February 2024 - CalBike

CalBike Announces 2024 Legislative Agenda

February 22, 2024/by Jared Sanchez

The California legislative session is shaping up to be a busy one, with a large number of new bills affecting active transportation plus a few two-year bills introduced last year and still moving through. We will also continue to advocate for more funding for active transportation in the budget process.

Here are the bills CalBike is supporting, opposing, and keeping an eye on in 2024.

Must-pass bills

If you were following CalBike’s work in 2019, you might remember the Complete Streets Bill. We won a hard-fought victory that year, passing the bill in the legislature, only to see it vetoed by the governor. Complete Streets is back for 2024 and at the top of our list of four top-priority bills.

2024 Complete Streets Bill

SB 960, authored by Senator Scott Wiener, would require Caltrans to implement safe infrastructure for people bicycling and walking when it repaves a state route that serves as a local street. The new version strengthens the measure by adding the needs of transit to the mix, paving the way for more bus-only state highway lanes, as well as transit improvements on local streets. We must show the governor he was wrong to trust Caltrans to implement its own policies since the 2019 veto, and we need to hold Caltrans accountable to make roads safer for all. We hope you’ll join our Complete Streets Campaign.

Safe Vehicles Save Lives Bill

SB 961 is part of Senator Wiener’s safer streets package, along with the Complete Streets Bill. This bill would require two measures to make vehicles less lethal to people bicycling and walking. Truck side guards are metal pieces installed between the wheels of semis and other large trucks. Side guards protect people riding bikes or walking from being pulled under the rear wheels of a truck. This is a too-common scenario, where a truck hits and injures someone but the fatal injuries occur when the truck rolls over the fallen person with its rear wheels. Side guards are a commonsense safety measure advocates have been fighting for at the federal and state levels, so California adopting it could be a big step toward a nationwide requirement. Trucking companies oppose the measure, placing the financial cost above the cost of lives lost.

The second part of this bill is a requirement for speed governors or speed limiters. Starting with 2027 models, passenger cars sold in California would be required to limit speed to no more than 10 mph above the posted speed limit. It’s an easy addition to modern cars, which are already outfitted with sophisticated sensors and programming. Speed is the biggest factor in fatalities of pedestrians and bike riders, with a huge difference in potential for serious injury and death between 20 and 30 mph, so this provision will save lives and move our state closer to its Vision Zero goals.

Quicker and Better Bikeways Bill

AB 2290 by Assemblymember Laura Friedman is another omnibus bike bill. Like Friedman’s OmniBike Bill in 2022, which made four changes to the vehicle code to make streets safer for biking, this measure has three provisions that will lead to — you guessed it — quicker and better bikeways.

The bill will limit state funding for Class III bikeways (or bike routes) to streets with speed limits under 20 mph. These are the least safe bicycle infrastructure, which typically include only sharrows marking a lane shared by car drivers and people on bikes. They provide no protection for bike riders and should be phased out for most uses.

Next, the Quicker and Better Bikeways Bill would remove loopholes and strengthen requirements for creating Complete Streets on state and local street projects funded by the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program created by SB 1. Currently, agencies have an out if there’s a parallel facility nearby. AB 2290 requires bikeways included in bike plans to be added during these repairs.

The bill’s final provision creates a quick-build pilot at Caltrans. Currently, the agency doesn’t allow quick-build techniques, which can add safety elements for people bicycling and walking in months rather than years. We need quick-build upgrades to make dangerous roadways safer before more lives are lost. Quick-build is also essential for California to build out its bike networks and make bicycling an appealing and safe alternative to driving in time to avert climate disaster.

No Freeway Expansions for Freight

California needs fewer freeways, not more. But Caltrans often justifies adding lanes to accommodate freight traffic, even though that inevitably leads to induced demand, more traffic, more congestion, more pollution, and more greenhouse gases, particularly in marginalized Black and Brown communities. Assemblymember Mia Bonta’s AB 2535, sponsored by the Charge Ahead California coalition, limits highway expansions for freight traffic, a critical step toward reducing our freeway dependence.

A license to discriminate

Assemblymember Tasha Boerner has authored a number of bike-friendly bills, including sponsoring the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill and pushing for the budget to launch California’s E-Bike Incentives Project. But we can’t support her most recent measure, AB 2234, the E-Bike Licensing Bill, which prohibits youth younger than 12 from riding an electric bicycle and requires all riders to carry either a driver’s license or state-issued ID with a waiver showing they completed a CHP safety course.

The bill is a response to safety concerns about e-bikes, but it does nothing to make people riding e-bikes safer while increasing the chances of harassment, particularly for Black and Brown bike riders who are already disproportionately stopped by the police. It creates an onerous requirement that will discourage people from riding bikes at a time when we should be encouraging a switch to active transportation. The bill would require police to judge the age of a rider and whether they are on a classic bike or an e-bike, both distinctions that can be hard to make. CalBike will do all we can to stop this misguided measure.

The Active Transportation Slate

CalBike is supporting an additional slate of 12 active transportation bills.

AB 6, Friedman, Regional Prioritization for Clean Transportation: This measure requires regional transportation agencies to prioritize and fund transportation projects that significantly contribute toward regional and state climate goals.
AB 7, Friedman: Project Selection Process: A bill that requires state transportation agencies to incorporate environmental and equity principles into their project selection process.
AB 73, Boerner/Friedman, Bicycle Safety Stop: The campaign to legalize stop-as-yield for bike riders aged 18 and older continues.
AB 833, Rendon, Neighborhood Unification Bill: This bill requires Caltrans to prepare a plan for adding caps to freeway segments to reunite disadvantaged, underrepresented urban communities.
AB 2086, Schiavo, Caltrans Accountability and Transparency Bill: This bill will develop guidelines for Caltrans to determine whether the use of the funding made available is advancing the Core Four priorities of safety, equity, climate action, and economic prosperity established by CalSTA. It will also create a public online dashboard to display annual project investments, bringing much-needed public oversight to Caltrans projects.
AB 2259, Boerner, California Bike Smart Safety Handbook: This bill requires the DMV to create a bicycle safety handbook that includes information on, among other things, existing laws regulating bicycles and e-bikes. It’s a small step forward for safety.
AB 2583, Berman, Lowering Speed in School Zones: This bill would establish a default speed limit of 15 miles per hour in school zones during certain hours. It’s a vital measure that will protect children, who are among the most vulnerable to traffic violence.
AB 2669, Ting, No Bridge Tolls for People Walking and Biking: This bill ensures that people walking or bicycling across a toll bridge in California will never pay a fee. It makes permanent a temporary measure that sunsets next year.
AB 2744, McCarty: Bike Lane Protection Act: This bill prohibits the addition of a right-turn lane within 20 feet of a marked or unmarked crosswalk where there is not already a dedicated and marked right-turn or travel lane. Additionally, it would only allow the right turn of a car if the right turn is from an exclusive right-turn lane. It would also prohibit parking in Class II or IV bikeways (parking is already illegal on Class I separated bike paths).
SB 689, Blakespear, Bike Lanes in Coastal Areas: This bill would make it easier to convert an existing motorized vehicle travel lane into a dedicated bicycle lane near the coast, ending requirements for a traffic study to process a coastal development permit or an amendment to a local coastal program.
SB 1216, Blakespear: Prohibiting Class III Bikeways: This bill would prohibit public agencies and the ATP from installing a Class III bikeway (sharrows) on a street that has a posted speed limit greater than 30 miles per hour. It conflicts with some provisions of the Quicker and Better Bikeways Bill, and we expect the authors will work out the issue as both bills are revised.
SB 1271, Min: E-Bike Battery Standards: This bill sets minimum safety standards for batteries on all e-bikes sold, rented, or leased in California. It’s an excellent measure for preventing battery fires, which are most often caused by substandard manufacturing, and bringing some clarity to the growing e-bike market.

CalBike’s legislation watchlist

The deadline to introduce legislation was February 16, but many bills aren’t fully formed when they’re introduced. We’re watching 13 bills that may evolve into measures to add to our Active Transportation Slate or to oppose, depending on revisions in the legislative process. We’ll add more information about these bills as their trajectories become clearer, and we might add more bills to our watch, support, or oppose lists as their language evolves.

Stay up to date on bike-friendly legislation on CalBike’s Legislative Watch page.

AB 1447	Flora: E-Scooter Classification
AB 1773	Dixon: Banning Bikes on Boardwalks
AB 1774	Dixon: E-Bike Modifications
AB 1778	Connolly: E-Bike Restrictions
AB 1953	Villapudua: Vehicle Weight Limits
AB 2286	Aguiar-Curry: Autonomous Vehicle Safety
AB 2869	Friedman: Caltrans Trail Access
AB 3061	Haney: Autonomous Vehicle Safety
SB 50	Bradford: Stop Pretextual Policing
SB 768	Caballero: VMT Study
SB 925	Wiener: San Francisco Bay Area Local Revenue Measure
SB 926	Wahab: San Francisco Bay Area Public Transportation
SB 936	Seyarto: CEQA Exemption for Road and Safety Improvements

Complete Streets Webinar Launches CalBike Campaign

February 20, 2024/by Kevin Claxton

On March 6, 2024, from 9:00 am to 10:30 am, CalBike will host a panel discussion on Zoom: Complete Streets on Caltrans Corridors. The webinar, an advance session for April’s California Bicycle Summit, is free, but advance registration is required.

State Senator Scott Wiener will join the conversation, along with Jeanie Ward-Waller (Fearless Advocacy), Kendra Ramsey (CalBike), Laura Tolkoff (SPUR), and Sandhya Laddha (Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition). The discussion will center on Wiener’s 2024 Complete Streets Bill, SB 960, and the campaign to make Caltrans-controlled roads safer for people biking, walking, and taking public transit.

Why Caltrans Complete Streets matter

Complete Streets is the term for streets that meet the needs of people using all modes of transportation, not just those driving in cars. Too many of our roadways were designed with moving vehicles quickly as the only consideration, making them unfriendly and dangerous for people walking and biking.

To turn a street into a Complete Street, upgrades need to include more than a crosswalk here or some green paint there: a Complete Street is one that includes all the elements required to allow people who aren’t inside cars to travel safely and comfortably along the corridor. That could include bus boarding islands, protected bikeways, bulb-outs to reduce crossing distances, protected intersections, traffic calming measures like chicanes or speed humps, and more. In addition, Complete Streets are inviting to people of all ages, abilities, and races.

Local governments across California have adopted Complete Streets policies and begun creating corridors that invite people to get out of their cars and use active transportation. But state routes that serve as local thoroughfares through many cities have remained an obstacle to local progress.

Caltrans-controlled roads are often among the most dangerous in an area — high-injury corridors with fast-moving traffic. The agency has been reluctant to devote resources to redesigning these routes, despite local desires for safer streets and the agency’s own Complete Streets policies.

Senator Wiener’s Complete Streets Bill will require Caltrans to consider the needs of all users when it repaves a section of roadway. It will also bring much-needed transparency to an agency whose operations are in desperate need of some sunshine.

CalBike’s allies in the Complete Streets Campaign

The Complete Streets Bill is CalBike’s top legislative priority in 2024. We have retained Jeanie Ward-Waller, a powerful advocate with experience in and out of Caltrans, to help pass this critical measure.

Many other organizations have committed to help win Caltrans Complete Streets, including bill co-sponsors SPUR and Streets For All. Our allies include environmental and social justice organizations that recognize the central role of safe streets in achieving climate and transportation justice. And we have many local partners, including the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, which is waging its own campaign to add safe bikeways as Caltrans repaves El Camino Real (State Route 82).

We need your help to win passage of the Complete Streets Bill. A strong movement in support of safe passage for all Californians will help sway legislators and the governor. We hope you can join us on March 6 to jumpstart the Complete Streets Campaign.

CalBike Statement on E-Bike Licensing Bill, AB 2234

February 15, 2024/by Brian Smith

For Immediate Release: 2/15/24

Contact: Jared Sanchez, CalBike, (714) 262-0921, Jared@CalBike.org

CalBike Opposes AB 2234 (Boerner) E-Bike Licensing Bill

SACRAMENTO – CalBike opposes AB 2234 (Boerner) as currently introduced. The bill would create an unnecessary new bureaucracy and mostly harm youth of color in California while not taking the steps necessary to make our streets safer for all users.

AB 2234 creates a requirement for all people riding an e-bike to carry a driver’s license or a state-issued ID card along with a waiver showing they had completed the California Highway Patrol (CHP) online e-bike course. This will criminalize people for not having or not carrying identification, a requirement likely to be disproportionately enforced against Black and Latino Californians.

Further, it’s not always possible to distinguish between an e-bike and a standard bicycle, so AB 2234 will lead to more unnecessary police stops and more harassment of people on bikes, especially young people of color.

“While e-bike safety education is an important issue worthy of statewide investment, this bill will create an unnecessary new bureaucracy and enforcement problem that will mostly impact Black and Brown youth in California,” says CalBike Policy Director Jared Sanchez. “California should implement policies to help more people choose bikes for their everyday transportation, but AB 2234 creates obstacles that will discourage people from riding a bike.”

Setting a minimum age for operating an e-bike will lead to further harassment, particularly of vulnerable youth, leaving it up to police officers to estimate their age, pull them over, and demand identification. Police encounters of this kind are often traumatic for youth and could have lasting effects.

In addition, the bill requires CHP to create a certificate for taking its online e-bike safety course, which is far from comprehensive. The waiver requirement in the bill will do little to educate bike riders but places an additional obstacle for people who want to use green transportation, or use them out of necessity.

California has a street safety crisis

More bike riders and pedestrians are being injured and killed on California’s roads, and this is a crisis our elected leaders should address. CalBike supports additional resources for bicycle education, particularly programs for primary school students. But mandating licenses for e-bikes won’t serve the goal of safety.

AB 2234 assumes that e-bike riders are the perpetrators rather than the victims of traffic violence. There are very few instances of people on any type of bike injuring or killing a pedestrian, but thousands of instances each year of people driving cars colliding with people riding bikes or walking. Better bike education couldn’t prevent most of these crashes. The real solution is more and safer bikeways, better road and intersection design, and addressing car bloat that reduces visibility and increases the lethality of motor vehicles.

Assemblymember Boerner was a driving force behind the creation of California’s statewide E-Bike Incentive Project, which will make e-bikes affordable to more Californians, especially people who are low-income and live in underserved areas. We’re disappointed she has introduced legislation that could reverse that important progress.

The bicycle is an efficient and essential tool to fight climate change, and e-bikes make bicycling accessible to a wider range of people. E-bike licensing requirements are unlikely to measurably reduce the prevalence of crashes, but they will reduce ridership just as California needs to employ every strategy to mitigate the climate crisis.

Complete Streets Bill Will Help Build Crucial Connections

February 5, 2024/by Jared Sanchez

On January 24, Senator Scott Wiener unveiled the Speeding and Fatality Emergency Reduction (SAFER) on California Streets bill package that includes a Complete Streets Bill, SB 960. CalBike is a sponsor of the bill, the latest of several we have partnered on with Senator Wiener, a stalwart bike champion in Sacramento.

The 2024 Complete Streets Bill will require Caltrans to consider the safety of people biking, walking, and taking transit when it repaves state-controlled roadways. Caltrans’ jurisdiction includes many state routes that double as local streets. These streets can be critical connectors through urban areas and serve as small-town main streets, but they are also often among the most dangerous roads in the community.

The Complete Streets Bill is an excellent approach to make Caltrans-controlled streets safer. It might seem like a no-brainer, but similar legislation has faced opposition in the past. Here’s what you need to know to join the fight for Complete Streets.

The history of Complete Streets in California

This isn’t CalBike’s or Senator Wiener’s first attempt to pass a Complete Streets Bill. CalBike and our allies campaigned hard for SB 127, the Complete Streets for Active Living Bill, in 2019. The bill, which would have required Caltrans to consider adding elements to make biking and walking safer each time it repaved a state-controlled road, made it through the legislature only to be vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom. In his veto statement, the governor said the law wasn’t needed because Caltrans already had a Complete Streets policy and would take the steps required by the bill.

Five years later, Caltrans has updated its Complete Streets policies and does include consideration of biking and walking in many project plans. On projects like the San Pablo Avenue Corridor Project, Caltrans hasn’t stood in the way of significant roadway changes to improve active transportation. But, as CalBike’s recent user survey showed, our state road system doesn’t serve the needs of people who get around by bike or on foot. In many projects, the Complete Streets elements selected by Caltrans represent the bare minimum of improvements for people biking and walking; in some projects, cost is used to justify these mediocre facilities, and in others, to justify the absence of Complete Streets elements altogether. We need the 2024 Complete Streets Bill to codify the approach to roadway improvements that the Caltrans Complete Streets policy promised but has not delivered.

What’s in the 2024 Complete Streets Bill?

The new Complete Streets Bill includes many of the elements of SB 127, Senator Wiener’s 2019 Complete Streets legislation, but with several notable improvements.

Similar to the earlier bill, SB 960 requires “all transportation projects funded or overseen by the department to provide comfortable, convenient, and connected complete streets facilities unless an exemption is documented and approved[.]”

However, it goes a step further and mandates the California Transportation Commission (CTC) to develop 4-year and 10-year objective targets. The key word is “objective.” By setting objective targets and requiring plain language reporting of progress, the bill holds Caltrans accountable for meeting California’s climate goals for its transportation sector.

Another new element in the 2024 bill is prioritizing public transit. The bill mandates objective targets to support efficient movement of transit vehicles on state roadways and includes transit prioritization as a required feature during road repairs.

Like earlier bills, highways that don’t allow bicycle or pedestrian access will be exempted from the requirement to build Complete Streets. However, it includes a provision to improve safety for people biking, walking, or taking transit at freeway over- and underpasses and interchanges. This is crucial, because freeway on and off ramps are often some of the most dangerous spots to walk and bike through our communities.

Fact-checking Caltrans Complete Streets policy

CalBike and our allies are in the process of gathering data and analyzing how well Caltrans serves the many California residents who aren’t in cars or trucks. We aren’t ready to release the data yet, but preliminary analysis highlights the need for the 2024 Complete Streets Bill.

Our review of Caltrans’ planning documents shows the agency has set up processes to consider Complete Streets in each road repair project. For projects where people biking and walking aren’t excluded, agency staff often recommend elements to make active transportation safer.

However, the recommended Complete Streets elements aren’t always included in the final project. And the way Caltrans uses the term Complete Streets is troubling.

A Complete Street is one that includes the infrastructure needed to safely bike, walk, and use public transit, allowing any of these modes to be safe and convenient options. In its planning documents, the agency considers a project incorporating “Complete Streets” to mean that any elements that increase the safety of people biking or walking are included, without consideration of whether it includes all the features needed to truly make a roadway safe for all users. For example, a project that only includes bicycle signage or sharrows can be claimed as having added “Complete Streets” elements, even if it falls short of the treatment appropriate for the roadway type or doesn’t include all the recommended elements.

To hold Caltrans accountable, CalBike and our allies must sort through and analyze hundreds of documents, a time-consuming task that few outside the agency have the time or resources to do. The 2024 Complete Streets Bill will make the agency’s processes more transparent, and that will make it easier to monitor its actions and provide public oversight.

We hope you’ll join us in supporting SB 960. Look for opportunities to take action as this critical bill moves through the legislative process.

California Bicycle Summit Opening Plenary: In Discussion with Jeanie Ward-Waller

February 5, 2024/by Kevin Claxton

The opening plenary session at the 2024 California Bicycle Summit on April 18, 2024, will include a discussion with Jeanie Ward-Waller, Director of Transportation Advocacy at Fearless Advocacy, and Kendra Ramsey, CalBike Executive Director.

Ward-Waller’s career has encompassed advocacy, including a stint as CalBike’s policy director and agency work, where she rose to Deputy Director for Planning and Modal Programs. Caltrans fired her in 2023 after she made a whistleblower complaint about the illegal use of road repair funds to widen a highway, raising a firestorm of outrage among the active transportation community. She’ll discuss the problems at Caltrans and what advocates can do to bring about change at the agency.

The plenary will also cover the California Transportation Commission (CTC), the governor-appointed body responsible for overseeing Caltrans. The CTC’s oversight is often little more than a rubber stamp, and the plenary will provide ideas on how to improve it and ways for citizens to get more involved.

30+ reasons to attend the California Bicycle Summit

The opening plenary is just one of many can’t-miss sessions. The 2024 California Bicycle Summit will include 30 workshops, two plenary sessions, rides and tours, and networking opportunities over two days on April 18 and 19.

The theme of the Summit is Crossroads, symbolizing the intersectional nature of bicycle advocacy that encompasses transportation justice and equitable streets for all. It also highlights the crossroads at which we find ourselves as a society and as a planet as the need for action to avert climate catastrophe becomes more apparent. The Summit will include sessions on infrastructure funding, advocacy strategies, mobility justice, local and state legislative action, and much more.

This year’s Summit will be held at the Wyndham San Diego Bayside, close to Old Town San Diego, the San Diego Bay, Coronado Island, and many other attractions. The conference sold out in 2022. Reserve your spot today.