The recent announcement of nearly $300 million in highway safety improvement funding across California raises an important question about resource distribution. While the governor’s most recent press release proudly declares improvements will stretch from “Del Norte County in the north to San Diego County in the south and communities everywhere in between,” a closer examination of the project list reveals a notable gap: Siskiyou County.
Siskiyou County, California’s fifth-largest county by land area, sits along the Oregon border, home to Mount Shasta and over 44,000 residents spread across its rural expanse. Yet in this cycle of transportation safety funding, Siskiyou appears completely absent from the 288 approved projects.
This omission is particularly striking when neighboring counties like Del Norte, Trinity, and Humboldt received multiple funded projects. For a rural county with significant highway mileage and challenging mountain roads that face severe winter conditions, the lack of allocated resources is concerning.
The distribution of public safety resources should ideally reach all Californians, particularly those in areas where emergency services are already stretched thin by geography. For residents navigating Siskiyou’s winding mountain passes during winter storms or traveling its long stretches of rural highways, safety improvements aren’t just conveniences – they’re potentially lifesaving.
As California continues promoting equitable distribution of infrastructure funding, addressing these geographic gaps becomes increasingly important. Perhaps in future funding cycles, we’ll see Siskiyou County’s transportation safety needs addressed alongside those of its northern California neighbors.
