Invest/Divest

Call on California policymakers to divest from regressive road-building and invest in Complete Streets and California’s transportation future.

WHAT’S AT STAKE

The time for radical change is now if we want to preserve a habitable climate for future generations.

Our efforts have a new sense of urgency as each year highlights the increasing damage of toxic emissions to our climate and increasing numbers of fatalities on our streets.
California should devote a minimum of 50% of its transportation budget to support active transportation: biking, walking, and public transit. $10 Billion for Bikes!
To meet the moment, CalBike is launching Invest/Divest, a campaign to shift California’s transportation spending from traffic-inducing, climate-killing, over-policed, and community-destroying motor vehicle road expansions to Complete Streets, sustainable mobility options, equitable treatment of all road users regardless of race, and a transportation future where it is easier and safer for more people to get around by biking, walking, or using public transportation.
HOW YOU CAN HELP

Take Action

OUR APPROACH
Agency Action

We’ll work with California environmental and transportation agencies like to steward state-level policies, programs, and guidelines to align transportation spending with the state’s climate and equity goals

Legislation

We’ll shape, support, sponsor, and work to advance legislation that addresses Invest/Divest strategic priorities, leading with safety, equity, and decarbonizing California’s transportation sector.

Budget

We’ll advocate for funding increases for active transportation projects and implementing Complete Streets by divesting and reallocating money from harmful freeway expansion projects and biased traffic enforcement.

OUR INVEST PILLARS

Invest in Complete Streets: Prioritize new safe, accessible, and equitable infrastructure that makes biking, walking, and micromobility convenient and appealing. Invest in safe roadways for all transportation modes, bringing us closer to Vision Zero and our ambitious climate goals.

Invest in Just Streets: We’re expanding the definition of a Complete Street to mean one where people of all identities and bodies are safe from police harassment. To accomplish this, we must decriminalize biking and walking, including bikes treating stop signs as yields—often used in biased, pretextual policing—to make our complete streets safe for all identities and bodies. Remove discriminatory barriers based on class, race, gender, age, ability, and other identities and invest in communities where the safety of all residents is paramount.

Invest in Complete Communities: No more bike lanes to nowhere. Invest in connected bikeways and pedestrian paths that provide safe, integrated access to essential destinations, making active transportation a viable option for more Californians.

Invest in Thriving Communities: Invest in long-term neighborhood safety, security, and wealth that connects sustainable transportation options with affordable housing that is integrated with healthy destinations. We must empower the communities most impacted by harmful transportation investments to choose their own goals, strategies, and projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, local toxic air, and lethal streets.

OUR DIVEST PILLARS

Divest from Freeway Expansion: Don’t build one more mile of dead-end infrastructure that increases traffic, damages communities, increases fossil fuel dependence, and creates new maintenance bills that California can’t afford to pay. Divest from failed traffic mitigation policies that lead to gridlock, and invest those funds in infrastructure to move California into the future.

Divest from Climate Collapse: Transportation is the biggest contributor to GHG emissions, so we must divest from projects that increase VMT and invest those funds in low- or no-carbon transportation alternatives.

Divest from Environmental Racism: Low-income communities of color are harmed the most by toxic air, freight distribution, displacement, and gentrification pressures. It’s time to divest from projects that bring environmental degradation and invest those funds in historically marginalized communities.

Divest from Enforcement and Criminalization: Californians need safety from the violence of cars, freight trucks, and other forms of publicly-subsidized harm that especially burden and criminalize Black and brown bodies/communities. Divest from racist, militarized traffic enforcement and invest in community resources to support and protect vulnerable residents.

Divest from Policing as a Street Safety Solution: Law enforcement is often positioned as the prevailing authority on street safety, ignoring other forms of community protection. We cannot trust the police to enforce traffic laws equitably without the removal of white supremacy from law enforcement. Therefore, we must remove police enforcement from Vision Zero and other safe streets strategies.

More About the Invest/Divest Movement

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