Good Transportation Funding Package Poisoned at Last Minute

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – March 29, 2017

Contact: Jeanie Ward-Waller, Policy Director, [email protected], 916-399-3211

Re: Good Transportation Funding Package Poisoned at Last Minute

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Sacramento, CA — Up to $5 billion of new funding to repair and improve California’s crumbling transportation infrastructure is headed for a vote next week in the Legislature, but a last-minute deal with the polluting freight industry threatens to derail a tenuous compromise that had many community and social justice advocates readying to support it.

Yesterday, the California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) was close to supporting Senate Bill 1, after working with an alliance of more than 80 environmental and social justice groups to influence key changes. The coalition’s pressure won a commitment of nearly 20% of the funding for improving and expanding public transit service for low-income people, a near-doubling of the state’s walking and biking funding, preservation of environmental regulations, and limits to the ability to expand highways, among other issues.

“This package is a big step in the direction of better, safer, and more affordable transportation options for Californians,” Jeanie Ward-Waller, CalBike’s Policy Director, said on Tuesday. “But this last-minute agreement to let poor communities continue to suffer the brunt of freight-based pollution is not acceptable.”

CalBike and environmental justice allies are asking legislative leadership to reverse this decision that would allow more pollution in neighborhoods along trucking routes and near ports.

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