CTC Assessment

CalBike is leading a critical assessment of the more important agency in transportation expenditures: the California Transportation Commission (CTC). The assessment will cover how well the CTC allocates, develops, implements and monitors transportation funding and policies that address state goals related to social equity, climate, health, economy and natural and working lands conservation, with an emphasis on impacts to low-income communities and communities of color. A specific focus will be on the Road Repair Accountability Act of 2017 (SB 1) funds and implementation.

The assessment’s goals are as follows:

  • Catalyze and build on community organizing for transportation justice
  • Ensure CTC accountability to state and local goals
  • Better watchdog the CTC (daylight and democratize the CTC including the Commissioner Appointments process)
  • Foster general publicity
  • Garner legislative oversight/support
  • Gather and use qualitative and quantitative data to develop a track record for future efforts

The assessment will be conducted in four parts:

1) Broadly determine how well the CTC follows our 10 guiding principles we co-developed for CTC’s SB 1 implementation program (see below). We believe the CTC should uphold these principles when implementing policies and allocating and approving funds to ensure they are in alignment with environmental, climate, and mobility justice. We build off of the California Environmental Justice Alliance’s 2018 Environmental Justice Agency Assessment.

2) A more detailed assessment and grading system for SB 1 projects. This detailed project-level analysis will use CTC project application records to determine average letter grades based on our rubric, along with summarized qualitative analysis on projects and recommendations.

3) Some detailed GIS maps showing SB 1 project development and benefits/impacts for specific cities/communities.

4) Consolidated community feedback and recommendations.

We hope this assessment continues the conversation about how the CTC plays a powerful role in providing opportunity for all Californians, particularly for low-income communities and communities of color, who have been historically marginalized due to past and present transportation investments. We hope this can help improve CTC’s commitment to and inclusion of state equity, climate, and air quality goals within policy implementation. We need a forward-looking transportation system, planned for current and future Californians.