California’s state highways often double as local streets, providing the most direct routes to schools, hospitals, homes, and businesses. However, these corridors, managed by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), prioritize fast-moving car and truck traffic, leaving those who walk, bike, or take transit vulnerable. People want to walk and bike on these streets, but they don’t feel safe doing so. CalBike’s report shows how Caltrans districts fail to live up to the agency’s policies to create Complete Streets during repaving or repair projects and provides a roadmap for the agency to improve Complete Streets implementation in the future.
People want to walk and bike on these streets, but they don’t feel safe doing so.
Caltrans’ project records, which CalBike obtained through a public records request, show the agency has made progress but still has a long way to go to make sure state routes that serve as main streets are safe for all users. CalBike examined 200 projects on roads used by people biking or walking and found that Caltrans only built 23% of the infrastructure it identified as needed for active transportation users.
We looked at projects in Caltrans’ 2024 State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP), which programs four years of roadway maintenance projects. Only 215 miles of bikeways and 30 miles of sidewalks were included, which is less than 8% of Caltrans’ 10-year bikeway target and 2% of its sidewalk target. The projects included only 61% of the bikeway linear feet identified as needed and the bikeways implemented were sometimes downgraded from separated and protected facilities to paint on the roadway.
The vision of zero road fatalities is a fantasy until we make safety for all the central design concept on our state roads. It’s time for Caltrans and California to do better.
· Set stronger SHOPP targets for implementation of Complete Streets.
· Publicly identify targets and progress toward them throughout project development.
· Create full project transparency and publish project documents (PIDs) online.
· Engage local stakeholders in project development where Complete Streets needs are identified, especially in equity-priority communities.
· Formalize and limit exemptions to Complete Streets directives.
· Create annual progress reports that detail progress towards Complete Streets performance targets based on project implementation.
· Create project development accountability tools to easily track project-specific Complete Streets facilities implementation.
1017 L Street #288
Sacramento, CA 95814
© California Bicycle Coalition 2023
