Governor Newsom Signs AB 1266

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For Immediate Release: September 4, 2019

Contact:

Dylan Lomanto, legislative aide to Assemblyman Rivas, (916) 319-2749, Dylan.Lomanto@asm.ca.gov

Dave Snyder, California Bicycle Coalition, (415) 216-7393, dave@calbike.org

AB 1266: Governor Signs Bill to Make Intersections Safer for Bicyclists

State Capitol, Sacramento, CA – Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill today that will make it safer for bicycle riding in California at busy intersections. The bill requires Caltrans to develop a street marking or design that allows cyclists to go straight from a right or left turn lane and to safely cross outside of the high-traffic lanes.

“AB 1266 bill will make our roadways safer for everyone by matching street design with the already practiced, safe behavior of cyclists at busy intersections. I’m committed to making sure Californians have safe, healthy, and non-polluting transportation choices as we expand our efforts to combat climate change,” said Assemblymember Robert Rivas (D-Hollister).

“This bill authorizes a bicyclist to travel straight through a right or left-hand turn only lane and requires Caltrans to develop standards for lane striping, pavement marking, and appropriate regulatory signs to implement this bill. It will save lives,” said Dave Snyder, director of the California Bicycle Coalition.

About AB-1266 Traffic control devices: bicycles

Currently, cyclists approaching an intersection may thread the needle between the right-hand turn lane and the adjacent go-straight lane. However, legally, like cars, cyclists should proceed through an intersection in a go-straight lane and are prohibited from going through an intersection from the right-turn lane. Cyclists traveling in a bicycle lane that disappears, converting into a right-turn lane before an intersection, must merge left into the go-straight lane, proceed through the intersection, and then, if the bicycle lane resumes after the intersection, merge right back into the bicycle lane.

This bill will fix that problem by allowing bicyclists to cross intersections straight ahead from the relative safety of a right or left turn lane. This will be marked on the street or via sign, so all road users understand the rule.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tell Your Assembly Member to Vote YES on SB 127 for Complete Streets

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The Complete Streets for Active Living Bill (SB 127) passed two tough Assembly committees. Now, Caltrans is pulling out all the stops to defeat what may be the most important piece of legislation CalBike has ever sponsored.

The Complete Streets Bill will require Caltrans to add features that make streets safer for all users, such as protected bike lanes, when it repairs or repaves local streets. It will free thousands of Californians to get around by biking and walking, instead of being trapped in their cars.

The Complete Streets Bill could come up for a vote in the full Assembly any day now. That’s why we need you to tell your state Assembly Member vote YES on SB 127, the Complete Streets for Active Living Bill, today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Complete Streets Bill Passes Committee, Moves to Full House

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For Immediate Release: Friday, August 30, 2019

Contact: Dave Snyder, CalBike 415-216-7393, dave@calbike.org

“Complete Streets” Bill Passes Assembly Appropriations Committee

SACRAMENTO: This afternoon, the Complete Streets for Active Living Bill (SB 127) championed by Senator Scott Wiener, passed out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee and now heads to an Assembly floor vote. The bill has already passed the State Senate.

This bill aims to ensure state roads that run through cities (e.g. 19th Avenue in San Francisco, Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, or San Pablo Avenue in the East Bay) are safe for pedestrians and cyclists. The bill would mandate community involvement and default inclusion of bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements funded by the $4.3 billion State Highway Operations and Protection Program (SHOPP).

Dave Snyder, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition, said:
“This shows that the Assembly Leadership understands the importance of holding Caltrans accountable to its promises of safety so that we taxpayers get better and safer roads for our tax dollars and not lip service and maintained deathtraps.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summit Plenary to Examine the New Urban Mobility

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The “new urban mobility” — shared and networked cars and bikes and scooters and whatever’s next — promises to eliminate the need for private cars and bring about a more sustainable transportation future. But the reality is far from that promise. Thanks to heavy subsidies by their venture capital owners, Lyft and Uber’s cheap car trips have poached passengers from public transit while adding to congestion. Their drivers endanger people on bikes who have to dodge their cars in the bike lanes and along the curb. People who can’t afford Lyft and Uber — and in our racialized economy, that means disproportionately people of color — are stuck with worse options than before. Typical.

Bike- and scooter-share systems are a better option. Where they exist, their users more closely reflect the population of their community than those who hail Lyft and Uber cars. But those systems can be expensive (except where they are subsidized in rich communities like the Bay Area). These systems will get more expensive as the companies are pressured to show profitability. In addition, they’re not integrated with public transit, they are poorly regulated, and scooters can block sidewalks dangerously impeding people with disabilities. Because they must eventually turn a profit, these shared mobility options are exclusive to privileged communities where the companies can make money. This leaves large but disadvantaged cities in California’s Central Valley completely abandoned. Again… typical.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We at CalBike see great potential in this new mobility paradigm. Integrated with public transit and supported by public funds, shared bikes and scooters could replace most short car trips. A user should be able to transfer from a bus or scooter with their transit pass without paying an extra fare. Fares should be progressive across the whole system, with discounts for low-income people just as there are discounts for seniors and youth on many transit systems. Bikes and scooters should be deployed where they’re needed, not just where they are profitable. Thinking even bigger, trips in shared cars could complement public transit if deployed strategically and integrated in this same manner.

This public-centered vision does not have to shut out the private companies like Lyft, Uber, Bird, Spin, Lime, etc. Properly regulated, these companies could make a reasonable profit while providing good jobs at good wages and equitable transportation service that emphasizes efficient and healthy mobility, i.e. biking and walking. 

What would these regulations be? Are rule-breaking startups even interested? If these companies are compelled to emphasize biking and walking, will they — and their customers — become allies in our struggle to reclaim street space for bikes, scooters, and walking? Why did Lyft and Uber buy bike share companies? What does Uber do with the fact that, in central Sacramento, they saw more trips on their Jump bikes than in their Uber cars?!

These are the questions we’ll address at the California Bicycle Summit this October in our Wednesday morning plenary, The New Urban Mobility. 

The plenary will feature representatives from the companies providing this service including Lyft and Uber and the community organizations dealing with the impacts. 

Registration is open for the Summit. Register today to join the discussion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

CalBike’s Legislative Agenda Moves Toward the Finish Line

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The 2019 session of the California State Legislature ends September 13. Three of CalBike’s bills are close to final approval and we hope to see all three signed into law this year.

The Complete Streets Bill (SB 127-Wiener) has made it most of the way through the legislature. This bill will bring Complete Streets to many local roads and streets that Caltrans controls. Caltrans has chosen to fight this bill, which forces it to implement its own policies. However, relentless pressure from CalBike members and brave leadership from our author Senator Scott Wiener and Assembly Appropriations Committee Chair Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez have, so far, overcome that resistance. But victory is not assured. We’ll need your help to put pressure on your elected officials in the next few critical weeks. Start by signing our Complete Streets petition and we’ll keep you in the loop about additional actions.

Our E-Bike Vouchers Bill (SB 400-Umberg) passed the Assembly Appropriations Committee and swiftly passed the Assembly Floor on Thursday, August 22nd. This bill will expand green mobility vouchers available when low-income Californians trade in their old polluting cars. If it passes, people will be able to trade smoke-belching vehicles for e-bikes and bikeshare memberships. This bill is now on the Governor’s desk awaiting his signature.

A bill that will allow cities to improve bike lane design at intersections with turn lanes (AB 1266-Rivas) has passed both houses of the legislature and is on Governor Newsom’s desk. We expect that this commonsense bill will be signed into law soon.

It’s not time to pop the champagne corks yet to celebrate victory on CalBike’s sponsored bills, but it’s been a good year for bikes in Sacramento. If the Complete Streets Bill passes, that will truly be cause for celebration.

Other legislation

CalBike has also represented your interests on other important legislation.

We supported a bill (AB 1142) by Assembly Member Laura Friedman to require the Public Utilities Commission to help public agencies meet their greenhouse gas reduction targets by providing data about the transportation impact of Lyft and Uber. This important bill, critical to understanding future transportation patterns, is currently in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

We supported a bill (SB 742) by Senator Ben Alllen to allow Amtrak buses to take passengers on routes that don’t connect to train service. Anybody who’s tried to travel from Bakersfield to Los Angeles on one of the many Amtrak buses that go between those cities only to find that trip is not allowed understands the importance of this reform. That bill has advanced out of the Assembly Transportation Committee and appears likely to win.

Finally, an early victory was the defeat of an attempt (SB 152) to weaken state control over Active Transportation Program funds. This bill would have threatened the gains we made with our allies in ensuring that those funds prioritize the communities that need them most.

These are just a few of the bills we’ve worked on to advance our mission of helping California’s communities become more prosperous, more equitable and more inclusive places where bicycling lets more people live healthy and joyful lives. You can follow the entire (long) list of bills we are engaged with at on our legislative watch page.

 

 

 

Mobility Justice Advocates Convene to Build Coalitions

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On June 26th & 27th, more than 30 mobility justice advocates met in Sacramento for the first annual Mobility Justice Advocates Convening. The focus was to better position ourselves to influence state decisionmakers directly at the State Capitol. The convening brought those who have worked directly on the streets who are able to bring experiential knowledge to state-level policy development into the room and into the conversation

The event was a culmination of several years of organizing. It built off our Mobility Justice Labs which CalBike co-leads. In collaboration with People for Mobility Justice, PolicyLink, Public Advocates, and Cal Walks, these convening efforts are central to building powerful new alliances at multiple scales.

The event was a huge success! The participants shared the goal of establishing a mobility justice framework that we can organize around together and separately. A shared framework will solidify the coalition of grassroots mobility justice organizations across the state. This will facilitate a push for mobility justice legislation. The framework will give each group clear actions to target their respective legislators.

Participants gave voice to a variety of shared values that can form the basis for future mobility justice legislation. Some examples include: police brutality and decriminalizing mobility, thinking beyond physical infrastructure regarding ‘safe streets’, anti-displacement policies, intersectional organizing, and programs to increase awareness of active transportation benefits and encourage residents to use non-motorized modes.

To further strengthen CalBike’s mobility justice  policy work, we and our partners will continue to expand the Mobility Justice Labs. We will also develop regional convenings, develop statewide cyber-convenings and skillshares, and develop our Mobility Justice Policy Platform.

Mobility Justice Advocates Set Goals for the Future

CalBike believes alliances like this are the best way to put pressure on decision-makers at every level: state, regional, and local. These partnerships represent a new type of relationship-building that centers on base-building and leading with grassroots voices. The goal is to strengthen the statewide transportation and mobility justice movement, and the first Mobility Justice Advocates Convening showed that the power of the emerging coalition.

Building safe spaces to unite transportation, housing, environmental justice, and other advocates is crucial to bringing about change. Going forward, we plan to share actionable intelligence, monitor state actions, and organize responses to new threats and opportunities, as a coalition.  We hope to eventually shift the narrative on mobility from one focused on vehicles to one that centers on people and justice in our most marginalized communities.

The goals for the Convening were as follows:

  1. Make grassroots advocates the leads in defining and implementing mobility justice (MJ) at the state level.
  2. Build solidarity network of MJ advocates in California.
  3. Connect with state-level elected officials and government officials who wield power in decision making around transportation, infrastructure, etc. in California.
  4. Identify shared values and policy change goals among MJ advocates.
  5. Plan a future convening to accommodate more participants.

We look forward to co-leading a second annual Convening in 2020. Thank you to all the co-organizers and attendees for making the first Mobility Justice Advocacy Day a success.

Stay tuned for more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Major Pushback Against Caltrans Over Complete Streets Bill Fiscal Impact

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On August 21, Assembly Member Lorena Gonzalez (Dem-80, above right) did something unusual. Gonzalez chairs the Appropriations Committee. She allowed testimony on The Complete Streets for Active Living Bill (SB 127 – Wiener), even though the bill was, by rule, headed for the suspense file. The Chair prefers that members waive testimony for bills going to the suspense file, but Gonzalez took the opportunity to rake Caltrans over the coals for making unfounded claims about the Complete Streets Bill fiscal impact in an effort to sink the bill.

The Complete Streets Bill requires Caltrans to accommodate people walking or biking when it repairs or rebuilds a state route that also serves as a local street. The bill allows exceptions, but will require the agency to explain at a public hearing why Complete Streets additions to maintenance projects are infeasible. The legislation will simply require Caltrans to follow its own stated Complete Streets policy.

Apparently, this is all too much for Caltrans. The agency has issued wildly inflated estimates of the cost to implement SB 127, in an attempt to sink the bill.

In the hearing, Gonzalez called out Caltrans for its inaccurate numbers and incendiary tactics. Senator Scott Wiener who introduced the Complete Streets Bill earlier this year, took to Twitter to call out Caltrans in no uncertain terms.

“I’m authoring #SB127 to ensure state roads that run through cities – eg 19th Ave, Santa Monica Blvd, San Pablo Ave – are safe for pedestrians & cyclists. Caltrans has now issued a grossly inflated, fake cost estimate of >$1B to tank the bill. Here’s my letter pushing back hard.”

Weiner attached to his Tweet a copy of a letter he sent to David Kim, Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), of which Caltrans is a division. In it, he calls out the inaccurate assumptions behind the sky-high cost estimate for Complete Streets projects presented by Caltrans. According to Wiener’s letter the Caltrans estimate that Complete Streets would add $1.1 billion annually (Caltrans’ estimate was actually $1.3 billion) to state road-building costs was based on the assumption that bike and pedestrian facilities cost $4.5 million per centerline mile. Wiener pointed out that Complete Streets elements are often the least expensive part of a project. He cited costs between $20,000 and $600,000 per centerline mile. The Caltrans figure is 7.5 times the high end of this range.

Many thanks to Senator Wiener and Assembly Member Gonzalez for strongly backing this important bill. The Complete Streets Bill is CalBike’s most important legislation in 2019. Vocal support from elected representatives, our coalition partners, and CalBike members has carried the bill so far.

The Complete Streets Bill has made it through some tough fights. The toughest of all may be ahead, as Caltrans pulls out all the stops to try to block SB 127. We’ll need all hands on deck to make sure this important bill passes and is signed into law.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Complete Streets Bill Passes Assembly Transportation Committee

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The Complete Streets for Active Living Bill (SB 127) passed the Assembly Transportation Committee July 8. This was a hard-won victory. CalBike and our coalition partners negotiated with and educated stakeholders and potential opponents up until the moment of the vote. In the end, the difference was the 1,000+ CalBike members and supporters who contacted their Assembly Member and asked for their yes vote. That pressure turned almost every committee member we counted as a maybe vote into a yes. SB 127 passed with 10 votes – two more than the eight we needed.

Caltrans controls some of the biggest and most direct streets that run through our local communities. Too often, Caltrans has refused to upgrade these streets to better serve the people who walk and bike on them, even when they’re repaving them or repairing them anyway. CalBike’s Complete Streets Bill will change that. If it becomes law, it will require Caltrans, by default, to add Complete Streets design elements every time it repairs or repaves a state route that also serves as a local street.

We are nearing the finish line. But the fight for Complete Streets for all Californians is not over. The Complete Streets Bill still has to pass the Assembly Appropriations Committee and the full Assembly. After that, it has to be signed by Governor Newsom. 

Campaign leaders photo

This is the team of safe streets advocates, special guest witnesses, and Capitol staffers whose hard work — bolstered by pressure from CalBike members — helped to win the vote at the Assembly Transportation Committee.

This bill is the most important legislation that CalBike has worked on since we established the nation’s first Safe Routes to School program in 1999. If it becomes law, the Complete Streets Bill will save lives and make our cities and towns more livable. We need to keep the pressure up on our representatives every step of the way. We’re counting on you to help us succeed. Donate today to help the Complete Streets Bill get across the finish line.

Assembly Transportation Committee Supports E-bikes for Mobility Option

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On Monday, July 1, the E-Bikes for Mobility Bill (SB 400 – Umberg) passed in the Assembly Transportation Committee. The vote was 14-0. This bill expands the definition of “mobility options” in the Clean Vehicles for All program to include bikesharing and electric bicycle purchases.

Currently the Clean Vehicles for All program provides vouchers for trading in your old polluting car for low income residents. The vouchers are only good for electric, hybrid, and plug-in cars and “mobility options” like car-sharing memberships and transit passes. 

The addition of bikeshare and e-bikes for mobility in the voucher program will provide an important incentive for Californians to switch from car to bike travel. E-bikes enable more people to ride a bicycle for longer distances, even with physical limitations, difficult terrain, and heavy cargo. This is an important step forward for healthy communities.

By passing the E-bikes for Mobility Bill, California’s Assembly Transportation Committee has taken a very important step in reducing our state’s GHG emissions. A study in Portland found that just a 15% increase in e-bike mode share results in an 11% decrease in CO2 emissions, even when using the dirtiest electricity generation profile in the USA.  Another study found that as many as 50% of trips by electric bicycle would have been car trips, if the rider hadn’t had access to a pedal-assist bike.

The next step for the E-Bikes for Mobility Bill is to move through the Assembly Appropriations Committee. CalBike is committed to getting this important bill signed into law this year.

CALPIRG Report Identifies California Highway Boondoggles

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Last week, CALPIRG released its annual Highway Boondoggles report. The report details the way our nation’s policymakers continue to prioritize major highway expansion projects, while failing to spend the money needed to repair our crumbling infrastructure.  

“[Y]ear after year, state and local governments propose billions of dollars’ worth of new and expanded highways that often do little to reduce congestion or address real transportation challenges, while diverting scarce funding from infrastructure repairs and key transportation priorities.”

 – CALPIRG Highway Boondoggles 5, 2019

The biggest California boondoggle highlighted in this report is the High Desert Freeway in Los Angeles County. The High Desert Freeway will connect Lancaster in eastern LA County with Apple Valley in San Bernardino County, encouraging more suburban sprawl and more car-dependent communities. It is slated to cost $8 billion. 

Imagine how much could be achieved by putting that $8 billion toward expanding and upgrading transit options for Los Angeles. Or repairing crumbling city streets while adding protected bike lanes.

At a time when California needs to put all its resources and ingenuity into creating a carbon-free future, new highway construction puts this progress in reverse. There is no environmental argument for freeway construction. CalBike will be keeping a close eye on this ill-advised freeway project as it moves forward. We plan to fight hard to make California’s top priority equitable and environmentally sound transportation options.

CalBike continues to hold state leaders accountable to the priorities of reduced greenhouse gases and clean air, so we can build truly healthy communities. We believe that our state’s highway expansions are expensive, increase the state’s debt, don’t solve congestion, and of course damage our environment and the communities where we all live. Historically, big freeway projects cause the most damage in low-income communities of color, which are also disproportionately impacted by increased driving.

CalBike will lead a new campaign in the coming months that analyzes where the State of California is misusing our transportation funds on new highway expansion. This misdirection of funds keeps California from meeting state goals that have been recently identified, and which we’re far behind in achieving. Your voice will be instrumental to this work, so please stay tuned for more information.

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