May 2021 - CalBike

Full Assembly to Vote on AB 1238, to Decriminalize Jaywalking

May 31, 2021/by Jared Sanchez

May 31, 2021

For Immediate Release

Contact:

CalBike: Jared Sanchez, jared@calbike.org | 714-262-0921
California Walks: Caro Jauregui, caro@calwalks.org | 562-320-2139
Los Angeles Walks: John Yi, john@losangeleswalks.org | 213-219-2483

AB 1238 To Decriminalize Jaywalking to California Assembly Floor Vote

Sacramento – The Freedom to Walk Act, a bill to eliminate jaywalking laws in California, will be up for a vote on the Assembly floor this week. Authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting of San Francisco, AB 1238 will make it legal for pedestrians in California to make mid-block crossings and cross against traffic lights, provided they don’t interfere with traffic.

“The Freedom to Walk Act is a necessary step to right historic injustices,” said Jared Sanchez, CalBike Senior Policy Advocate. Jaywalking citations are disproportionately issued to Black Californians – they are up to 4.3 times more likely to be stopped than their white counterparts. CalBike is a leader among a coalition of more than 85 groups and individuals who support the repeal of jaywalking laws.

“Decriminalizing jaywalking will remove an opportunity for biased policing, and get rid of an unjust burden from low-income California residents, who can least afford to pay the fines and who are more likely to live in neighborhoods that lack infrastructure for people who walk, making jaywalking unavoidable,” Sanchez said.

“The incredible rate at which pedestrians are dying from crashes should compel us to understand why fellow Californians navigate as such, not criminalize them. This is just the first of many steps in our fight to provide all those who walk and roll with a little more dignity. We look forward to the work ahead,” shared John Yi, Executive Director of Los Angeles Walks.

“We must correct historical wrongs. We hope our legislators commit to creating safe public spaces by changing policies that have disregarded the safety, existence, and joy of primarily low-income people of color across the state. This bill will begin to do that by ensuring that people forced to ‘jaywalk’ are not punished due to the decades of intentional poor infrastructure in their neighborhoods,” said Caro Jauregui, Co-Executive Director of California Walks.

CalBike, California Walks, and Los Angeles Walks are sponsoring the Freedom to Walk Act, which has strong support from a broad base of community organizations. Supporters include the Greenlining Institute, NACTO, ACLU California Action, and Disability Rights California.

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CalBike Insider: Street Safety, Budget Surplus, and the Death of a Good Idea

May 21, 2021/by Kevin Claxton

A great deal of the work your CalBike staff does in Sacramento is behind the scenes. We attend technical advisory committee meetings, advise senior (and junior) staff on best practices, and nudge state agencies to advance in our direction: toward better communities where more people can experience the healthful joy of bicycling, with equity, prosperity, and inclusion as top priorities. This week we’ve been reflecting on advances at Caltrans, advocating for active transportation allocations from the budget surplus, and mourning the speed camera bill, which died in committee.

Some of our work is necessarily private, but here’s what we can tell you.

Caltrans is Making Progress

Changing a huge bureaucracy is often difficult. It’s been a slow process to transform Caltrans from an agency that safeguards the interests of cars to one that responds to our current challenges, and there is much more work still to be done.

However, under the leadership of Toks Omishakin, Caltrans has impressed us with structural changes. One great example is the creation of a high-level Division of Safety Programs and the appointment of longtime bicycle advocate Rachel Carpenter as its Chief Safety Officer. Carpenter previously worked on Livable Streets at SFMTA and she’s a regular bike commuter. The division will bring additional focus to the goal of zero traffic deaths. This should have influence over other offices within Caltrans which impact safety, such as Traffic Operations and the Division of Design.

Budget surplus provides an opportunity to fund active transportation projects

California’s May Budget Revision showed a $76 billion surplus, with $38 billion in discretionary spending. The competition for that money is fierce. It’s the source of the $600 checks that most Californians will receive, and a welcome boost to early childhood education and afterschool programs. It’s also a great source for infrastructure funding, especially since it’s a one-time boost. The competitive statewide portion of the Active Transportation Program is funded annually at about $220 million. In 2020, California communities submitted applications for $2.3 billion of projects. It desperately needs an infusion of cash.

Yet active transportation advocates had mixed reactions to a proposal from a cohort of California Transportation Commissioners with ties to the road-building industry. The commissioners asked for an incredible $2 billion infusion into the ATP. However, their intention was to derail an earlier proposal suggested by the California State Transportation Agency in its draft “Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure” that called for an ongoing increase in the ATP by taking a little bit from other programs that mostly fund highways.

Advocates promote an alternate proposal for the budget surplus

CalBike and our allies made an alternative proposal to the Budget Committees, seeking $1 billion for the ATP and an additional $1 billion for other active transportation projects, such as the 15-minute neighborhoods and bicycle highways envisioned by AB 1147.

The governor’s May revision proposed a $500 million augmentation to the ATP and $500 million for regions to implement the goals of AB 1147, although the governor’s proposal is not as visionary as that bill imagines.

This week, CalBike is advocating to win our original request of $1 billion for the ATP and $1 billion for other active transportation projects. The coalition of road builders has joined us in asking for $1 billion for the ATP, but we parted ways on the additional funding for the programs that expand highway capacity that the road builders wanted.

Whatever happens, it looks like the ATP will get a huge infusion of funds. By law, half of the funds enter the statewide competition and half are distributed to local agencies. The state’s portion of the funding will help to implement scores of projects that were unfunded in last year’s round. Also, CalBike will continue to advocate for a longer-term solution to the underfunding of the ATP. The governor’s proposed expenditures on transportation in the next fiscal year are $32.6 billion. Unfortunately, much of this is for highways and other subsidies for driving that make bicycling and walking harder. The ATP does not stand a chance to achieve its goals unless the balance of funding shifts.

CalBike endorses speed camera bill, but the Appropriations Committee does not

AB 550 proposed a pilot project to test the efficacy of speed cameras in several California cities. The bill would have required local agencies to develop guidelines for the program with strict limitations that ensured the system would not increase inequities in California. Fines would have to be low, and only charged at speeds 10 mph or more over the speed limit. Fines could not have additional fees tacked on. The car owner would get the fine, like a parking ticket. Police would not be allowed to be involved. The bill also put privacy controls in place.

The bill’s author, Assembly Member David Chiu, did such a good job addressing these equity concerns that we were excited to support it. Camera speed enforcement reduces crashes and saves lives, and it might be the only acceptable solution to scofflaw speeders on certain streets.

However, the Appropriations Committee killed the bill at its May 20 hearing. The committee didn’t offer any clues for their reason for killing this bill, but the demise of AB 550 is a loss for safe streets. CalBike supports the concept of speed safety systems. If another bill is introduced that addresses equity concerns as comprehensively as AB 550, we’ll support it.

Webinar: A National Discussion on Decriminalizing Jaywalking

May 20, 2021/by Jared Sanchez

On May 3, 2021, CalBike co-hosted a national panel discussion on decriminalizing jaywalking. Leading academics, advocates, and legislators discussed local efforts to end the enforcement of jaywalking. They shared lessons learned and steps to success.

CalBike has joined a surging national movement to repeal unjust jaywalking laws by co-sponsoring the Freedom to Walk Act (AB 1238, Ting). More and more cities and states are rethinking rules that criminalize walking. From Virginia to California to Kansas City, decriminalizing jaywalking is no longer a radical idea but an increasingly viable policy proposal.

The discussion included:

Nine reasons to decriminalize jaywalking from Charles Brown of Equitable Cities
Michael Kelley on how BikeWalkKC used a review of the municipal code ordered by Kansas City’s mayor as an opening for decriminalizing mobility
Writer Angie Schmitt on shifting the responsibility for safety from individuals to system designers
And much, much more

You can watch the full presentation here:

These national efforts highlight the need to protect vulnerable pedestrians against racially biased, pretextual policing, inequitable fees and fines, and unnecessary and potentially lethal interactions with law enforcement. More and more cities, counties, and states are considering repealing jaywalking laws. And the movement to ensure that safe and accessible walking is a key component of a sustainable transportation system continues to grow stronger.

Kansas City becomes the first to repeal jaywalking laws

Since our national discussion, Kansas City, MO, became the first city in the country to repeal its jaywalking laws. This repeal followed strong efforts from BikeWalkKC. We hope that CalBike’s campaign will make California the first state to decriminalize jaywalking statewide.

Eliminating jaywalking laws is an important step towards a more just society. Protests following George Floyd’s murder by a police officer led to a movement to re-examine the role of policing in our communities. As part of this reflection, jurisdictions began to look at discriminatory enforcement of jaywalking laws. Examination of jaywalking citations in Kansas City clearly showed that Black pedestrians were disproportionately targeted. The City Council’s repeal removes a tool for biased policing.

CalBike is committed to reforming traffic laws to reduce inequities and racially biased policing. Eliminating laws against jaywalking is an essential step toward this goal. By co-sponsoring the Freedom to Walk Act, we hope to end the enforcement of unjust jaywalking laws in California. At the same time, this will facilitate healthy and safe travel modes that are necessary to meet California’s environmental goals.

Last Chance For Input into Bike Tourism Initiative

May 17, 2021/by Kevin Claxton

“They come here to bike.” Those words will be on the lips of residents of five counties if local agencies implement the recommendations of CalBike and its partners for improvements to the roads and services for bike tourists in San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Tuolumne, and Alpine counties.

The recommendations are being finalized this week. Learn about them at the last public meeting on Tuesday, May 25.

Click here to join the meeting. Click here to download a calendar event (.ics).

The meeting will discuss proposed improvements in five areas:

San Joaquin County: Woodbridge/Lodi Area
Proposed Bike Trail: EBMUD Aqueduct

Stanislaus County: Oakdale/Knights Ferry
Proposed Bike Trail: River Trail

Calaveras County: SR-4 Murphys – Angels Camp Corridor
Proposed Bike Trail: Angels Camp to New Melones Reservoir

Tuolumne County: Jamestown-Columbia-Sonora Loop

Alpine County: Safety on State Routes

This is your opportunity to tell us about your cycling experiences in the targeted areas. You’ll be able to present your ideas and identify needed road improvements based on your observations.

You can’t come, but have ideas? That’s OK. Send your ideas about priority improvements, attractions to highlight, or anything else, to rob@calbike.org.

For more information on the project, visit bikevalleytosierra.com

Studies Show Increases in Biking and Bike Safety in Numbers

May 11, 2021/by Kevin Claxton

A spate of new studies has shown that both biking and bike safety grew during the pandemic. The research found that more bikes on the streets leads to safer biking and that “build it and they will come” works well for cycling infrastructure. Perhaps the most exciting of the recent studies broke down bike ridership data from 2020 and found that the increase in cycling was greater than the aggregate numbers indicate.

Here are summaries of this exciting new research about biking and bike safety over the past year.

COVID-19 impacts on cycling, 2019–2020

Ralph Buehler, a professor and chair of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech, and John Pucher, Professor Emiriats of Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, collaborated on COVID-19 Impacts on Cycling, 2019–2020. The researchers, whose work CalBike has highlighted before, drilled down into the data on increased cycling during the pandemic to reveal a more nuanced picture of the increase in bike ridership.

In the U.S., for example, 12% more people rode bikes in 2020 than in 2019. However, fewer people rode during commute times in cities like Portland, OR, and Washington, DC, dragging down the average. In addition, fewer people biked in specific locations as governments instituted lockdowns and people stayed home during regional COVID flareups. The researchers found similar patterns in cities around the world.

In reality, cycling numbers weren’t steady in 2020 but varied widely in response to local pandemic conditions. When you exclude lockdown periods, the increase in bike ridership is dramatic, almost doubling in Paris and increasing by 17% in New York City.

“If anything good came out of the COVID pandemic, then it is that communities redesigned streets for the use of cyclists, pedestrians, and outdoor socializing,” Buehler told CalBike. This has shown us that we can use street space for things other than cars. This new use is healthier, more pleasurable, and more sustainable.”

“The COVID crisis has demonstrated dramatically the crucial importance of cycling, both as a backup alternative to public transit and as an extremely healthy, safe, and immunity-enhancing form of physical activity for physical, mental, and social health,” Pucher added.

Safety in numbers for cyclists

If you have ever done a group bike ride or just ridden a city street where bikes outnumber cars, you know the feeling of safety and increased visibility from sharing the road with lots of bikes. A new study from the Department of Safety and the Environment Institute of Transport Economics in Oslo, Norway, gives us the data to back that up.

Unlike other studies of the correlation between increases in biking and bike safety, this research was able to control for other factors affecting safety. It used seasonal variations in bike ridership at fixed locations to determine safety in numbers. Notably, the study counted instances of car drivers failing to see bike riders and near-misses that didn’t result in collisions. This is critical because, while collisions between bikes and cars may be infrequent, daily near-misses create a justifiable sense of danger among bike riders.

The study found that, as the cycling season progressed and other road users expected to encounter bikes on the road, there were fewer near-misses. The more bikes there were, the more drivers saw bikes and were able to coexist safely with riders.

Next time you’re in a local planning meeting and someone says that creating facilities that encourage biking will endanger people who bike, you can cite this study. It’s great to have concrete evidence that the more people ride bikes, the safer all bike riders are on the streets.

Provisional COVID-19 infrastructure induces large, rapid increases in cycling

The world’s pandemic year provided a laboratory for researchers to study the effects of better infrastructure on cycling adoption without waiting years for cities to build new bike lanes. Researchers used data from bike counters in 106 European cities to study the effects of pop-up COVID bike lanes on ridership.

The study found that bike riding rose between 11% and 48%, according to data from 736 bicycle counters. Those numbers may be too low since they don’t account for lockdown periods as Buehler and Pucher’s research did. Even using these numbers, the researchers estimated that the bicycling infrastructure added to these cities during the pandemic will pay off, leading to health benefits valued between $1 billion and $7 billion per year.

Increases in biking and bike safety don’t only benefit the health of people who ride and their local communities. A new study that assessed the economics of electric vehicle purchase incentives found that e-bikes are the best investment for the climate as well.

Advocates’ Budget Ask for Active Transportation

May 11, 2021/by Andrew Wright

CalBike signed on to this letter in support of the California Transportation Commission’s request for $2 billion of supplemental funding for active transportation projects. Our letter, joined by key long-term allies in advocacy for active transportation, differs from the Commission’s request in that it suggests spending half of that $2 billion on unfunded applications in the last cycle of the Active Transportation Program instead of three-quarters of the funding. We agree the balance of the funding should be used for bicycle highways and complete bicycle networks as suggested in AB 147

Read the full sign-on letter. Click here for a list of all sign-on letters.

E-Bikes Are the Best Climate Investment for California

May 10, 2021/by Kevin Claxton

DATE May 10, 2021

CONTACT:
Dave Snyder, Executive Director, California Bicycle Coalition, 916-251-9433, dave@calbike.org

STUDY: E-Bikes Are the Best Climate Investment for California

SACRAMENTO – A recent study found that subsidies for electric bikes are more cost-effective than electric car incentives at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from private cars. Yet very few programs to incentivize the uptake of the best climate investment exist. As lawmakers in California contemplate billions of dollars in spending to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from private cars, including $1.5 billion to subsidize electric cars, they have a chance to also support electric bikes with a bill being advanced by the Assembly.

AB 117, the E-Bike Affordability Bill (Boerner Horvath), would establish a pilot program to incentivize the purchase of electric bicycles as a means of reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT), reducing air, water, and noise pollution, and helping Californians get more exercise. To implement the program, legislators must allocate $10 million in the budget being negotiated among the capital’s leaders this month.

“If California is serious about tackling climate change, promoting e-bikes needs to be front and center,” said Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath, the bill’s author. “E-bikes help us cut out shorter car trips, reduce emissions, and move closer to our ambitious climate goals. Now is the time to make e-bikes affordable for all Californians.”

“Compared to EVs, e-bikes are carbon crushers. This fact adds urgency to the effort to help communities move away from car dependence and its terrible impacts,” said Dave Snyder, Executive Director of the California Bicycle Coalition, the sponsor of the E-Bike Affordability Act. “If California’s climate investments are supposed to prioritize solutions that have additional benefits, then this is a no-brainer. Investing in biking makes people healthier and happier, improves traffic safety, and reduces traffic congestion.”

The study focused on the greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts of subsidies for electric bikes, battery-electric cars, and plug-in hybrid electric cars in Oregon. It found that e-bike subsidies, like those in CalBike’s proposed $10M E-Bike Affordability Program, were the most cost-effective way to reduce GHG emissions.

Even with rebates, most Californians can’t afford electric cars. Fewer than 1% of vehicles registered in California today are all-electric. The E-Bike Affordability Program provides purchase incentives targeted at low-income residents, putting zero-emissions transportation within reach for many more Californians. Plus, e-bikes plug into a regular wall outlet and cost about $0.01 per mile to operate — no need for charging stations.

“Electric bicycles (e-bikes) have been found to offer a promising solution to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) impact of a region’s passenger transportation system….The literature shows that despite having slightly higher lifecycle emissions than conventional bicycles, privately owned e-bikes emit far less than other motorized modes.”
From The E-Bike Potential: Estimating regional e-bike impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, Published in Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, October 2020

Proposed Law Would Bring the 15-Minute City and Bicycle Highways in California

May 7, 2021/by Kevin Claxton

Despite ambitious goals, California has made little progress toward building safe and convenient bike routes. Safe bikeways don’t connect the destinations people need to reach. Roads and intersections that prioritize cars make bike trips unpleasant at best, dangerous at worst. A bill working its way through the legislature could change this landscape. AB 1147 (Friedman) would emphasize people-centric concepts like 15-minute cities and bicycle highways in new transportation plans.

California’s investments in active transportation infrastructure are not big enough nor strategic enough to create genuinely bike-friendly communities. However, one of California’s strongest champions for bicycling, Assembly Transportation Committee Chair Laura Friedman, has introduced a bill that could make a huge difference.

AB 1147 would hold regions accountable for their goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. It provides tools and incentives to achieve these goals, including a new block grant program that has CalBike very excited.

Onramp to the bicycle highway

The block grant program in AB 1147 supports two kinds of planning and infrastructure efforts. One is inspired by the idea of a 15-minute city. A 15-minute city is a place where practically everything people need is accessible by a 15-minute bike ride or walk. The other is a program to fund the development of bicycle highways.

We’ll repeat that since you probably just dropped your coffee: bicycle highways. A bicycle highway is a limited access, fast-moving, separated route for bikes only. Imagine riding across town without dodging cars or pedestrians.

Of the few examples in the United States, the Minneapolis Midtown Greenway best illustrates a separated bikeway connected to the street grid by highway-style ramps. Bicycle highways create safe places for the majority of people who don’t feel safe sharing streets with cars. At the same time, they also serve confident riders who seek fast and convenient bike trips.

The bill’s grant program for 15-minute cities could provide funding for CalBike’s proposed bikeway network grant program. The program would provide substantial funding to communities willing to design safe bikeways that offer continuous connections to key destinations. It would also include incentives to avoid the compromises that create roadblocks in otherwise connected networks. For example, the bill would discourage city officials from refusing to approve parking or traffic lane removal that’s necessary to bridge a gap in an otherwise safe, low-stress bikeway network.

What is a 15-minute city?

Friedman’s grant program may be Inspired by the commitment of the Parisian mayor to make Paris a 15-minute city. A 15-minute city is a city where residents can reach the services they need within 15 minutes without getting in a car. The 15-minute city requires mixed-use zoning where grocery stores and other shops, schools, medical offices, and workspaces are situated among or near residences.

Cities use different definitions of the 15-minute city radius: it could be walking distance, biking distance, or 15 minutes on public transit.

That’s why Friedman suggested that the Strategic Growth Council (SGC) host the 15-minute city grant program. The SGC brings together people from multiple state agencies to coordinate efforts to create a more sustainable California. AB 1147 would fund multi-faceted planning and land-use changes needed to increase density. This will bring key destinations closer to where people live. The 15-minute city could be coming to a neighborhood near you if AB 1147 becomes law.

Next steps for AB 1147

This bill is a wonky piece of legislation with dozens of provisions about compliance and policies and process. It only has a number, not a name. But sometimes visionary change comes in a deceptively bland wrapper. Assembly Bill 1147 is a truly innovative piece of legislation that could open the door to more liveable communities, more humane commutes, and stronger neighborhoods.

CalBike strongly supports the concepts of bicycle highways and 15-minute cities. We are working with legislators to ensure the bikeway network concepts in AB 1147 are clearly defined and fully funded.

Initially, funding for the projects in this bill was slated to come from the Active Transportation Program (ATP). However, the ATP is already oversubscribed. We don’t want to see funding stripped from other worthy active transportation projects to meet the very worthy goals of this initiative. Instead, a group of nonprofits is asking that the funding come from California’s $15 billion budget surplus.

We are excited to watch the evolution of this revolutionary bill. Stay tuned for opportunities to voice your support as it makes its way through the legislature and to the governor’s desk.