For bicycling at the state level in California, 2021 was a mixed year. However, at CalBike, with the help of our dedicated and fabulous members and supporters (we’re looking at you!), we accomplished a lot.

We won $10M in e-bike subsidies, so more Californians will get the chance to adopt this clean, green, form of transportation. We finished five bike plans that will make Fresno, Bakersfield, and Merced more bike-friendly, as part of the High-Speed Rail project. And we drafted five dramatic proposals to promote bicycle tourism by creating safe bike routes in five more Central California counties. And CalBike contributed to advocacy that is almost certain to lead to a change to Caltrans street design regulations that will allow vehicle lanes as narrow as 10’.

We broadened our coalition, adding new partners. In 2021, CalBike worked on campaigns alongside human rights, civil rights, social justice, immigrant rights, racial justice, environmental justice, women’s rights and health, economic justice, and housing justice & homeless advocacy organizations. 

With help from our donors, we continued to promote quick-build design to transform our streets at speed. We distributed 300 copies of the quick-build brochure that we created with our partners at Alta Planning + Design to local planners and public works professionals, and we continue to work to get information about quick-build techniques into the hands of planners and decision-makers.

In 2021, CalBike members and supporters sent 9,375 emails urging their elected representatives to take action to support better bicycling in California. You added 7,142 signatures to petitions demanding bicycle-friendly reforms. And we supported three bicycle-friendly bills that became law in 2021, allowing lower speed limits, advancing Slow Streets, supporting the Great Redwood Bike Trail.