Last Chance to Influence Caltrans Complete Streets Priorities
Now is your last chance to influence how Caltrans spends $100 million on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. The funding comes from an unprecedented set-aside that Caltrans director Toks Omishakin ordered, to add bicycle and pedestrian safety elements to projects in the 2020 State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP).
The SHOPP contains 920 projects. The projects will be constructed over the next four years. Many of them already include complete streets elements, but some projects don’t include critical safety improvements despite the multimillion dollar investment. Caltrans Headquarters has already identified 22 of those projects which will require less than $50 million of the $100 million set-aside.
Now, Caltrans district directors are identifying more projects to receive the funding that remains in the set-aside. They will submit those projects to Caltrans Headquarters for evaluation on September 25.
Caltrans staff has shared with CalBike and others on the California Walk Bike Technical Advisory Committee the criteria they will use to evaluate the projects proposed by the district directors. The criteria are excellent, with an emphasis on projects that will help marginalized communities. These are neighborhoods that have been historically divided by racist freeway construction and harmed by neglect to their infrastructure.
However, the criteria only apply to projects submitted for evaluation. Some projects that may need safety improvements could be overlooked and never submitted for evaluation. This is where you come in.
Help highlight Complete Streets priorities in your community
We want you to help us figure out which Caltrans projects need Complete Streets. We have provided a link to the project summary document below. Don’t be put off by the length of the document. Project summaries are broken out by county, so you can focus on the ones near you. If you’d like more information, CalBike has copies of the Project Initiation Documents (PIDs). If you’d like to see the PID for any of the projects, email Jared Sanchez.
2020 Caltrans SHOPP Projects Summary
Let us know as soon as possible if you see projects that need Complete Streets funding in your community. CalBike will communicate your requests to the Caltrans regional offices and will advocate for them when the proposals are reviewed at the California Transportation Commission meeting in November.
