by Hans Strandgaard
In the early 2000s our family moved from our East Davis home into a larger country property. One of the big selling points for our new home was the nearby Russell Blvd bike path that went all the way into town. I had ridden the Russell path a few times during my years at UC Davis on my way to Lake Berryessa to take a dip in the lake. It was a great ride, and the path was the best part of the ride. My children were very fortunate to attend Fairfield Elementary, a small 2-room and K-3 school in the Davis School District at County Road 96 and Russell Blvd, and very close to our new home. The Russell Blvd bike path offered a short walk or bike ride from our home to the school. But at the time when we moved there, the path was nearly covered in spring by tall weeds reaching over from each side.
Along with our new country property came several large lawns that needed constant mowing and so I bought a Craftsman riding mower which I put to task on the path. I’d pull off the leaf/grass catcher, change to sharpened but used mower blades and head out to the bike path to mow the route to their school. With one set of wheels on the pavement for balance, I was able to cut enough of the weeds on the sides to keep the path clear of weeds, and not tip over on the embankment. At first, I just did the ½ mile or so to our kids’ school, but then, after receiving so many friendly waves and mouthed thank-yous from many cyclists, I extended my mowing further in each direction. Then, a few years later, we got our two yellow labs and walking the path became their great pleasure twice a day. However, there were way too many stickers along the sides getting into their paws, so I decided to mow more frequently to keep the weeds from going to seed. Mowing became a weekend early morning pleasure for me, I listen to NPR while mowing.
Even though the kids are grown up and the dogs have passed, I still mow approximately 3 miles of the path, on both sides, between the First Baptist Church and the former Three Palms Nursery, the western end of the path. I’ve been doing this for 21 years now and have gone through more than a few blades and tires with my trusty old Craftsman.
Unfortunately, the portion of the Russell Blvd Bike path within the County is deteriorating due to lack of maintenance and the underlying swelling clays which cause the pavement to crack. Once water gets into the open cracks in the asphalt they widen further. My understanding is that this, the only Class 1 separated bike path within Yolo County, was first constructed with a government grant in the 70s, but today the County Board of Supervisors authorizes no funds to maintain the path. Gas tax monies that are collected within the County can only be used for the County’s roads and no general funds are currently allocated to the path. Re-paving of the path is sorely needed to preserve it.
The University’s recent improvements to their portion of the path from Highway 113 to the western City of Davis limits are great and Tree Davis’s tree plantings along the western half are creating wonderful shade to much of the path. Wouldn’t it be great to repave the rest of the path all the way to Three Palms Nursery? Or even to extend the path to Winters someday? Please get involved by encouraging the Yolo County Board of Supervisors to apply some general funds monies to further maintain the path. A short section of one of the worst stretches near CR 97 was repaved in early May by the County due to liability concerns and complaints they had received. In order to apply for bicycle grants to maintain and repave this treasure of a path, letters of support can be sent to Todd Riddiough, PE, Public Works Director, 292 West Beamer Street, Woodland, California 95695. Such letters can be useful for him to take to the Board during budgeting as well as to support future bike path grant applications.
Editor’s note: More of the Russell bike path has received new pavement since Hans first wrote this article. It is not clear where the funding for this came from, but the quality of the application of the new asphalt suggests that it was done on a shoestring budget. A general comment on using gas tax money: gas taxes were established to fund the post-WW2 highway system, and for a long time user taxes paid by car drivers did cover construction and maintenance costs. In recent decades, however, some federal (as well as state) gas tax monies have also been allowed to fund mass transit and other transportation including bike lanes. Moreover, gas taxes have not kept up with rising infrastructure costs, requiring larger contributions from the general fund. So the distinction between funding for bike paths versus roads for cars in many cases is more flexible than one might think.