic citations per day, which I regard as low.  I have encouraged our police chief to increase that, and recently I have seemed to notice an uptick in traffic enforcement, which is helpful in getting drivers to obey speed limits.  I also support expanding the number of pedestrian activated crosswalk signals.

Lance Kuehne: We need to actually complete some “Complete Streets”, painting lines in the road are not enough. A good place to start would be on South Petaluma Blvd among other places. We should be putting in planter boxes with native plants, planting native trees, putting in bike parking, and putting in benches along the bike lanes to create a physical separation between motor vehicles and bicyclists. I would prioritize “completing" fewer high-priority streets, versus half-measures on a larger number of streets.

Climate Goals

Per the Climate Emergency Framework, Petaluma’s policy goal is to be carbon neutral by 2030. 67% of the city’s emissions are from transportation. The draft Blueprint for Carbon Neutrality states “To reach climate neutrality by 2030, Petaluma will need to … transition 75 percent of all travel trips to modes other than single-occupancy vehicles”. How do you think Petaluma should accomplish this transportation mode shift? As an essential part of this, what changes to public transit are necessary to achieve these goals?

Brian Barnacle: 34% of trips that start in Petaluma are two miles or less. 68% are five miles or less. The potential for mode shifting is significant, especially if our land use practices shift to better support transit. The potential is even more possible because of the rapid proliferation of e-scooters, e-bikes and e-tricycles, which are outselling EVs in the US and delivering far superior climate benefits compared to EVs.

Safe Streets Petaluma has always believed that people should not be expected to sacrifice their or their family’s personal safety for the climate. Hence, we must make our streets safer to shift modes and also prioritize future housing along our major corridors near transit stops so that we provide a ridership base for public transit.

Mike Healy: Getting 67% of travel trips away from cars in 6 years is highly ambitious.  But encouraging more folks to shift to electric or hybrid vehicles will also contribute to the goal of reducing emissions; Petaluma should continue to insist on EV chargers in new construction.  I have been pushing for years for our new Corona SMART station, now finally under construction; that will make it easier for east side residents to commute on SMART.  I do think Petaluma Transit should focus more heavily on first mile / last mile ridership for both SMART stations, to and from SRJC as one example.

Lance Kuehne: We need to create new routes in town that are not highways. One of my priorities would be turning the upper Petaluma River area into a grand park with a crosstown connector (near where Rainier would be) that is exclusively for bikers and pedestrians, and not cars. I would also strongly support making the free bus-fare trial permanent (and expand the routes and publicity around Petaluma’s bus system).

Traffic Congestion

Many Petalumans share that a) people drive too fast and b) traffic congestion gets bad during certain times of day. How do we solve these apparently contradictory problems? How would you trade off optimizing streets for rush hour versus the rest of the day?

Brian Barnacle: I firmly believe that the city’s primary concern must be public safety. Thus, I am always optimizing for safety – there is no tradeoff. The most prevalent example of this was closing the entrance from Pineview onto Lakeville after the last fatality by Kaiser. I sent an email to our Mayor, City Manager, Supervisor, Assembly Member, and Senator saying we must do something. One week later the city closed the street, and saved 1-2 lives per year.

Mike Healy: There are actually multiple rush hours: people beginning and ending work, plus school drop-off and pick-up times.  I don’t believe there is a single solution, but I do support incentivizing fewer car trips.  I would caveat that by saying I prefer carrots over sticks.

Lance Kuehne: We need to create new commercial and social centers of activity in town so that we reduce the need for longer trips that cause traffic congestion (following the concepts of the 15 minute city). The SDAT report created a few years ago, would be an excellent blueprint towards reducing the need for car trips in the first place. When those car trips have been reduced, we can convert more of our current roads into “complete streets”. We don’t need to actively make traffic worse to force people to ride bikes.

Parking

Should car parking change in Petaluma in the coming decade? If so, in what ways? How do you see the interconnected topics of parking, transportation, and land use in our downtown area?

Brian Barnacle: I love this question. Downtown parking is located on prime real estate that should be generating business for our local businesses. Thus, we want to be used. It is taking up prime real estate. On the days/times when it is difficult to find a parking space, it usually means our local businesses have a lot of customers. When there are a half-dozen angled parking spaces vacant on Kentucky Street, it means our downtown has relatively few “feet on the street”.

We are currently implementing a downtown parking study looking at how to optimize our parking resources downtown. The study will look at utilization by zone, day of the week, and time of day. It will look for opportunities to add new angled parking on streets like Liberty by St. Vincent Church and Keller between Washington and Western. It will identify where we need to add ADA spaces to serve our growing senior population, offer ways to ensure employees are not taking prime parking spaces, and lay out a plan for signage that can take people into our parking garages so fewer cars circle blocks looking for parking. It will look at the applicability of permit parking to ensure that as we grow existing residents can continue to park on their street.

We also need to make it safer and more convenient for people to get downtown using alternate modes of transportation: walking, bike, bus, paratransit, microtransit.

Mike Healy: Several years ago the City briefly attempted to charge for parking in the Keller Street garage; the pay kiosks were quickly removed because of public opposition.  I don’t believe the public opposition to paid parking has diminished since then.  I think building housing without any off-street parking – downtown or elsewhere – is horribly ill advised, as one pretty much needs a car to live in this town.

Lance Kuehne: I would support a feasibility study for a revenue neutral parking system that encourages people to park in designated areas so that it is easy for customers to visit popular destinations in town without doing a long search for parking spaces.

Candidate Summary

Given the above context, what are your top priorities for transportation in Petaluma? What is your experience advocating for transportation safety in Petaluma? Recognizing that transportation changes often come down to tough votes for the Petaluma City Council, how will you approach difficult transportation votes?

Brian Barnacle: I have been a safe streets champion since before I was on the council, and certainly since joining. In 2021, I could not get council support to make street safety a priority, so I settled for a small win and got unanimous support to add “safety around schools” as one of our 200+ initiatives. In 2022, I was one of the founding members of Safe Streets Petaluma. I co-authored the initial policy platform that has given rise to our safe streets nomination program, safe routes to school, slow the fast down campaign, reducing speed limits near schools, and investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into low-cost safety improvements across town. When we’ve been faced with tough votes, I’ve stood on the side of safety. My priorities have always been, and will always be, that regardless how you are traveling or where you are traveling, your journey should be safe.

I cannot say the same for my opponents. While Mike Healy has voted for nearly every policy and plan (except reducing speed limits around schools), he has backslid when it comes to implementation. There are countless transportation blunders and worst practices that Mike Healy has approved as part of approving development projects. The recent experience of D Street had him quoting an Argus Courier article written by the lead author of Project 2025’s transportation chapter as his justification for voting against the street safety improvements. Do we want Project 2025 politics on our council?

Mike Healy: I still support pursuing a new cross-town connector that Petaluma can actually afford; that is not the Caulfield connector, with its $56 million funding gap.  It is shameful that the council is wasting $3 million this fiscal year on this unachievable project.  I voted for the recent Fifth Street bicycle improvements because it achieved neighbor buy-in.  Conversely, I voted against the D Street bicycle lanes because removing on-street parking violates Barack Obama’s first rule of politics, which is “Don’t do stupid stuff.”  As mentioned above, I advocated for years for the Corona SMART station despite a developer who was willing to build a station for free further north.  (Farhad really liked “free.”)

Lance Kuehne: I would support a network of “complete streets” throughout Petaluma for citizens to freely travel long distances without being endangered by motor vehicles.

I used to ride my bike 9 miles a day, 5 days a week over the hills of San Francisco for many years, so I have a strong “bicyclist mentality”, even though I ride my bike much less now. Riding a bike, or walking around town shouldn’t be life-threatening.

I would support any initiatives that meet this overall framework.