Senate Transportation Committee to Hear Bill to Decriminalize Jaywalking

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For Immediate Release: June 25, 2012

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

Freedom to Walk Act to Decriminalize Jaywalking in Senate Transportation Committee, June 29 

SACRAMENTO – The Freedom to Walk Act, a bill to eliminate jaywalking laws in California, will be heard on Tuesday, 6/29/21 in the California Senate Transportation Committee.

AB 1238 will make it legal for pedestrians in California to cross mid-block and against traffic lights, provided they don’t interfere with traffic. The bill is authored by Assemblymember Phil Ting of San Francisco. CalBike and a coalition of more than 85 groups and individuals support the repeal of jaywalking laws.

“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,” shared John Yi, Executive Director of Los Angeles Walks.

Jared Sanchez, CalBike Senior Policy Advocate said, “Jaywalking citations are disproportionately issued to Black Californians – they are up to 4.3 times more likely to be stopped than their White counterparts. Decriminalizing jaywalking will remove an opportunity for biased policing, and get rid of an unjust burden on 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.”

“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 is overdue. 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, Los Angeles Walks, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area are sponsoring the Freedom to Walk Act, which has strong support from a broad base of community organizations. Supporters include the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network, Community Legal Services of East Palo Alto, Asian Pacific Islander Forward Movement, and Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice. Several city officials have expressed their support for decriminalizing jaywalking, including the Emeryville City Council. 

AB1238 was passed by the California State Assembly with a floor vote of 58-16 on June 2, 2021.

CA Senate Transportation Considers Bicycle Safety Stop

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For Immediate Release: 6/25/21

Contact:

Dave Snyder, 916-251-9433, dave@calbike.org

Jared Sanchez, 714-262-0921, jared@calbike.org

CA Senate Transportation Considers Bicycle Safety Stop on Tuesday, June 29

SACRAMENTO – The Bicycle Safety Stop Bill (AB 122, Boerner Horvath, Friedman, Ting) will be heard in the California Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday, June 29, 2021.

The bill will replace the requirement that people on bikes stop at stop signs with a requirement to yield and slow and stop if necessary for safety, including to yield the right of way to pedestrians. More than 75 organizations across the state signed a letter in support of the bill. The California Bicycle Coalition created a video that explains how bicycle safety stops work in the real world. The bicycle stop-as-yield is proven to increase safety for people on bikes.

“The Bicycle Safety Stop Bill doesn’t change existing right-of-way laws. Instead, AB 122 reforms the rules of the road to accommodate the safe and logical bike riding that people are already doing. It also removes a pretext for police to harass Black Californians,” said Dave Snyder, Executive Director of CalBike.

“To cut down on car emissions, promote healthy living, and improve equity, we need neighborhoods that encourage safe bicycle riding,” said Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath, the bill’s original author. “We know from the example of other states that when riders are allowed to yield at stop signs, they choose safer streets and will spend less time in dangerous intersections. It’s time for California to live up to its values and start encouraging — not penalizing — smart riding in our state.”  

In April, the California Assembly voted 53 to 11 in favor of the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill.

If AB 122 becomes law, California will join the list of states that have implemented the safety stop: Idaho, Delaware, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Delaware, Arkansas, Utah, and North Dakota. None of those states has reported any safety problems with the new rule. A recent study in Delaware found that collisions involving bicycles at intersections decreased by 23% since the safety stop became legal.

Unnecessary laws that are difficult to follow pose a risk of traffic stops with tragic endings for people riding bikes, especially Black people.

Bicycle Safety Stop Has Support of California Cities

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The Bicycle Safety Stop Bill (AB 122, Boerner Horvath) passed the Assembly with solid support in April, but opposition is building in the Senate. So elected city councilors across California are voicing their support for the bill. They recognize the importance of having state laws that conform to the ways their residents safely bicycle through intersections with stop signs: yielding as appropriate, stopping when necessary, but otherwise safely rolling through.

“The state should be doing everything in its power to encourage more people to bike in order to reduce driving and climate change impacts from transportation, improve public health, and improve air quality,” said Katie Valenzuela of the Sacramento City Council. “AB 122 aligns with the sustainability goals of the City of Sacramento by removing obstacles to safe and reasonable biking. We should be encouraging — not penalizing — smart riding in our state.”

Bob Blumenfield of the Los Angeles City Council says that AB 122 is “common-sense legislation that will align State law with the way that people safely ride their bikes today and, at no cost, make our local neighborhood streets more conducive to bicycling.” He is careful to add that it’s also important that Los Angeles is “working to build out a network of bike paths, bike lanes, and other physical infrastructure.”

Rigel Robinson of the Berkeley City Council notes that his city’s deprioritizing enforcement against bicycles who yield but don’t stop at stop signs is not enough. “State action is needed to fully exempt bicyclists from this law and focus instead on motorist behaviors that pose a true threat to safety,” he said.

These officials represent just a few of the cities whose city councils have quickly managed formal votes in support of AB 122. Numerous California cities have taken positions in favor of the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill, including:

  • Berkeley
  • Corona
  • Cupertino
  • Emeryville
  • Encinitas
  • Folsom
  • Los Angeles
  • Sacramento
  • San Luis Obispo
  • Santa Barbara
  • West Hollywood
  • West Sacramento
  • Woodland

League of California Cities Transportation Committee Supports AB 122

Another indication that city leaders understand the importance of the bicycle safety stop is the June 4 vote to support AB 122 by a committee of the League of California Cities, a statewide policy and advocacy organization that opposed a similar bill in 2017. 

Its Transportation, Communications, and Public Works Policy Committee includes John Bauters,  Emeryville Council Member and a lifelong cyclist. He came prepared to explain the benefits of the Bicycle Safety Stop to his fellow committee members. He explained how stopping at stop signs can endanger bike riders because stopping and restarting increase the chance of a rider stumbling and falling and because impatient car drivers are more likely to cut bikers off. He explained how the average person on a bike travels through an intersection at 5 to 7 mph and can quickly stop if necessary and explained that car drivers are more likely to see a moving bike rider because movement makes objects easier to spot. 

As one of the only regular bike riders on the committee, he understood that the bicycle safety stop isn’t intuitive for non-riders. He answered questions from his fellow committee members and gave a shout-out to them on Twitter for being willing to ask questions and understand the issue. 

The Committee voted 22-7 in favor of AB 122.  The League’s executive committee still must weigh in before the organization takes an official position. 

“I’m hopeful that the League Executive Board will support the recommendation because it’s a smart measure for cities,” Bauters said. So are we.

“After COVID, cities have seen that more and more people are relying on active transportation to perform and complete daily trips and tasks,” Bauters said. “AB 122 is a sensible measure that will make the roads safer to Californians who bicycle.”

What you can do to support the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill

If you want to see California join Oregon and Washington states (among others) in making the safety stop law, there are several ways to get involved.

  • Lobby your town or city to take a position in favor of AB 122 (and let CalBike know if you succeed).
  • Email your senator and ask them to support the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill. It just takes a minute to send an email with our action tool.
  • Post your support on social media using the hashtag #BicycleSafetyStop. Feel free to add the graphic below to your post.

We are optimistic that we can pass the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill this year – but we’ll need your support to make it happen. 

Call to Action for Bike-Friendly California Legislation

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The many bike-friendly bills CalBike is tracking and the one bad bill we are opposing are moving through the Senate after passing the Assembly. Several of them have hearings in the next two weeks. CalBike is reaching out strategically to our members who have legislators on key Senate Committees: Transportation, and Judiciary. If you are one of those people, your call or email to your State Senator could make the difference in making California more bikeable, our streets safer for all users, and future generations safer from the climate crisis. 

If your senator isn’t on one of those committees, we’ll be sure to tell you when the issue is up for a floor vote and it’s time for you to reach out.  

Want to do something now? Make a donation to support this critical work. Any amount makes a difference.  

Here’s your guide to emailing and calling to help push bike-friendly bills forward.

AB 371: Save Bike-Share

This bill would impose burdensome and unprecedented insurance requirements on bike-share and scooter-share operators. CalBike would like to see bike and scooter sharing become elements of public transportation systems, operated by transit authorities and priced like other forms of transit. AB 371 would take California in the opposite direction. If it passes, no shared mobility systems, public or private, will be able to operate in our state.

Status:

In the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Hearing Date:

TBD (postponed from 6/22)

Take Action:

  • Use CalBike’s tool to email your senator and tell them to vote NO on AB 371.
  • The bill will come before the Senate Judiciary Committee soon. If your senator is on the committee, call them and urge them to kill AB 371 in committee. Here’s the list of committee members:

AB 122, the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill

Also known as the Idaho stop, the bicycle safety stop allows people on bikes to treat stop signs as yields. The safety stop has been proven to reduce collisions involving bicyclists in states that have adopted it. AB 122 (Boerner Horvath) easily passed the Assembly, but it’s meeting more opposition in the Senate.

Status:

In Senate Transportation Committee

Hearing Date:

Tuesday, 6/29/21

Take Action:

AB 1238, the Freedom to Walk Act

The Freedom to Walk Act would repeal California’s unjust jaywalking laws. These laws shift blame for unsafe driving from car drivers to walkers, are unfairly enforced against Black Californians, and initiate potentially deadly police interactions. AB 1238 (Ting) is an essential step toward safer streets for all.

Status:

In Senate Transportation Committee

Hearing Date:

Tuesday, 6/29/21

Take Action:

AB 117, the E-Bike Affordability Act

CalBike’s E-Bike Affordability Program would help 10,000 low-income Californians buy the cleanest electric vehicle: an electric bike. AB 117 (Boerner Horvath) creates the program, and the budget process will provide the funding to make it happen.

Status:

In Senate Transportation Committee and ongoing budget negotiations

Hearing Date:

Thursday, 6/24/21

Take Action:

AB 1147, Reform Regional Active Transportation Planning

This visionary bill would pave the way for 15-minute neighborhoods and bicycle freeways. AB 1147 (Friedman) will incentivize the kinds of changes California needs to make our communities more livable and climate-resilient.

Status:

In Senate Environmental Quality Committee and ongoing budget negotiations

Hearing Date:

Thursday, 7/1/21

Take Action:

  • Sign CalBike’s petition in support of AB 1147’s forward-thinking active transportation planning reforms
  • If your senator is on the Environmental Quality Committee, contact them and ask them to vote YES on AB 1147:

More bills to watch

AB 43 (Friedman): Changes the 85 percentile rule to allow communities to set lower speed limits

Status:

In Senate Transportation Committee

Hearing Date:

Tuesday, 7/13/21

AB 1401 (Friedman): Ends mandated parking minimums for new buildings near transit, moving California away from the car dependency that’s driving the climate crisis.

Status:

In Senate Governance and Finance Committee

Hearing Date:

Not yet set

Take Action:

  • Sign CalBike’s petition in support of AB 1401 and ending parking minimums near transit.

Contact the Senate Transportation Committee

Senate Transportation Committee members:

Join CalBike’s list to get timely updates on all the bills you care about.

Check out CalBike’s Legislative Watch page for an update on all the bills we’re working on.

E-bike incentive program budget request

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CalBike, joined by dozens of allied organizations across the state, submitted a letter of support for Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath’s request for a budget allocation to implement the proposed e-bike incentive program. The letter and its accompanying fact sheet express the consensus of a diversity of organizations that a $10 million investment in helping Californians get e-bikes is a great way to advance very many goals: climate change reduction, social equity, health and happiness, local economic sustainability, and traffic safety.

Dozens of organizations signed on, including statewide, regional, and local advocates for environmental sustainability, equity, and transportation justice; as well as influential public officials and agencies.

CalBike Insider Header

AB 43 Will Allow Reduced Speed Limits for Slower Streets

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For Immediate Release:

Dave Snyder, CalBike | dave@calbike.org | 916-251-9433

AB 43 Will Allow Reduced Speed Limits for Slower Streets

Sacramento – Citing the success of “Slow Streets” across California during the COVID lockdown, the California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) is proud to support AB 43, a bill that could help make slow streets a permanent part of California communities. Lower speeds are crucial for neighborhood Slow Streets, a concept so successful during California’s COVID lockdown that now the Los Angeles City Council would like to make it permanent.

“The bill would allow communities to set lower speed limits to keep streets safe without being hamstrung by out-of-date laws,” said Dave Snyder, executive director of CalBike. “Permanent slow streets become possible if the state legislature changes an old rule that basically lets speeding drivers set the speed limits.”  

AB 43 Reforms the “85% Rule”

This Caltrans rule requires cities to set the speed limit at the speed of the car going faster than 85 out of 100 car drivers. This method sets speed limits according to the (often irresponsible) behavior of drivers, not the needs of the community. The current rule actually rewards drivers for speeding.

AB 43 has passed the California Assembly and is now headed to the Senate Transportation committee.

Snyder updates e-bike stakeholders on budget request

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As you may know, our proposal for a $10 million e-bike incentive program has two tracks: AB 117, the bill that creates the program; and the budget request that funds it. Since our last Zoom policy briefing, we’ve focused entirely on the budget request. Our lobbyist Steve Wallauch and I have met directly with leadership in the Senate and Assembly budget committees, and coordinated similar meetings with key allies. The feedback we’re getting is uniformly positive and we are optimistic! 

Here’s why. The budget to be approved by the Legislature today has more funds for the Air Resources Board, including for clean vehicle incentives, than the Governor proposed. However, the details of how that funding will be spent are undecided. They will be hashed out in a series of “budget trailer bills” between now and September. Furthermore,we expect that available funding will increase over the summer when the state receives revenues from the cap-and-trade auction. 

This means we have a couple of months to get our program written into one of these trailer bills. Committee leadership write trailer bills behind closed doors, with no opportunity for public pressure. However, thanks to our alliances and our Sacramento team, we have the connections we need to get this program written into the budget. 

Even better, a budget trailer bill gives us the opportunity to restore the language that was removed from AB 117 in order to advance it out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. We worked hard to craft that language to balance competing objectives and satisfy diverse stakeholders—environmental justice groups, community organizations, individual consumers, bicycle retailers, and bicycle manufacturers. I will keep you informed as we work to get that language inserted into a budget trailer bill. 

After we win the budget, either now or by September, the next steps will be to work with the implementing agency to develop the guidelines that will determine the details of the program. 

Thanks again for your ongoing support and interest. 

– Dave

P.S. We have done a good job of identifying influencers, but it never hurts to ask: if you have a close connection to one of these six people, let me know: Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins, and budget leaders Nancy Skinner and Bob Wieckowski; and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, and budget leaders Phil Ting and Richard Bloom.

P.P.S. You’re receiving this message from me because you’ve signed one of our petitions or expressed support for the bill. This is not a mass mailing. If you want more regular updates, join our list using the form on our homepage at calbike.org.

AB 371 Could Deal Fatal Blow to Bike/Scooter Sharing

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UPDATED: July 7, 2021

AB 371 Could Deal Fatal Blow to Bike/Scooter Sharing

Sacramento – The California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) opposes AB 371 by Assembly Member Jones-Sawyer that would impose an onerous insurance burden on shared-mobility providers and likely put them out of business across the state. A similar provision was defeated in the 2020 legislature.

The bill is now headed to the Senate Committees on Judiciary and Insurance. 

Dave Snyder, executive director, CalBike:

“Shared bikes and scooters are a critical complement to public transit. We’ve only just begun to see the benefit that we’ll enjoy once we expand these systems and integrate them with transit. Unfortunately, we may never see that future if AB 371 passes. It will place unprecedented insurance requirements on bike- and scooter-share systems that would end this vital last-mile transportation option in California.

Private and Public Micromobility Systems Threatened

The insurance requirement will apply to nonprofit services, like bicycle libraries that lend out bikes on a short-term basis to low-income neighborhood residents, as well as public transit agencies like LA Metro, and private providers like Spin or Bird. It would put them all out of the shared micromobility business and kill this promising low-impact, low-cost transportation mode. This comes just when we need it the most and when bikeshare systems are reporting record ridership.

Update: View our OpEd produced in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and TransForm.

CalBike Insider: The 12-bill limit, a status report, and CalBike in the news

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Some of the most significant work to further better biking, active transportation, and healthy communities in California happens out of the spotlight. CalBike Insider shines the light on some of these critical developments in Sacramento and beyond. 

The 12-bill limit puts a damper on the 2021 legislative session

COVID-19 put a severe crimp in the 2020 California legislative session, reordering priorities and forcing many good bills to wait another year. And the pandemic is still affecting legislation in 2021. It’s the justification for a new rule: each assemblymember and senator can only move 12 of the bills they authored out of their house of origin. The pandemic has made debate harder, so the legislature simply won’t consider as many bills. This is further evidence that our system for keeping the essential work of government moving in a crisis is suboptimal.

Status report: where are the bills to watch?

Today marks the deadline for bills introduced by one House to be approved by a majority of its members to advance to the second House. All of CalBike’s bills happened to be Assembly bills this year. Our three sponsored bills passed the Assembly; we went 3-1 on the bills we actively supported and 0-1 (so far) on a bill we opposed. CalBike is working hard to help create the world you want to see while working within a system that is not nearly as small-d democratic as we might like it to be.

The imposition of deadlines can force votes before legislators have a chance to fully understand the implications of the bills. We’re sure that’s why the bill we opposed passed so readily. The assemblymembers did not know its impact. Thankfully, the schedule is more generous while the bills are in the second house, giving us time to educate the Senators. Committee meetings will start in a week and continue until July 16, and then a one-month recess will provide some breathing room before the legislators return to vote on the bills in late August.  

The distribution of power in the California legislature

Another undemocratic factor is the power of key legislators. It’s bad enough that merely 40 people in the Senate represent nearly 40 million Californians; it’s worse that a few of those elected officials (usually the ones who can raise lots of money) have extreme power compared to their colleagues. The Appropriations Committee is a good example. Its Chair has nearly independent control over whether a bill gets out of the committee and onto the floor where the members have a chance to vote on it. Two of the bills we love suffered harm in Assembly “Approps.” The committed killed bill to allow speed safety systems outright and weakened our e-bike affordability program through amendments, both without public debate. Even if the leaders of these committees are fantastic representatives who usually fight for everything we love, the process is not very democratic, and we wish that it were.

For details on these bills, and others, see our halftime legislative agenda update. 

CalBike in the news

CalBike’s E-Bike Affordability Program has been getting the attention of the press. An editorial in support of the E-Bike Affordability Program was picked up across California and beyond:

CalMatters | Desert Sun | MSN | Davis Enterprise | San Francisco Patch | Lompoc Record

Our bill to decriminalize jaywalking also generated headlines as it passed the Assembly. And Streetsblog ran a piece on our petition in support of ending parking minimums for new buildings near transit (AB 1401, Friedman). You can add your name to the petition here.

E-Bike Affordability Program on Chinese news:

Read past editions of the CalBike Insider.

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