2024 People-First Mobility Budget for California

California has laid out admirable goals to reduce GHG emissions from transportation, which contributes the most to climate change in our state. The Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure (CAPTI) lays out a limited set of plans and goals for reducing emissions from the transportation sector. However, it’s not enough.

Worse, California continues to apply billions of dollars from its transportation budget to projects that take us further from them.

So CalBike has drafted a People-First Mobility Budget, an alternative transportation spending plan for California that gives residents more mobility options, improves health, increases equity, and helps us meet our state climate goals.

Why create a People-First Mobility Budget?

Imagine spending all your money on matches and lighter fluid when your house is on fire. That’s what California is doing with our transportation spending: pouring billions of dollars into matches and kindling rather than dousing the fire that will consume our home. Climate change isn’t a problem we can push off into a hazy future; it’s here now.

Fortunately, in the process of restructuring our transportation systems to avert climate disaster, we can also create systems that better serve people. We can fund fast, reliable public transportation that brings mobility to underserved communities. We can build networks of Complete Streets that reduce collisions and make neighborhoods more pleasant for people walking, biking, taking transit, and driving. We can create mixed-use neighborhoods where shopping and services are a convenient walk from home. We can reduce congestion and automobile pollution, improving health for everyone.

All those things are within reach if we focus our transportation spending on projects that serve people.

The People-First Mobility Budget for 2024-2025

Do you support the People-First Mobility Budget? Add your name below.

In Governor Gavin Newsom’s draft budget, released on January 10, 2024, almost $20 billion out of a state budget of $291 billion is allocated to transportation. At less than 10% of the budget, it might seem inconsequential. But emissions from transportation make up a substantial portion of our state’s greenhouse gas emissions, and changing what we spend these funds on is crucial to protecting our climate.

The People-First Mobility Budget, which takes into account the additional $9 billion from federal IIJA funding, proposes distributing those funds as follows:

Benefits of a people-first approach to mobility

For many Californians, driving a personal vehicle isn’t a choice. The only way they can get from their homes to work, school, or shopping is by car because the distances are too great or the streets are unsafe for biking, walking, or both. A people-centered approach to transportation priorities doesn’t force anyone out of their car, but it gives Californians choices about how they get around their communities. Here are just a few of the benefits.