On Lincoln Avenue, the Wait Moves to the Side Streets

Napa's Lincoln Avenue rebuild has mostly been argued as a question of whether one of the city's busiest roads will jam up. The city's own traffic analysis gives a smaller answer. A driver going the full 1.4 miles from California Boulevard to Soscol Avenue should lose about half a minute at the morning peak. The bigger change comes for anyone pulling onto Lincoln from a side street without a signal, and the city expects that wait to get longer.

The new layout takes effect when crews repaint the road. According to The Press Democrat, Public Works Director Jessica Lowe said paving is planned for early November, with striping to follow. That gives Napa a few weeks to learn which parts of the daily drive will change and which won't.

The through trip gets about thirty seconds longer

The Lincoln Avenue Safety and Rehabilitation Project takes the stretch between California Boulevard and Soscol Avenue from four lanes to three. There will be one through lane each way, a continuous two-way center turn lane, dedicated right-turn lanes at major intersections, and wider or buffered bike lanes. City Council approved it on Feb. 3. It's paid for by Measure T, and the council later set the total budget at about $5.7 million, according to the Napa Valley Register.

The city's traffic counts, taken while school was in session, put the heaviest volumes between 8 and 9 a.m., including traffic headed to Napa High School. That hour is the one the city modeled. Here is how the February council report estimates the change in average travel time:

The signals change too. The city plans to retime them with shorter cycle lengths, which the report says will hold the added wait at each light to a few seconds during the morning peak. Some intersections should end up with shorter waits than they have now. The report expects two intersections to drop one grade on the city's level-of-service scale. California Boulevard goes from C to D, and Main Street goes from B to C. Every other signalized intersection on the stretch stays where it is today.

If Lincoln is part of your school-run route, the commute gets slower, but only slightly.

Marin, Kennedy Way and Yajome take the bigger change

The same report names the three places where the wait grows. Delays for drivers entering Lincoln from the unsignalized side streets at Marin Street, Kennedy Way and Yajome Street are expected to increase.

The reason is simple. Today, a driver waiting at one of these corners needs a gap in one of two lanes going each way. After restriping, both directions run in a single lane, so traffic on Lincoln moves as a steadier stream. The report says the new center lane "partially" makes up for this by allowing a two-step left turn. In practice it works like this:

1. Wait for a gap in the lane nearest you and pull into the two-way center turn lane.
2. Stop there, out of the through traffic.
3. Wait for a gap in the lane going your direction and merge in.

So a left turn from Kennedy Way becomes two short waits in a row. You no longer need both directions to clear at the same moment.

Crews have already been working at one of these corners. The city's Oct. 2 roadwork notice scheduled underground utility installation at Lincoln and Marin Street for Oct. 6 and 7. The same notice cut eastbound Lincoln to one lane between Jefferson Street and Soscol Avenue for that week, with sidewalk closures and pedestrian detours. That week is over, and the notice warned that schedules can shift with weather and field conditions.

Why the city accepted a slower Lincoln

The council report is direct about what the city traded for that slower through trip. With one lane each way, cars can no longer weave between lanes, so the gap between the fastest and slowest drivers shrinks. The report says the slower average speed means fewer drivers going over the limit.

It also points to what it calls the "double-threat" at crosswalks. On a road with two lanes going the same way, a car stopped for someone in the crosswalk can block the view of a driver coming up in the next lane. A single lane in each direction removes that blind spot. The new layout also moves bus stops out of the through lane.

The city's Local Roadway Safety Plan ranked Lincoln among Napa's top 10 high-injury corridors, The Press Democrat reported. When Senior Traffic Engineer Farid Javandel presented the project to council on Feb. 3, he put it this way:

"This is not where we want to be. We want to be one of the safer cities, not one of the least safe cities."

Not everyone in town agreed. The Press Democrat noted that some community members opposed the plan because they worried about congestion. The council report records that concern along with questions about delays for emergency responders. It says city staff consulted police and fire on the design.

What changes along the curb by Napa High

The plan changed in visible ways between its first showing in April 2025 and the vote in February. The Napa Valley Register reported that the city dropped a parking-protected bike lane on the north side of Lincoln near Napa High School. The council report explains the reason. People raised concerns about visibility and about getting in and out of parked cars next to moving traffic. Nobody parks along that curb now, so dropping the plan costs no existing spaces.

Here is what goes in along the corridor instead:

• Jefferson to Kennedy, westbound: a painted buffer with flexible bollards along the bike lane, meant to keep cars from parking or driving in it.
• Westbound bus stop south of the high school: buses will pull out of the traffic lane, and the bike lane will run behind the boarding area. The stop also shifts slightly away from the intersection to improve visibility for people crossing the street.
• Signalized intersections: green bike boxes, which give cyclists a visible place to wait in front of stopped cars at a red light.
• Railroad crossing to Soscol, south side: a bike lane with parked cars between it and traffic, on a long block with no side streets and only one driveway. The parking lane is wider than first drawn, and it has painted buffers on both sides of the parked cars.

The high school stretch is where the redesign matters most for people on foot and on bikes. A study by the Napa Valley Transportation Authority found an area of extremely high risk for people walking and biking near Napa High along Jefferson Street and Lincoln Avenue.

The new lanes start with the striping, not the paving

Right now the work is mostly below the surface. City spokesperson Jaina French told The Press Democrat that most of the work is underground utilities and concrete: sidewalks and ADA-compliant ramps. The Register's report adds underground stormwater infrastructure to that list.

The layout changes when the lines are painted. Lowe told the Register that striping puts the new lane layout into effect. The current plan is paving in early November, then striping. Lowe told The Press Democrat the paving could take three to four weeks, and that cold weather or an early rainy season could hold it up. She said it is too early to set a completion date. Past years show how much that can vary. One year city crews paved into December, and last year paving wrapped up around October.

East of Soscol, nothing changes yet. A later phase will carry the work from Soscol Avenue to Silverado Trail, but only after flood project construction around the Napa River bridge on Lincoln is finished. The council report gives no date for that phase.

For lane closures week by week, Public Works posts roadwork updates on the City of Napa Public Works page. Drawings and project background are on the city's Lincoln Avenue project page.

If you live off Marin Street, Kennedy Way or Yajome Street and the new left turn has you thinking about where your household would be better placed, Frontline Network can help you weigh it. We look at your daily routes, your budget and your financing together, in English or Spanish. Get pre-approved and book a consultation, and we'll start with the drive you make every morning.