calbike insider Archives

CalBike Insider: From State Law to Local Implementation

February 19, 2025/by Kendra Ramsey

CalBike’s work may seem removed from local efforts to build safer streets, but state laws have very real and direct — though sometimes invisible — effects on local infrastructure. In this Insider, we take a look at how state laws filter down to the local level and the real-world impacts of some laws CalBike helped pass.

Changing state law

Getting a bill through any legislative body has been compared to sausage-making. It’s a messy process, and what starts out as a strong bill can be weaker or even counterproductive by the time the legislative subcommittees get through with it. CalBike works with bill authors and other advocacy groups to influence the process and maintain language that preserves the original intent of the bill as much as possible.

Not all changes in committee are counter to a bill’s intent. Some may clarify confusing language, making it easier to implement. At times, a bill’s language could even become stronger. However, even if the final bill signed into law doesn’t have all the provisions CalBike would have liked at the outset, it can still make a significant difference.

For example, the Complete Streets Law signed by the governor gives Caltrans more leeway than we would have liked to avoid including biking and walking infrastructure in repair projects. But that doesn’t change the impact of the bill, which showed strong and broad support for streets that work for all modes of transportation. Caltrans is taking it seriously, and CalBike continues to engage with the agency’s implementation efforts.

Changes at the local level

A new law is only as effective as its implementation. A 2023 law allowing several cities to pilot automated speed enforcement has been slow to get started; San Francisco is just now installing its first speed cameras, which will become operational next month. It could be several years before it becomes clear what role automated speed enforcement can play in making our streets safer.

This is not uncommon. Local governments often need time to make implementation plans and develop new local regulations, if needed. Another example of this is the 2014 law CalBike sponsored that added separated, on-street bikeways to California’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). The MUTCD is a go-to reference for planning and public works departments, and many local governments were reluctant to install this protective bike infrastructure unless it was in the MUTCD.

For CalBike, passing the law wasn’t the end of our work. Although the law went into effect in 2015, we created a brochure to introduce protected bike lanes to local governments in 2016. In 2018, we conducted a webinar about why cities should include separated lanes when building on-street bikeways. We also advised on the development of the guidance produced by Caltrans, the Design Information Bulletin 89, which informs Caltrans and local agency staff on how to properly design this facility.

In the 10 years since the original law was passed, protected bikeways have become the gold standard for on-street bike infrastructure. It took time for local governments to understand the concept and incorporate it into their plans (like this recent draft City of San Diego Street Design Manual, which features protected bikeway design on page 94), but that statewide law has had a big impact.

Changing the way we think about our streets

Another reason new state laws can take time to filter down to the local level is that many new laws include stepped or delayed implementation schedules. For example, the Daylighting Saves Lives Law, which CalBike helped pass in 2023, had a two-step implementation. The law went into effect in 2024, but people couldn’t be ticketed for parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk until 2025.

At the beginning of this year, municipalities can ticket people parked too close to a crosswalk, whether the curb is painted red or not. However, local enforcement and ticketing are likely to vary among communities, and some drivers may be unaware of the new law. However, now that the law is in full effect, local governments are starting to paint red curbs and issue parking tickets. It may take time for leaving clear space for visibility around crosswalks to become common practice across California, but this law will save more lives each year as implementation grows.

CalBike Insider: Updating the MUTCD to Comply with New Law

February 4, 2025/by Kendra Ramsey

If the headline didn’t lose you at “MUTCD,” welcome! CalBike often works deep in the weeds, sitting on advisory committees and wrangling with state agencies over policy changes that may seem minor or arcane but have significant impact on our safe biking and walking.

One example of this is an update to the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. California’s MUTCD is akin to the Bible for state and local planners and public works departments. It lays out allowable road treatments and can frustrate bicycle advocates when it’s used as a reason not to implement the latest guidance on safe biking and walking infrastructure.

However slowly, the MUTCD does get updated with better practices, such as when CalBike passed a law legalizing protected bikeways. Before the 2014 law, few municipalities were willing to install physically separated bike lanes because they weren’t in the MUTCD and cities feared legal liability.

In 2024, CalBike supported AB 1216, which prohibits the installation of, as well as state funding for, Class III bikeways on high-speed streets. A Class III bikeway is a route featuring a shared lane for bike riders and car drivers, sometimes indicated with sharrow markings. The passage of that law triggered an update to the MUTCD.

As a member of the California Walk and Bike Technical Advisory Committee (known by the lovely acronym CWBTAC), CalBike is helping shape the language for new street design guidance that directs communities not to put shared lane markings on streets with speed limits greater than 30 mph. It’s a small thing and pretty technical. But we hope that removing the option to slap some sharrows in the roadway and call it a bikeway will force local governments and Caltrans to design better, safer routes for people who get around by bike.

CalBike Insider: Statewide Bike/Walk Advisory Committee Weighs in on Complete Streets

January 9, 2025/by Kendra Ramsey

CalBike does a lot of high-profile advocacy, winning big improvements for active transportation such as the Complete Streets Law and the Daylighting Law. But we also spend a lot of time deep in the weeds, sitting on state advisory boards and committees that shape agency policies and the ways that new laws are implemented. Sometimes we’re helping develop the process for a new law we helped pass; in other cases, our administrative work influences policies for biking and walking separate from the legislative process.

Our agency work is never glamorous and can be frustrating at times because of the slow pace of change. But it’s as essential to moving California’s transportation future toward biking, walking, and transit as our legislative work. Here’s a look behind the curtain at a recent meeting of the California Walk and Bike Technical Advisory Committee (CWBTAC).

What is a technical advisory committee?

The CWBTAC is an advisory body to Caltrans, and includes representatives from statewide advocacy groups like CalBike, representatives from city and county governments and transit agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, consultants, and other state agencies. Membership is open periodically by application and includes geographic, topic area, and sector goals. Quarterly meetings are closed to the public.

CalBike has been a member of the CWBTAC since it was formed in 2018 and was on the California Bicycle Advisory Committee, which the CWBTAC replaced, before that. We communicate regularly with Caltrans administrators during committee meetings such as this and in one-on-one meetings. Representing the concerns and needs of the bicycling community to Caltrans officials has been one of CalBike’s core functions since our founding 30 years ago.

Caltrans workshops implementation of new Complete Streets law

The most recent CWBTAC meeting convened shortly before Thanksgiving, and the main topic on the agenda was Caltrans’ implementation of the recently passed Complete Streets Law, SB 960.

Caltrans presented an overview of the process to ensure the infrastructure needs of people who get around by biking, walking, or taking transit are considered as the agency plans new maintenance projects and outlined the types of public engagement that occur at each stage of the project development process. The meeting then went into breakout groups, during which time participants shared ideas on how Caltrans should implement the Complete Streets law (SB 960). CalBike shared ideas on outreach to bring voices from disadvantaged communities into the discussion and how to create a process that doesn’t allow the desires of car drivers to overrule the interests of vulnerable road users.

Advisory bodies like the CWBTAC provide an opportunity for direct engagement and conversation with Caltrans and other agency staff. These meetings are an opportunity for CalBike to share the bicyclist’s perspective with not only Caltrans but also the local, regional, and statewide agencies and stakeholders that participate.

We will continue to work on Complete Streets implementation, both in large discussion settings and smaller meetings with Caltrans staffers, in the year ahead. The legislative session is barely getting started, but CalBike is already hard at work to make state roadways safer for everyone.

Budget Deal Restores ATP Funding

July 5, 2023/by Jared Sanchez

California’s Active Transportation Program (ATP) provides dedicated funding for biking and walking improvements across the state. CalBike championed the creation of the ATP and has continued to advocate for additional funding. We applaud the legislature and the governor for restoring planned funding to the ATP in the 2023-24 state budget. With the budget deal, the ATP will continue to operate with its historic billion dollar one-time expansion and provide critical infrastructure, as we saw in the final list of Cycle 6 projects.

ATP budget in flux

In 2022, with a historic budget surplus, we asked for $2 billion for bikes in the state budget. We didn’t get the full $2 billion, but we got $1.1 billion allocated to the ATP, more than tripling previous annual funding. But, as this year’s budget deficit began to come into focus, Governor Gavin Newsom’s initial budget clawed back $500 million from the ATP. The governor promised to find $300 million of that from other sources, but that still left the program $200 million short.

The final budget deal restored full funding. The California Transportation Commission (CTC), which oversees the ATP and scores projects submitted for funding on a scale of 1 to 100. It approved an additional 134 projects in June, on top of projects previously approved. As Streetsblog reported, the additional funding allowed the CTC to fund projects that scored 92 and above in Cycle 5; an extra $1 billion allowed the commission to extend funding to those with scores of 89 and above in Cycle 6.

Funding for the ATP has increased but not enough to meet demand as California communities scramble to add safe biking and walking infrastructure to streets designed to move cars at deadly speeds. Even with extra one-time funds, many worthy projects don’t make the cut. That means bike lanes and pedestrian improvements delayed or scrapped. This is why CalBike is advocating for $10 billion for bikes, or half of California’s transportation dollars to reverse the historic deficit in building active transportation infrastructure.

How does the ATP work?

If you’re wondering what Cycle 5 and Cycle 6 mean, the explanation requires a deep dive into planning timelines. Let’s start with a history of the ATP.

Created by the state legislature in 2013 to consolidate the efforts of several disparate funding sources, the ATP serves as a central hub for bike and pedestrian projects. The State Senate bill that created the ATP specifically calls for the program to “increase the proportion of trips accomplished by biking and walking” and “increase safety and mobility for nonmotorized users.”Since its inception, the ATP has funded over 800 active transportation projects across the state, benefiting both urban and rural areas. Half of the funded projects have been Safe Routes to Schools.

SB 1 (Beall, 2017), also known as the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017, significantly augmented ATP’s funding, directing an extra $100 million a year to the ATP and doubling its funding.

Although the funding comes in annually, the CTC accepts applications for another cycle of ATP grants every two years. Cycle 5 was in 2021 and Cycle 6 was this year. Just to make the math more confusing, the grants are distributed over five years, since it can take time to complete the projects.

In 2021, the ATP approved grants for 49 projects in Cycle 5, barely 10% of the applications received. Funded projects included:

$30 million for Connecting Canoga Park – beautifully detailed with maps and renderings here.
$10 million for Safe Routes to School in Koreatown, Los Angeles – with extensive detail on crosswalk and safety features here.
$1440 for the Pollock Pines Pony Express Trail Bicycle and Pedestrian Improvements – outlined here.

$10 billion for bikes

The one-time boost in ATP funding allowed CTC to greenlight three times as many projects in Cycle 6 as in Cycle 5 (15 Bay Area projects, plus rural grants, and the 134 projects approved in June, for a total of more than 150). That still left many excellent biking and walking infrastructure projects without state funding.

The ATP isn’t the only funding source for active transportation infrastructure. Local and regional monies pay for projects as well. And there are billions more in the state transportation budget that should shift. With the threat of climate crisis looming ever larger, we need to create space for low- and no-carbon transportation fast, and that requires much more support at the state level.

CalBike is asking our elected officials to spend less on building climate-killing freeways and more on Complete Streets and people-centered transportation infrastructure. Look for our new Complete Streets Campaign, coming later this year. And, of course, we’ll continue to push for $10 billion for bikes.

Inside the Black Box of Appropriations

May 10, 2023/by Jared Sanchez

It is now that time of the year where California’s appropriations committees wield their influence in the legislative process, as the state’s budget begins to come into focus. Appropriations committees have outsize power and can affect the passage of a bill in unexpected ways. Here’s a look behind the scenes.

Kill bill

If a California senator or assemblymember wants to kill a bill, one of the sneakier ways to do so is in the legislative appropriations committees. One member with the ear of the appropriations chair can get a bill put into the committee’s “Suspense File,” possibly never to return.

What’s behind this seemingly undemocratic quirk of California’s legislature, and what can we do about it?

What is the appropriations committee?

In both the California State Senate and Assembly, as legislation moves through the process, any bill that requires money or has any fiscal impact will advance to their respective appropriations committees. The committees must approve any additional costs before the bill goes to a full vote.

How a bill gets killed in appropriations — the Suspense File

Led by the Senate and Assembly appropriations committees, any legislation that meets a certain fiscal threshold will be placed in the Suspense File (cue ominous music). Generally, if the cost of a bill is determined to be $50,000 or more to the General Fund, or $150,000 or more to a special fund, that bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.

Many bills stay in the Suspense File until the fiscal deadline passes, then disappear from the legislative process entirely. The Suspense File was developed as a mechanism for slowing the process and giving legislators a way to consider all the bills that are going to put significant pressure on the budget.

What really is the Suspense File?

The Suspense File is among the most opaque and secretive practices at the Capitol, and it allows legislative leaders to not only shelve proposals that are too expensive, but also more quietly dispatch those that are controversial or politically inconvenient. It’s well known at the state Capitol that powerful legislators can use the Suspense File as a political tool to keep controversial bills from reaching the Assembly or Senate floor — typically with no explanation, and sometimes without a public vote.

Coming back from the dead: moving bills out of the Suspense File

A bill still has a fighting chance until the Suspense File hearing, when the appropriations committees consider all the bills in the file and decide all at one time which get to move on for debate. Lobbyists, legislators, and constituents play an active and important role in deciding which bills move forward.

How CalBike fights for bills we support, with your help

Like any other civic process, shedding light and making noise can influence the course of a bill in appropriations. When one of CalBike’s bills is in danger of going into the Suspense File, we work behind the scenes to convince key legislators to move it forward. We also ask our members to send emails and make calls to support the bill.

Sometimes that works, and sometimes a good bill dies in appropriations. Knowing how the process works helps us fight for measures that improve biking, equity, and joy. We couldn’t do it without your help.

Which bills can you help get off suspense this year?

Most of our priority bills this year are or will be placed on suspense. Three bills in particular are in jeopardy, given their controversial nature and history. AB 1525, SB 50, and AB 645 are some of the most sensitive bills. If we feel one of our bills is likely to die on suspense, we’ll ask you to take action by emailing or calling your representative or the appropriations chair. Keep an eye out for action alerts and, if you see we’re up against the Suspense File, now you know what that means, and how meaningful your action can be.

CalBike Insider: First Look at 2023 Active Transportation Bills

February 2, 2023/by Jared Sanchez

It’s still early days, and CalBike is busy working with legislators and allies to firm up our legislative agenda for 2023, but we’ve already got a few bills on our radar. Here’s an early peek at the 2023 legislation that could make California streets more walkable, bikeable, and equitable.

Pave the Bike Lane

Once again, Assemblymember Laura Friedman is leading the way with critical legislation to turn plans into action. AB 6 fixes a misalignment between regional planning and funding to execute those plans. It would require regional transportation agencies to prioritize projects that reduce GHGs and vehicle miles traveled and promote active transportation. It’s a much-needed change that will help move complete streets projects from planning to implementation.

Divest from the Freeway

AB 7, also by Assemblymember Friedman, ends funding for freeway projects that expand capacity for single-occupancy vehicles. It’s a policy shift we need to mitigate climate change and the toxic pollutants and displacement that endanger communities near freeways.

Safety Stop Redux

After the Bicycle Safety Stop failed to become law twice, Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath introduced AB 73, which proposes pilot programs to test the effects of allowing people on bikes to treat stop signs as yields. While the many states that have already adopted similar laws could be considered (successful) tests, we support anything that moves California out of the dark ages on the safety stop.

Vehicle Weight Fee

Assemblymember Chris Ward has introduced AB 251, a measure to study the relationship between vehicle weight and rates of injury to pedestrians, bike riders, and other vulnerable road users. The study would look at the possibility of assessing a weight fee on passenger vehicles, making it more expensive to drive a bulkier car. We hope it disincentivizes people from buying more lethal vehicles.

Limit Pretextual Policing

As recent tragic events in Memphis illustrated yet again, giving police the power to stop, detain, and aggressively harass people for minor traffic offenses too often leads to violence, and even death, especially if the person is Black or Latino. SB 50, introduced by Senator Steven Bradford, would limit the police’s ability to make pretextual stops and thus limit racial profiling that continues to be rampant. CalBike strongly supports this measure because this bill will curtail the all-too-common pretextual bike stops that make riders of color even more unsafe.

The legislative slate hasn’t been finalized yet, and many more crucial pieces of legislation are in the works. We’ll have more to report soon when CalBike releases its 2023 agenda.

CalBike Insider: Kudos for the Appointment of Dr. Adonia Lugo to the CTC

April 29, 2022/by Kevin Claxton

CalBike is delighted that Governor Newsom appointed Dr. Adonia Lugo to fill a vacancy on the California Transportation Commission. Dr. Lugo is a welcome and highly-qualified addition to the commission.

CalBike advocates for a more inclusive CTC

CalBike was a member of a coalition that sent a list of candidates for the CTC vacancy, including Dr. Lugo. Her qualifications are best summed up by the group’s letter:

“Cultural anthropologist Adonia E. Lugo, Ph.D. is the chair of the Urban Sustainability Department at Antioch University Los Angeles. She was born and raised in traditional and unceded Acjachemen territory and now lives and works in traditional and unceded Tongva territory. Professor Lugo began investigating sustainable mobility, race, and space during her graduate studies at UC Irvine when she co-created CicLAvia and the organization today known as People for Mobility Justice in Los Angeles. In addition to her role at Antioch LA, Professor Lugo is an urban anthropologist with Pueblo Planning, a core organizer of The Untokening, and a co-founder of the Mobility Justice Research Network.”

Dr. Lugo still needs confirmation before she takes her seat on the CTC and CalBike will be pushing for the senate to approve her.

Long overdue change at the CTC

The CTC describes itself like this on its website: “The Commission is responsible for programming and allocating funds for the construction of highway, passenger rail, transit and active transportation improvements throughout California.” Unfortunately, for too long the commission has focused much of its energy and resources on the highway portion of its mandate and neglected passenger rail, transit, and active transportation.

Thanks to advocacy from CalBike and other NGOs, plus help from allies in Sacramento, California has begun to elevate active transportation as a way to decarbonize and humanize our communities. However, change at the agency level tends to move slowly and the climate crisis is barreling toward us with increasing speed, so CalBike will continue to push for more and faster changes. We are encouraged by the elevation of Toks Omishaken to Transportation Secretary and, if the governor chooses an equally enlightened choice to replace him at the head of Caltrans, California will be moving in the right direction.

CalBike Insider: California Poised to Mandate Secure Bicycle Parking

April 27, 2022/by Kevin Claxton

Last week, Assemblymember Kevin McCarty introduced a bill to require secure bicycle parking in all new residential buildings, and CalBike was there to testify in support.

AB 2863, the Bike Parking Bill, will require the Department of Housing and Community Development to create standards for bicycle parking in new residential buildings in the next regular update of their standards. It also requires the California Building Standards Commission to update its standards for parking in commercial buildings and specifies that the requirements must be independent of the number of vehicle parking spaces. That’s an essential consideration as more and more buildings are being built with few parking spaces or none at all, so local regulations that require bike parking in proportion to car parking are becoming unworkable. And as more Californians turn to the bicycle for healthy, low-cost, green transportation, the need for safe bike storage is critical.

While the Bike Parking Bill does not immediately impose a mandatory standard, it is the best bill about bike parking that the legislature has considered to date. Previous bike parking bills didn’t pass, in part, because they imposed a strict requirement for the number of parking spaces. The Bike Parking Bill adopts a better approach: By giving the appropriate government agency the responsibility to develop standards, it allows the agency to adopt flexible regulations that meet the needs of different kinds of housing. Also, agencies can adjust regulations in the future, as situations dictate, without an act of the legislature.

McCarty has handed the Bike Parking Bill to Assemblymember Lori Wilson, who will introduce it as it moves through the legislature. CalBike will continue to advocate for this essential measure.

Measures like this demonstrate why your support for CalBike is crucial. While it’s appropriate that the agency develop the standards, it’s vital for a stakeholder organization like the California Bicycle Coalition to stay involved. You can be sure that other stakeholders, who are more interested in reducing their costs than meeting residents’ needs for sustainable transportation, will be at the table. CalBike is the voice in Sacramento for Californians who care about biking. Once this bill passes, we will be there to make sure that housing developers don’t water down this essential regulation and that future construction in California provides bike parking that accommodates all types of bikes.

CalBike Insider: $2 billion for bikes in 2022

December 1, 2021/by Kevin Claxton

California has a current budget surplus of $31 billion. CalBike is advocating for the governor and legislature to put $2 billion of that surplus toward infrastructure projects that will make our communities safer and more inviting for biking and walking. We’re joined by our allies at Safe Routes Partnership, Transform, California Walks, Move LA, Planning and Conservation League, and Active SGV. That $2B would represent a one-time tenfold increase in funding for active transportation projects, but it will only touch the beginning of California’s need for infrastructure improvements.

The Active Transportation Program was created in 2013 by combining several state and federal funding sources into one account to support bike and pedestrian safety. Total funding was $134 million in 2013 ($160 million in today’s dollars), and the ATP had $238 million in 2020 (a 49% increase). Still, that amount does not come close to meeting the exploding demand for safer streets. The most recent round of ATP funding, for example, drew 453 applications requesting a total of $2.3 billion.

At a funding level of about $220 million each year, the Active Transportation Program is the largest single dedicated source of funding for bike and pedestrian safety in the country. Yet, for a state the size of California, with a transportation budget of $32 billion, it’s nowhere near enough to meet the need.

That’s why the $2 billion boost to active transportation is critical. Only 40 submitted proposals were funded in Cycle 5, representing less than 10% of potential projects. In the last cycle, projects had to score at least 92 points out of a possible 100 in the evaluation process to receive ATP money. Our recommendation for a $500 million augmentation to Cycle 5 ATP projects will allow the state to fund approximately 80 shovel-ready projects immediately. That would make almost all the proposals with applications scoring 86 points or above. CalBike has created a spreadsheet showing all 453 applications, sorted by their score, so you can see where a project from your community fits and if it might get funding.

Of course, this one-time boost is just the beginning. With our allies, we are demanding a doubling of the Active Transportation Program to $500 million annually and a new program to build connected bikeway networks to create 15-minute neighborhoods where everyone’s typical daily needs are just a safe and comfortable 15-minute bike ride away. We’ll need your support to get it done. Please sign the petition.

Half Billion Dollars Stripped from Active Transportation Funding in State Budget Impasse

September 27, 2021/by Kevin Claxton

Earlier this year, CalBike Insider reported that California’s Active Transportation Program was slated to get an extra $500 million in funding from the state’s budget surplus. That’s enough to pay for approximately 80 high-scoring projects that got turned down in the last round of limited ATP funding. You can see the list of all projects here.

The funding for the ATP was part of a $9.6 billion package approved by the legislature in June. It was contingent upon an agreement with the governor about how to spend almost half of it on high-speed rail. The parties never reached a deal, so the funding, including the $500 million boost to the ATP, reverted to the General Fund on October 10.

In case you haven’t been following this tangled tale, here’s a quick recap. Despite the impact of COVID, California ended up with higher than expected revenue and a budget surplus of almost $76 billion. The budget that passed in July directed $9.6 billion of that surplus toward transportation projects. HSR would have gotten $4.2 billion. The ATP’s $500 million would have more than doubled its annual budget of $220 million. Scroll down for a list of all the projects that lost funding when this deal fell through.

The disagreement that killed these projects was about whether to prioritize HSR spending in the Central Valley or urban coastal regions. The governor wanted to prioritize the Central Valley portion, which is easier to build and necessary for the entire system to work as planned. The legislators wanted investment in the urban areas to speed up transit and give millions of their constituents in Los Angeles and the Bay Area a convenient alternative to sitting in traffic in their cars.

In his veto statement for AB 604, Governor Newsom included this language: “I look forward to re-engaging with the Legislature to finalize and pass a comprehensive transportation package early next year that invests in a wide variety of critically-necessary projects including high-speed rail….”

CalBike is concerned that the governor’s message did not explicitly include active transportation among the projects to be funded when they reach an agreement on HSR. Negotiations will continue during the legislative break, with hopes that the parties can return with a package in January or February.

CalBike will work to make sure that the ATP gets its proposed $500 million boost (at least!) in California’s 21/22 fiscal year. A predicted surplus for next year, which is projected to be at least $5 billion, could provide more incentive to invest some of the prior surplus in worthy transportation projects.

Here’s the complete list of defunded projects from the transportation package:

Los Angeles Olympics – $1 billion General Fund to deliver critical projects in time for the 2028 Olympic Games. These funds would be allocated through the Transit and Intercity Rail Capital Program (TIRCP). Eligible projects must be in the Southern California region and related to the transportation needs for hosting the 2028 Olympic Games.
Priority Transit and Rail Projects – $1 billion General Fund for transit and rail projects statewide that improve rail and transit connectivity between state and regional/ local services. These funds would also be competitively allocated through TIRCP.
Active Transportation—$500 million General Fund to advance projects that increase the proportion of trips accomplished by walking and biking, increase the safety and mobility of non-motorized users. The intent of this allocation is to fund the list of projects already submitted and scored through the CTC’s Active Transportation Program. While the CTC requested $2 billion for active transportation projects, this significant investment was considered sufficient at this time.
High Priority Grade Separations and Grade Crossing Improvements – $500 million General Fund to support critical safety improvements throughout the state. These funds would be allocated through a competitive grant program for both freight and intercity rail-related projects.
High-Speed Rail – $4.2 billion Proposition 1A funds to complete high-speed rail construction in the Central Valley, advance work to launch service between Merced and Bakersfield, advance planning and project design for the entire project, and leverage potential federal funds.
State Highway Rehabilitation and Local Roads and Bridges – $2 billion ($1.1 billion special funds through 2028, and $968 million federal funds) to support the advancement of priority State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP) projects, Interregional Transportation Improvement Program (ITIP) projects, and local road and bridge investments. The source of the $1.1 billion is interest income from the State Highway Account and other accounts.
Zero-Emission Rail and Transit Equipment Purchases and Infrastructure – $407 million ($100 million General Fund, $280 million Public Transportation Account (PTA), and $27 million federal funds) to demonstrate and purchase or lease state-of-the-art clean bus and rail equipment and infrastructure that eliminate fossil fuel emissions and increase intercity rail and intercity bus frequencies. This funding proposal was rejected by the legislature but remains part of the ongoing negotiations.

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