A raised crosswalk is planned where the Sonoma Bike Path crosses Junipero Serra Drive
The crossing is slated to be rebuilt as a raised crosswalk, and the Traffic Safety Committee hears the next update on November 2. The crossing is part of the Go Sonoma citywide bicycle and pedestrian project, which the May staff report says will be fully funded with the adoption of the fiscal 2026-27 budget, with construction funded by a $1.6 million Go Sonoma award for the project as a whole.
SONOMA: The bike path crosses Junipero Serra Drive at grade, where path users meet car traffic on a residential street. The city intends to change that meeting. Its October 16 News and Updates names this crossing as the next piece of work: a raised crosswalk where the path meets the drive, meant to make people on foot and on bikes safer. The Traffic Safety Committee, the body that tracks the project, gets its next briefing on the work on November 2.
The path in question is the town's main off-street route. Sonoma County Tourism describes the Sonoma Bike Path as a Class I bike path, also called the Sonoma City Trail, a rails-to-trails conversion of the route the Sonoma Valley Railroad Company once used through the town of Sonoma, threading neighborhoods and open fields, passing General Mariano Vallejo's home in Sonoma State Historic Park and the Depot Park Museum before it ends at Fourth Street East. Junipero Serra Drive is one of the places where that path meets a residential street carrying car traffic.
One element of a citywide project
The crosswalk is not a one-off. The Traffic Safety Committee agenda packet of May 5, 2026, in a Public Works report from Ashley Cotter, PW Admin and Project Manager, places it inside CIP T-6, the Citywide Bicycle and Pedestrian Improvement Project, the Go Sonoma project, then on track to go to construction in Fall 2026. The packet lists the project's major elements as ADA ramp upgrades at bicycle path crossings, bike path improvements at Fifth Street West, intersection improvements at Studley Street and Fifth Street West, and a bike boulevard installation at Third Street West connecting the Fryer Creek Bike Path to the Sonoma Bike Path, with the raised crosswalk and a traffic circle at Third Street West and Perkins Street among the new traffic elements to be installed.
The staff report explains the choice of treatment. The raised crosswalk detail is in the City's adopted Neighborhood Traffic Calming Toolbox, and is suitable for midblock crossings, high pedestrian areas and residential streets. At Junipero Serra Drive, the report says, the feature is proposed to provide increased visibility for those crossing the bike path, as well as to slow vehicles down as they drive through the location. A 65 percent plan submittal for the raised crosswalk was attached to the May packet.
The money and the next step
The May packet's financial note says the project will be fully funded with the adoption of the fiscal 2026-27 budget, that construction is funded by the Go Sonoma tax measure as a competitive project, and that the City was awarded $1.6 million in funding for construction. The October update is the city telling residents the Junipero Serra piece is moving from plan set toward pavement, under the funding arrangement the May packet described.
The next public step is the November 2 update to the Traffic Safety Committee, the body that reviewed the element in May. Until the work is built, the crossing stays what it has been: an at-grade meeting of the path and a residential street. After it, drivers will feel the path before they see it, which is rather the point of a raised crosswalk.
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