CalBike ED Statement on 2024 Legislative Session
This was a good year for bike-friendly legislation in Sacramento. Not every bill CalBike supported passed, and many excellent ideas died in the legislature, but we achieved significant wins that show the value of our long-term strategy and set the table for safer, more equitable streets moving forward.
Complete Streets: A long road to victory
Senator Scott Wiener has stood by the promise of Complete Streets on Caltrans corridors for years, introducing bills in 2017, 2019, and 2024. Each time, CalBike stepped up as a sponsor and strong supporter of the legislation. We know state routes that serve as community main streets are often deadly for people biking and walking; CalBike has worked with Caltrans and campaigned for Complete Streets on these roads steadily for the past several years.
Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the Complete Streets Bill in 2019, saying Caltrans should get a chance to live up to its own Complete Streets policies. When Senator Wiener introduced another Complete Streets Bill (SB 960) this year, we knew we had to show the governor that Caltrans needed more than internal policy directives to change decades of car-centric transportation planning.
So CalBike’s policy director, Jared Sanchez, requested project documents completed since the 2019 veto to fact-check Caltrans’ claims that it was devoting significant funds to biking and walking improvements. Our research demonstrated where Caltrans was falling short; the results of that investigation are in our report, Incomplete Streets: Aligning Practice with Promise in Caltrans Projects.
The loss in 2017 and veto in 2019 were discouraging, but CalBike never stopped pushing for access and safety on state routes because we know that building legislative support behind a good idea can take time. That’s why we will continue to work to decriminalize common, safe bike riding behaviors such as treating stop signs as yields. We will encourage Caltrans to adopt a quick-build pilot, a provision in a bill that died this year but is much needed. We’ll continue to fight freeway expansions that threaten our climate and our neighborhoods.
Whether we achieve these advances quickly or slowly, CalBike will not stop championing better biking. We celebrate 30 years of advocacy in 2024 and look forward to the next 30; we are in it for the long haul.
More reasons to celebrate
In this legislative session, we also supported the Transportation Accountability Act (AB 2086), along with our allies at the Greenlining Institute and Transform, which dovetails with our Complete Streets work. We co-sponsored a new law ensuring bridges remain toll-free for people biking and walking across them. We helped pass laws that will lead to safer bikeways and safer e-bikes.
Our work for next year and the years ahead
In the near term, we will be meeting with Caltrans to talk about the implications of the Complete Streets law and our suggestions for implementation. We’re still formulating our agenda for 2025, but we know we’ll be advocating for more funding for active transportation projects and a swift and just transition of our transportation systems to give every Californian the opportunity to choose biking as a safe and healthy mobility option.
