Active Transportation Bills to Watch This Week
For Immediate Release: 5/18/22
Contact:
Jared Sanchez, CalBike (714) 262-0921, Jared@CalBike.org
CalBike: Active Transportation Bills to Watch This Week
Update: SACRAMENTO, May 21: All the active transportation bills advanced out of the Appropriations Committee except AB 2336 (speed cameras) and AB 1975 (bus shelters).
SACRAMENTO – The California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) is following multiple bills in Sacramento this year that address issues of concern for Californians who walk, bike, and use our streets for active transportation.
Eight bills essential to preserving California’s climate, increasing equity, and making our communities safer for residents of all ages will be heard by the California Assembly Appropriations Committee this week.
“Bills are often killed in the Appropriations Committee,” said CalBike Senior Policy Advocate Jared Sanchez. “That’s why this week’s hearings are so critical. These bills represent a major step forward to make it safer to bike and walk, improve air quality, reduce climate-killing pollution, and advance transportation justice.”
Bills being considered on 5/18 at the Assembly Appropriations Committee
AB 2438 (Friedman) – Transportation Funding and Climate Goals: The Bike to the Future Bill
This bill requires all transportation projects funded at the local or state level to align with the California Transportation Plan and the Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure adopted by the Transportation Agency. This effort will codify California’s efforts to align transportation funding with our climate goals.
AB 1778 (C. Garcia) – Ending Freeway Expansion: The Restoring Healthy Communities Bill
This bill will prohibit any state money from funding or permitting freeway widening projects in areas with high rates of pollution and poverty. As decades of research have shown, low-income communities of color are most burdened by highway pollution that causes unnecessary cases of asthma and other major health issues.
AB 1975 (Nazarian) – California Bus Shelter Bill: The Safe Bus Stops Bill
The bill would ensure that bus and pedestrian shelter and street furniture is treated as a critical and funded infrastructure asset to prioritize shade as an essential need for all Californians.
Bills being considered on 5/19 at the Assembly Appropriations Committee
AB 2147 (Ting) – Safe Street Crossings: The Freedom to Walk Bill
This bill is the sequel to the Freedom to Walk legislation that passed the assembly and senate last year. After Governor Newsom’s veto, Assemblymember Phil Ting revamped the bill to address the governor’s concerns. The revised version will direct police not to ticket for safe pedestrian mid-block crossings while keeping jaywalking laws on the books. Ending enforcement of safe midblock crossings will reduce opportunities for police encounters that too often become violent for people of color.
AB 2237 (Friedman) – Sustainable Regional Planning: The Plan for a Better Tomorrow Bill
This bill would bring local transportation planning and funding into alignment with sustainable community strategies (SCS) and the state’s climate and air quality standards. California has struggled to align land use with the need to reduce vehicle miles traveled and the corresponding emissions that cause air pollution and climate change. AB 2237 would require regional or county transportation agencies to rank their transportation projects and prioritize them according to adherence to sustainable communities strategies and state climate and air quality standards. Most importantly, funding would follow that prioritization, so that the projects that most support clean mobility (many bike projects) would be the first implemented. Projects that undermine climate and air quality standards would not be funded.
AB 2336 (Friedman) – Automated Speed Enforcement Pilot Program: The Speed Kills Bill
This bill establishes an automated speed enforcement pilot program in a few cities.
AB 1919 (Holden) – Free Student Transit Passes: The Transit Access Bill
This bill requires each transit agency to offer free transit passes to every person under the age of 26 years. This lack of a statewide program leaves millions of low-income and diverse youth without affordable or accessible transportation options. It also forces many to be dependent on greenhouse gas-emitting personal vehicles to the detriment of their communities’ environmental health.
AB 2264 (Bloom) – Pedestrian crossing signals – advance signals: The Step Ahead Bill
Requires Caltrans and cities to update all pedestrian control signals to operate giving a pedestrian a head start between 3 to 7 seconds to enter an intersection with a corresponding circular green signal.
