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Tag Archive for: Complete Streets

California Can’t Afford Not to Build Better Bikeways, Quickly

May 3, 2024/by Jared Sanchez

Time is running out for all of us to deal with climate change. If we keep driving at the rate we always have, we will drive ourselves into climate armageddon. That’s why it’s critical to pass Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s Quicker and Better Bikeways Bill (AB 2290).

The bill will create a quick-build pilot at Caltrans, which takes a notoriously long time to plan and build new infrastructure. The bill also addresses two ways agencies avoid building truly safe bikeways. It prohibits our public agencies from spending state active transportation money on sharrows on roads with high speed limits. And it mandates that these agencies include any bike facilities in their own plans when repairing a roadway — no more using lack of funds as an excuse to shortchange people who bike.

The Quicker and Better Bikeways Bill is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, a place where many excellent measures are quietly killed. CalBike is working with our allies to ensure AB 2290 gets the support of this crucial committee.

For more background on this measure, please see California Must Seize the Opportunity to Quickly Build Better Bikeways. Check out all the bills we’re following on our Legislative Watch page.

Senate to Hear SAFER Streets Package

April 19, 2024/by Brian Smith

MEDIA ADVISORY for April 23, 2024

Contact: Jared Sanchez, CalBike, (714) 262-0921, Jared@CalBike.org

SAFER Streets Bills to Be Heard at Senate Transportation Committee on Tuesday, April 23, 2024

SACRAMENTO – The Senate Transportation Committee will convene on April 23, 2024, at 1:30 p.m. to discuss the SAFER California Streets package of bills. The hearing will take place at 1021 O Street, Room 1200, Sacramento State Capitol, and will be televised.

The Speeding and Fatality Emergency Reduction on California Streets (SAFER California Streets) Package, comprising Senate Bills 960 and 961 authored by Senator Scott Wiener, aims to enhance safety and accessibility on California roads for all users.

The SAFER California Streets package will have the combined effect of creating safe passage for people biking, walking, and taking transit through infrastructure improvements and simple vehicle safety measures.

As traffic fatalities surge across the United States, particularly in California, amid a spike in reckless driving since the pandemic’s onset, the urgency for such measures is undeniable. According to a recent report by TRIP, a national transportation research group, California has witnessed a 22% increase in traffic fatalities from 2019 to 2022, compared to the national average of 19%. Shockingly, in 2022 alone, 4,400 Californians lost their lives in car crashes.

“Other nations are making progress to protect road users, while in the U.S., the problem grows steadily worse,” said Jared Sanchez, policy director for CalBike. “CalBike is proud to sponsor the SAFER California Streets bills because the continuing killing and maiming of vulnerable road users on California’s streets must end.”

The SAFER Streets Bills

SB 960: Complete Streets Bill
SB 960, The Complete Streets Bill of 2024, mandates Caltrans to incorporate safe infrastructure for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users when repaving state routes serving as local streets. The bill includes provisions for transit needs, facilitating the establishment of more bus-only state highway lanes and transit enhancements on local streets. The Complete Streets Bill requires Caltrans to establish objective goals and prioritize the implementation of comfortable, convenient, and connected facilities for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users.

SB 961: Safe Vehicles Save Lives Bill
SB 961 protects vulnerable road users by focusing on vehicle safety enhancements. This bill mandates the installation of truck side guards to protect cyclists and pedestrians from being pulled beneath the rear wheels of trucks during accidents. Side guards also prevent cars from running under trucks during crashes, significantly reducing fatalities.

Additionally, SB 961 requires speed governors or intelligent speed assistance (ISA) technology in all passenger cars sold in California from the 2032 model year onwards. ISA technology will warn a driver when the vehicle exceeds the speed limit through visual, sound, or haptic alerts and is expected to reduce fatalities among pedestrians and cyclists, aligning with the state’s Vision Zero goals. The EU has implemented a similar law, with ISA required on new cars starting this July.

These bills represent a comprehensive approach to tackling the pressing issue of road safety in California, addressing both infrastructure and vehicle safety concerns. The outcome of the Senate Transportation Committee hearing on April 23, 2024, holds the potential to catalyze transformative changes that will save lives and make California’s streets safer for all.

CalBike Backgrounders
Truck Side Guards : A Low-Cost Hack That Would Save Lives and Money
Slowing Cars to Save Lives
Hundreds Attend CalBike Complete Streets Campaign Launch with Senator Wiener

Injuries and Deaths Caused by Trucks without Side Guards
Bicyclist Hit by Big Rig on San Vicente at Santa Monica This Morning
Bicyclist dies in Long Beach hit-and-run crash with big rig, police say
Pedestrian Killed By Big-Rig Last Week Identified As Kentucky Woman
Male Pedestrian Dead is after Being Hit by a Big Rig on Highway 99 at Esplanade

Injuries and Deaths Caused by Speeding
Woman charged with manslaughter in Carlsbad crash that killed 3-bike rider
One of my dearest friends, Julia Elkin, was struck and killed by a car last month
Speeding driver hits, kills bicyclist in Hayward
Video Two Anaheim teenagers hospitalized after speeding car hits them on the sidewalk

Measure HLA Wins in Huge Victory for Los Angeles Safe Streets

March 18, 2024/by Laura McCamy

The best bike plan on paper is worth nothing unless it’s implemented. Los Angeles has put in only 5% of the bike improvements in the plan it adopted in 2015. “Since 2019, when I started Streets for All, we have been asking, pleading, and demanding that the city adhere to its bike plan,” Streets for All founder Michael Schneider told CalBike.

So Streets for All turned that frustration into action, which culminated in putting Measure HLA on the ballot. The measure will require LA to add improvements for people biking and walking when it repaves a street.

Victory for HLA wasn’t a given, especially in a large city like Los Angeles. Streets for All raised $1 million to get enough signatures to qualify for the ballot and another $3 million in the campaign to pass it in the March vote. Streets for All is going to make its template for winning this measure public, so groups in other cities can pass similar measures. The Complete Streets Bill, SB 960, which CalBike and our allies, including Streets for All, are campaigning for this year, would require similar changes on Caltrans-controlled roadways.

Schneider has written a detailed and informative account of everything Streets for All did to win this campaign on Medium.

The result was a resounding victory for Complete Streets and active transportation in LA, as the measure passed by a wide margin with about two-thirds of the vote. “It’s so heartwarming. I don’t feel alone anymore,” Schneider said. “It’s kind of corny, but I feel endeared to my fellow citizens, who aren’t as car-brained as everyone assumed they would be.”

When asked if he thinks this vote represents a sea change in how Angelenos and their elected leaders view mobility in their city, Schneider noted that it remained to be seen whether people will support changes to street configurations in their neighborhoods as opposed to the city in general.

But, he noted, “In the places where these kinds of measures have been put to a vote, they are always really popular.” The loud voice at the community meeting complaining about a new bikeway doesn’t represent the majority view.

And while LA isn’t about to become a biking utopia, Schneider notes that neighboring cities like Santa Monica and Culver City are showing that it’s possible to create bikeable, walkable neighborhoods in the LA region. “I think what this vote shows is when people go to more walkable, bikeable areas, they really like it,” he said.

Schneider hopes the success of HLA inspires advocates in other cities. Someone on Nextdoor — the place he went to eavesdrop on the opposition — expressed a concern that HLA would be “contagious.” “We hope it becomes contagious,” he said.

Bike champions will be on the ballot in November

Electing bike-friendly leaders in local and state government is one of the best ways to ensure more victories like HLA. Five of the eight Assembly and Senate candidates CalBike endorsed will make it to the runoff, and a sixth is currently in second place by a small margin, which is a huge win for bike champions in Sacramento.

In California’s nonpartisan primary, the two candidates with the top vote tallies advance to the November ballot, regardless of party affiliation. Two of CalBike’s endorsed candidates didn’t get enough votes to make the top two for the November ballot: Jed Leano in Assembly District (AD) 41 and Javier Hernandez in AD 53.

In AD 58, Clarissa Cervantes is in second place, less than 100 votes ahead of the third-place candidate. Second place hasn’t been called in that race.

We’re happy to report that the six other candidates we endorsed are either leading their districts or comfortably in second place and headed for the November ballot.

AD 50: Robert Garcia

AD 52: Jessica Caloza

AD 57: Sade Elhawary

AD 79: Colin Parent

SD 25: Sasha Rénee Pérez

Thank you to everyone who biked the vote!

Hundreds Attend CalBike Complete Streets Campaign Launch with Senator Wiener

March 13, 2024/by Jared Sanchez

CalBike’s Complete Streets Campaign launch webinar showed strong support for Complete Streets, with 300 people in attendance. Panelists at Complete Streets on Caltrans Corridors touched on what Senator Scott Wiener’s Complete Streets Bill, SB 960, does, why it’s important, and what people can do to support its passage.

What the 2024 Complete Streets Bill does

Senator Wiener recounted how, when Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed his previous Complete Streets Bill in 2019, the governor said he wanted to give new leadership at Caltrans a chance to implement the agency’s own policies. Senator Wiener said it’s clear now that not enough has changed, and we need legislation to force Caltrans to take the safety of people biking and walking seriously.

Jeanie Ward-Waller, a former Caltrans deputy director and a consultant with CalBike, noted that Caltrans has identified $15 billion in needed improvements in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure on state-controlled roadways. However, the agency only has plans to invest $3 billion in active transportation over the next 10 years and has programmed only $280 million in the next three years. In a state that spends $20 billion on transportation annually, there’s no excuse to allocate so little to active transportation.

Laura Tolkoff from SPUR outlined a provision of the 2024 Complete Streets Bill that’s a revised addition to Complete Streets legislation: a focus on public transit. SB 960 would require Caltrans to add elements such as bus priority lanes on highways, bus boarding islands, and seating at bus stops when it repaves a state route served by transit.

The Complete Streets Bill also removes barriers to adding safe infrastructure where local roads intersect with state routes. Caltrans’ reluctance to upgrade intersections has created danger zones that communities have been powerless to remedy. This is yet another reason we urgently need to pass SB 960.

The fight over El Camino Real

Bringing statewide policy down to the local level, Sandhya Laddha from the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition presented her group’s ongoing struggle to add bikeways on a 41-mile stretch of El Camino Real that connects San Francisco and San Jose. Caltrans has plans to repave half of this stretch in the next five years, but getting safe bikeways included on this critical route has been an uphill battle.

SVBC’s advocacy has won support from local communities and government officials for better bike infrastructure. She said Caltrans is the biggest barrier, calling it a “black hole.”

Laddha envisions an Open Streets event along all 41 miles of El Camino that would show the potential of the roadway, which serves as a main street in 19 cities and towns, to be a vibrant community corridor.

Watch the Complete Streets on Caltrans Corridors Webinar

What you can do to pass the Complete Streets Bill

Attendees were engaged, and the question-and-answer session was lively. One of the most often asked questions was, “What can we do?” Speakers encouraged attendees to contact members of the Senate Transportation Committee, which will hold its first hearing on the Complete Streets Bill on April 9.

If you’d be willing to come to Sacramento on April 9 or take other action to support the Complete Streets Bill, please give us your contact information using the form below.

CalBike Announces 2024 Legislative Agenda

February 22, 2024/by Jared Sanchez

The California legislative session is shaping up to be a busy one, with a large number of new bills affecting active transportation plus a few two-year bills introduced last year and still moving through. We will also continue to advocate for more funding for active transportation in the budget process.

Here are the bills CalBike is supporting, opposing, and keeping an eye on in 2024.

Must-pass bills

If you were following CalBike’s work in 2019, you might remember the Complete Streets Bill. We won a hard-fought victory that year, passing the bill in the legislature, only to see it vetoed by the governor. Complete Streets is back for 2024 and at the top of our list of four top-priority bills.

2024 Complete Streets Bill

SB 960, authored by Senator Scott Wiener, would require Caltrans to implement safe infrastructure for people bicycling and walking when it repaves a state route that serves as a local street. The new version strengthens the measure by adding the needs of transit to the mix, paving the way for more bus-only state highway lanes, as well as transit improvements on local streets. We must show the governor he was wrong to trust Caltrans to implement its own policies since the 2019 veto, and we need to hold Caltrans accountable to make roads safer for all. We hope you’ll join our Complete Streets Campaign.

Safe Vehicles Save Lives Bill

SB 961 is part of Senator Wiener’s safer streets package, along with the Complete Streets Bill. This bill would require two measures to make vehicles less lethal to people bicycling and walking. Truck side guards are metal pieces installed between the wheels of semis and other large trucks. Side guards protect people riding bikes or walking from being pulled under the rear wheels of a truck. This is a too-common scenario, where a truck hits and injures someone but the fatal injuries occur when the truck rolls over the fallen person with its rear wheels. Side guards are a commonsense safety measure advocates have been fighting for at the federal and state levels, so California adopting it could be a big step toward a nationwide requirement. Trucking companies oppose the measure, placing the financial cost above the cost of lives lost.

The second part of this bill is a requirement for speed governors or speed limiters. Starting with 2027 models, passenger cars sold in California would be required to limit speed to no more than 10 mph above the posted speed limit. It’s an easy addition to modern cars, which are already outfitted with sophisticated sensors and programming. Speed is the biggest factor in fatalities of pedestrians and bike riders, with a huge difference in potential for serious injury and death between 20 and 30 mph, so this provision will save lives and move our state closer to its Vision Zero goals.

Quicker and Better Bikeways Bill

AB 2290 by Assemblymember Laura Friedman is another omnibus bike bill. Like Friedman’s OmniBike Bill in 2022, which made four changes to the vehicle code to make streets safer for biking, this measure has three provisions that will lead to — you guessed it — quicker and better bikeways.

The bill will limit state funding for Class III bikeways (or bike routes) to streets with speed limits under 20 mph. These are the least safe bicycle infrastructure, which typically include only sharrows marking a lane shared by car drivers and people on bikes. They provide no protection for bike riders and should be phased out for most uses.

Next, the Quicker and Better Bikeways Bill would remove loopholes and strengthen requirements for creating Complete Streets on state and local street projects funded by the Road Maintenance and Rehabilitation Program created by SB 1. Currently, agencies have an out if there’s a parallel facility nearby. AB 2290 requires bikeways included in bike plans to be added during these repairs.

The bill’s final provision creates a quick-build pilot at Caltrans. Currently, the agency doesn’t allow quick-build techniques, which can add safety elements for people bicycling and walking in months rather than years. We need quick-build upgrades to make dangerous roadways safer before more lives are lost. Quick-build is also essential for California to build out its bike networks and make bicycling an appealing and safe alternative to driving in time to avert climate disaster.

No Freeway Expansions for Freight

California needs fewer freeways, not more. But Caltrans often justifies adding lanes to accommodate freight traffic, even though that inevitably leads to induced demand, more traffic, more congestion, more pollution, and more greenhouse gases, particularly in marginalized Black and Brown communities. Assemblymember Mia Bonta’s AB 2535, sponsored by the Charge Ahead California coalition, limits highway expansions for freight traffic, a critical step toward reducing our freeway dependence.

A license to discriminate

Assemblymember Tasha Boerner has authored a number of bike-friendly bills, including sponsoring the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill and pushing for the budget to launch California’s E-Bike Incentives Project. But we can’t support her most recent measure, AB 2234, the E-Bike Licensing Bill, which prohibits youth younger than 12 from riding an electric bicycle and requires all riders to carry either a driver’s license or state-issued ID with a waiver showing they completed a CHP safety course.

The bill is a response to safety concerns about e-bikes, but it does nothing to make people riding e-bikes safer while increasing the chances of harassment, particularly for Black and Brown bike riders who are already disproportionately stopped by the police. It creates an onerous requirement that will discourage people from riding bikes at a time when we should be encouraging a switch to active transportation. The bill would require police to judge the age of a rider and whether they are on a classic bike or an e-bike, both distinctions that can be hard to make. CalBike will do all we can to stop this misguided measure.

The Active Transportation Slate

CalBike is supporting an additional slate of 12 active transportation bills.

AB 6, Friedman, Regional Prioritization for Clean Transportation: This measure requires regional transportation agencies to prioritize and fund transportation projects that significantly contribute toward regional and state climate goals.
AB 7, Friedman: Project Selection Process: A bill that requires state transportation agencies to incorporate environmental and equity principles into their project selection process.
AB 73, Boerner/Friedman, Bicycle Safety Stop: The campaign to legalize stop-as-yield for bike riders aged 18 and older continues.
AB 833, Rendon, Neighborhood Unification Bill: This bill requires Caltrans to prepare a plan for adding caps to freeway segments to reunite disadvantaged, underrepresented urban communities.
AB 2086, Schiavo, Caltrans Accountability and Transparency Bill: This bill will develop guidelines for Caltrans to determine whether the use of the funding made available is advancing the Core Four priorities of safety, equity, climate action, and economic prosperity established by CalSTA. It will also create a public online dashboard to display annual project investments, bringing much-needed public oversight to Caltrans projects.
AB 2259, Boerner, California Bike Smart Safety Handbook: This bill requires the DMV to create a bicycle safety handbook that includes information on, among other things, existing laws regulating bicycles and e-bikes. It’s a small step forward for safety.
AB 2583, Berman, Lowering Speed in School Zones: This bill would establish a default speed limit of 15 miles per hour in school zones during certain hours. It’s a vital measure that will protect children, who are among the most vulnerable to traffic violence.
AB 2669, Ting, No Bridge Tolls for People Walking and Biking: This bill ensures that people walking or bicycling across a toll bridge in California will never pay a fee. It makes permanent a temporary measure that sunsets next year.
AB 2744, McCarty: Bike Lane Protection Act: This bill prohibits the addition of a right-turn lane within 20 feet of a marked or unmarked crosswalk where there is not already a dedicated and marked right-turn or travel lane. Additionally, it would only allow the right turn of a car if the right turn is from an exclusive right-turn lane. It would also prohibit parking in Class II or IV bikeways (parking is already illegal on Class I separated bike paths).
SB 689, Blakespear, Bike Lanes in Coastal Areas: This bill would make it easier to convert an existing motorized vehicle travel lane into a dedicated bicycle lane near the coast, ending requirements for a traffic study to process a coastal development permit or an amendment to a local coastal program.
SB 1216, Blakespear: Prohibiting Class III Bikeways: This bill would prohibit public agencies and the ATP from installing a Class III bikeway (sharrows) on a street that has a posted speed limit greater than 30 miles per hour. It conflicts with some provisions of the Quicker and Better Bikeways Bill, and we expect the authors will work out the issue as both bills are revised.
SB 1271, Min: E-Bike Battery Standards: This bill sets minimum safety standards for batteries on all e-bikes sold, rented, or leased in California. It’s an excellent measure for preventing battery fires, which are most often caused by substandard manufacturing, and bringing some clarity to the growing e-bike market.

CalBike’s legislation watchlist

The deadline to introduce legislation was February 16, but many bills aren’t fully formed when they’re introduced. We’re watching 13 bills that may evolve into measures to add to our Active Transportation Slate or to oppose, depending on revisions in the legislative process. We’ll add more information about these bills as their trajectories become clearer, and we might add more bills to our watch, support, or oppose lists as their language evolves.

Stay up to date on bike-friendly legislation on CalBike’s Legislative Watch page.

AB 1447	Flora: E-Scooter Classification
AB 1773	Dixon: Banning Bikes on Boardwalks
AB 1774	Dixon: E-Bike Modifications
AB 1778	Connolly: E-Bike Restrictions
AB 1953	Villapudua: Vehicle Weight Limits
AB 2286	Aguiar-Curry: Autonomous Vehicle Safety
AB 2869	Friedman: Caltrans Trail Access
AB 3061	Haney: Autonomous Vehicle Safety
SB 50	Bradford: Stop Pretextual Policing
SB 768	Caballero: VMT Study
SB 925	Wiener: San Francisco Bay Area Local Revenue Measure
SB 926	Wahab: San Francisco Bay Area Public Transportation
SB 936	Seyarto: CEQA Exemption for Road and Safety Improvements

Complete Streets Webinar Launches CalBike Campaign

February 20, 2024/by Kevin Claxton

On March 6, 2024, from 9:00 am to 10:30 am, CalBike will host a panel discussion on Zoom: Complete Streets on Caltrans Corridors. The webinar, an advance session for April’s California Bicycle Summit, is free, but advance registration is required.

State Senator Scott Wiener will join the conversation, along with Jeanie Ward-Waller (Fearless Advocacy), Kendra Ramsey (CalBike), Laura Tolkoff (SPUR), and Sandhya Laddha (Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition). The discussion will center on Wiener’s 2024 Complete Streets Bill, SB 960, and the campaign to make Caltrans-controlled roads safer for people biking, walking, and taking public transit.

Why Caltrans Complete Streets matter

Complete Streets is the term for streets that meet the needs of people using all modes of transportation, not just those driving in cars. Too many of our roadways were designed with moving vehicles quickly as the only consideration, making them unfriendly and dangerous for people walking and biking.

To turn a street into a Complete Street, upgrades need to include more than a crosswalk here or some green paint there: a Complete Street is one that includes all the elements required to allow people who aren’t inside cars to travel safely and comfortably along the corridor. That could include bus boarding islands, protected bikeways, bulb-outs to reduce crossing distances, protected intersections, traffic calming measures like chicanes or speed humps, and more. In addition, Complete Streets are inviting to people of all ages, abilities, and races.

Local governments across California have adopted Complete Streets policies and begun creating corridors that invite people to get out of their cars and use active transportation. But state routes that serve as local thoroughfares through many cities have remained an obstacle to local progress.

Caltrans-controlled roads are often among the most dangerous in an area — high-injury corridors with fast-moving traffic. The agency has been reluctant to devote resources to redesigning these routes, despite local desires for safer streets and the agency’s own Complete Streets policies.

Senator Wiener’s Complete Streets Bill will require Caltrans to consider the needs of all users when it repaves a section of roadway. It will also bring much-needed transparency to an agency whose operations are in desperate need of some sunshine.

CalBike’s allies in the Complete Streets Campaign

The Complete Streets Bill is CalBike’s top legislative priority in 2024. We have retained Jeanie Ward-Waller, a powerful advocate with experience in and out of Caltrans, to help pass this critical measure.

Many other organizations have committed to help win Caltrans Complete Streets, including bill co-sponsors SPUR and Streets For All. Our allies include environmental and social justice organizations that recognize the central role of safe streets in achieving climate and transportation justice. And we have many local partners, including the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, which is waging its own campaign to add safe bikeways as Caltrans repaves El Camino Real (State Route 82).

We need your help to win passage of the Complete Streets Bill. A strong movement in support of safe passage for all Californians will help sway legislators and the governor. We hope you can join us on March 6 to jumpstart the Complete Streets Campaign.

Complete Streets Bill Will Help Build Crucial Connections

February 5, 2024/by Jared Sanchez

On January 24, Senator Scott Wiener unveiled the Speeding and Fatality Emergency Reduction (SAFER) on California Streets bill package that includes a Complete Streets Bill, SB 960. CalBike is a sponsor of the bill, the latest of several we have partnered on with Senator Wiener, a stalwart bike champion in Sacramento.

The 2024 Complete Streets Bill will require Caltrans to consider the safety of people biking, walking, and taking transit when it repaves state-controlled roadways. Caltrans’ jurisdiction includes many state routes that double as local streets. These streets can be critical connectors through urban areas and serve as small-town main streets, but they are also often among the most dangerous roads in the community.

The Complete Streets Bill is an excellent approach to make Caltrans-controlled streets safer. It might seem like a no-brainer, but similar legislation has faced opposition in the past. Here’s what you need to know to join the fight for Complete Streets.

The history of Complete Streets in California

This isn’t CalBike’s or Senator Wiener’s first attempt to pass a Complete Streets Bill. CalBike and our allies campaigned hard for SB 127, the Complete Streets for Active Living Bill, in 2019. The bill, which would have required Caltrans to consider adding elements to make biking and walking safer each time it repaved a state-controlled road, made it through the legislature only to be vetoed by Governor Gavin Newsom. In his veto statement, the governor said the law wasn’t needed because Caltrans already had a Complete Streets policy and would take the steps required by the bill.

Five years later, Caltrans has updated its Complete Streets policies and does include consideration of biking and walking in many project plans. On projects like the San Pablo Avenue Corridor Project, Caltrans hasn’t stood in the way of significant roadway changes to improve active transportation. But, as CalBike’s recent user survey showed, our state road system doesn’t serve the needs of people who get around by bike or on foot. In many projects, the Complete Streets elements selected by Caltrans represent the bare minimum of improvements for people biking and walking; in some projects, cost is used to justify these mediocre facilities, and in others, to justify the absence of Complete Streets elements altogether. We need the 2024 Complete Streets Bill to codify the approach to roadway improvements that the Caltrans Complete Streets policy promised but has not delivered.

What’s in the 2024 Complete Streets Bill?

The new Complete Streets Bill includes many of the elements of SB 127, Senator Wiener’s 2019 Complete Streets legislation, but with several notable improvements.

Similar to the earlier bill, SB 960 requires “all transportation projects funded or overseen by the department to provide comfortable, convenient, and connected complete streets facilities unless an exemption is documented and approved[.]”

However, it goes a step further and mandates the California Transportation Commission (CTC) to develop 4-year and 10-year objective targets. The key word is “objective.” By setting objective targets and requiring plain language reporting of progress, the bill holds Caltrans accountable for meeting California’s climate goals for its transportation sector.

Another new element in the 2024 bill is prioritizing public transit. The bill mandates objective targets to support efficient movement of transit vehicles on state roadways and includes transit prioritization as a required feature during road repairs.

Like earlier bills, highways that don’t allow bicycle or pedestrian access will be exempted from the requirement to build Complete Streets. However, it includes a provision to improve safety for people biking, walking, or taking transit at freeway over- and underpasses and interchanges. This is crucial, because freeway on and off ramps are often some of the most dangerous spots to walk and bike through our communities.

Fact-checking Caltrans Complete Streets policy

CalBike and our allies are in the process of gathering data and analyzing how well Caltrans serves the many California residents who aren’t in cars or trucks. We aren’t ready to release the data yet, but preliminary analysis highlights the need for the 2024 Complete Streets Bill.

Our review of Caltrans’ planning documents shows the agency has set up processes to consider Complete Streets in each road repair project. For projects where people biking and walking aren’t excluded, agency staff often recommend elements to make active transportation safer.

However, the recommended Complete Streets elements aren’t always included in the final project. And the way Caltrans uses the term Complete Streets is troubling.

A Complete Street is one that includes the infrastructure needed to safely bike, walk, and use public transit, allowing any of these modes to be safe and convenient options. In its planning documents, the agency considers a project incorporating “Complete Streets” to mean that any elements that increase the safety of people biking or walking are included, without consideration of whether it includes all the features needed to truly make a roadway safe for all users. For example, a project that only includes bicycle signage or sharrows can be claimed as having added “Complete Streets” elements, even if it falls short of the treatment appropriate for the roadway type or doesn’t include all the recommended elements.

To hold Caltrans accountable, CalBike and our allies must sort through and analyze hundreds of documents, a time-consuming task that few outside the agency have the time or resources to do. The 2024 Complete Streets Bill will make the agency’s processes more transparent, and that will make it easier to monitor its actions and provide public oversight.

We hope you’ll join us in supporting SB 960. Look for opportunities to take action as this critical bill moves through the legislative process.

CalBike Sponsors Senator Wiener’s Safe Streets Bills

January 24, 2024/by CalBike Staff

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 24, 2024

Contact: Jared Sanchez, CalBike, (714) 262-0921, Jared@CalBike.org

Senator Wiener Introduces Groundbreaking Bills to Slash California Road Deaths Epidemic

SACRAMENTO – Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced the Speeding and Fatality Emergency Reduction on California Streets (SAFER California Streets) Package, Senate Bills 960 & 961, a first-in-the-nation effort to make California roads safe and accessible to all users. Senate Bill 961 requires changes to vehicles directly, including a first-in-the-nation requirement that all new vehicles sold in California install speed governors, smart devices that automatically limit the vehicle’s speed to 10 miles above the legal limit. SB 961 also requires side underride guards on trucks, to reduce the risk of cars and bikes being pulled underneath the truck during a crash.

Senate Bill 960 requires that Caltrans, the state transportation agency, make physical improvements like new crosswalks and curb extensions on state-owned surface streets to better accommodate pedestrians, cyclists, the disability community, and transit users.

These changes are a head-on attempt to tackle vehicle fatalities, which are surging across the U.S.—and especially in California—amid a rise in reckless driving since the onset of the pandemic. A recent report from TRIP, a national transportation research group, found that traffic fatalities in California have increased by 22% from 2019 to 2022, compared to 19% for the U.S. overall. In 2022, 4,400 Californians died in car crashes.

The rise in road deaths in the U.S. is a sharp contrast with reduced road fatalities across the developed world. A recent investigation by the New York Times found that “if the U.S. had made as much progress reducing vehicle crashes as other high-income countries had over the past two decades, about 25,000 fewer Americans would die every year.” Other nations are making progress to protect road users, while in the U.S. the problem grows steadily worse.

“The alarming surge in road deaths is unbearable and demands an urgent response,” said Senator Wiener. “There is no reason for anyone to be going over 100 miles per hour on a public road, yet in 2020, California Highway Patrol issued over 3,000 tickets for just that offense. Preventing reckless speeding is a commonsense approach to prevent these utterly needless and heartbreaking crashes.”

“Additionally, many state-owned roads across the state need to be improved to accommodate all users, including pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, and public transit riders. State roads — which are often main streets in smaller towns — should be safe for anyone wishing to walk, bike, or wait for the bus – and we can do a lot better by requiring things like crosswalks, bike lanes, rapid bus lanes, and safe bus stops. Instead of leading the rise in traffic fatalities, California should be leading the nation in reducing needless deaths on our roadways. The SAFER California Streets Package allows us to reclaim that leadership for a safer and more sustainable future.”

Speed Kills

The chance of a fatal crash drastically increases when a driver is speeding. According to the California Office of Traffic Safety’s (OTS) 2023 Traffic Safety Report, one-third of all traffic fatalities in the state between 2017 and 2021 were speeding-related. The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) notes that “a person hit by a car traveling at 35 miles per hour is five times more likely to die than a person hit by a car traveling at 20 miles per hour.”

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, drivers have engaged in increasingly reckless behavior, putting themselves and others at risk. TRIP found a 23% increase in speeding-related crashes in California from 2019-2022.

What are Speed Governors?

Speed governors, also referred to as speed limiters or Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), are vehicle technologies that prevent vehicles from exceeding a certain speed. Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) refers to systems that use GPS technology and sometimes on-board cameras to determine the speed limit on a specific roadway, issuing driver warnings through audio, visual, or vibration signals and/or limiting vehicle speeds accordingly.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has repeatedly recommended that car manufacturers install such technology in all new passenger vehicles in order to prevent fatal crashes. They have also called for the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) – the federal passenger vehicle safety regulator – to develop regulations requiring, at a minimum, intelligent speed assistance systems that warn a driver of a vehicle that they are speeding.

Speed governors will be required in all vehicles sold in the EU beginning July of this year. The devices must warn drivers when they have surpassed the legal speed limit of a specific roadway through alarms or accelerator resistance.

In the United States, multiple local jurisdictions – including Ventura County – have implemented aftermarket conversions of speed governors on their vehicle fleets. The New York City Department of City Administrative Services launched a pilot program in 2022, outfitting 50 vehicles in its vehicle fleet with speed governors. The NTSB has identified 18 major vehicle manufacturers – including Ford, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Nissan USA – that offer some form of speed governors on at least some vehicle models in the United States. With strengthened EU regulations set to go into effect in July 2024, it is likely that equipping vehicles with the technology as an optional feature in the United States will become the norm.

In line with NTSB recommendations, SB 961 requires every passenger vehicle, truck, and bus manufactured or sold in the state to be equipped with speed governors that limit the vehicle’s speed based on the speed limit for the roadway segment. The maximum speed threshold over the speed limit for that segment that the speed governor may permit the vehicle to travel at is 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. SB 961 also permits the vehicle operator to temporarily override the speed governor function. SB 961’s speed governor requirement does not apply to emergency vehicles.

Furthermore, the bill allows the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to use its discretion to authorize the disabling of speed governors on vehicles based on the specialized use of the vehicle, provided that the vehicle’s use is reasonable and would not pose a public safety risk.

Sideguards Save Lives

Underride crashes are collisions involving cars and large trucks where the car slides under the body of the truck during the collision. Due to the point of impact for such collisions often being the hood or windshield of the car, such crashes are especially deadly.

Side underride guards, or sideguards, are structures attached to the bottom of the sides of trailers in order to lower the profile of a trailer to more closely align with passenger vehicle profiles. Side underride guards prevent vehicles, in the event of a collision with a truck’s body or trailer, from sliding under the body or trailer.

Previous efforts to require sideguards have been stymied by the trucking lobby. ProPublica and Frontline have extensively reported on how pressure from the American Trucking Association repeatedly led to NHTSA significantly watering down and rewriting reports – including the removal of a recommendation to federally mandate side guards.

SB 961 requires every truck with a gross vehicle weight rating exceeding 10,000 pounds manufactured, sold, or registered in the state to be equipped with functional side guards on both lateral sides of the vehicle. The bill requires the side guard to be able to provide crash protection for mid-size vehicles colliding with a trailer at up to 40 miles per hour.

SB 961 also directs the CHP to require inspection by the department of the side guards of any vehicle involved in a collision impacting the side guards, and require vehicle drivers to conduct regular inspections of side guards for damage and functionality and replace damaged units as necessary.

Making Streets Accessible to All

In transportation planning, “Complete Streets” is an approach to designing and operating roads and the surrounding infrastructure that accounts for all road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, and transit riders. It also accounts for the needs of communities that have been systematically ignored in the design of the built environment, including the disability community, the aging community, those without access to vehicles, and communities of color.

Complete Streets elements can include sidewalks, bike lanes, bus-only lanes, comfortable and accessible public transportation stops, frequent and safe crosswalks, median islands, accessible pedestrian signals, curb extensions, narrower travel lanes, and more.

In California, most surface roads maintained by the state do not have infrastructure to protect the full range of road users. Most (55%) projects in Caltrans’s biggest road maintenance program, the State Highway Operation and Protection Program (SHOPP) have no complete streets elements. Many state-owned roads currently have no or deficient sidewalks, minimal crosswalks, no bike lanes, or any safe facilities for vulnerable road users. The result is that state roads are inaccessible or dangerous to many potential users.

In 2019, the Legislature passed SB 127 (Wiener), which required Caltrans to prioritize safe and connected facilities for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders on all SHOPP projects and in the asset management plan. Such improvements are consistent with recommendations outlined in the State’s Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure (CAPTI). Governor Newsom vetoed the bill but implemented many of its provisions in watered-down form through executive order.

SB 960 codifies the Department’s commitment to implement complete streets by requiring Caltrans to prioritize the implementation of safe, convenient, and connected facilities for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users on all SHOPP projects.

SB 960 requires Caltrans to set 4-year and 10-year targets and performance measures reflecting complete streets assets. SB 960 further requires the Department to establish a streamlined process for the approval of pedestrian facilities, traffic calming improvements, bicycle facilities, and transit priority treatments at locations where state-owned facilities intersect with local facilities.

Prioritizing Transit

Buses and some other modes of public transportation are often stuck in traffic, creating a slow, frustrating, and stressful experience for riders and making transit less attractive. Planners can improve this experience by designating certain roads to be transit priority roads, which could include adding features like a rapid bus lane.

Caltrans has engaged in preliminary stakeholder engagement to develop a transit priority policy. The timeline for development of this policy – or its specific objectives – is currently unclear. Amidst a backdrop of transit ridership struggling to rebound and car ownership costing more than it ever has, it is imperative that this process proceed swiftly.

SB 960 directs Caltrans to develop – by January 1, 2026 – a transit priority policy with performance targets to improve transit travel time reliability, speeds, reduced transit and rider delay, and improved accessibility at stops, stations, and boarding facilities.

Further, the bill requires Caltrans to establish automatic and expedited design exceptions and a streamlined approval process for transit priority improvements.

Senate Bill 960 is sponsored by Calbike, SPUR, Streets For All, AARP California, TransForm, KidSafe SF, and Walk SF.

Senate Bill 961 is sponsored by CalBike, Streets For All, and Walk SF.

“Traffic crashes are the leading cause of death for kids in California in large part because vehicles are now faster and more dangerous than ever. We’ve all seen situations on our streets where a vehicle is speeding down a busy street with vulnerable people close by — at best it’s unsettling, and at worst people lose their lives,” said Robin Pam, an organizer with KidSafe SF.

“This legislation is an important step toward making our streets–and cities–safer for everyone by preventing vehicles from speeding dangerously on our city streets and redesigning our roads for safety. We applaud Senator Wiener’s leadership at the state level to to make our streets safe enough for kids.”

“Complete Streets not only make it easier for people to choose biking or walking, enabling the mode shift we need to combat climate change, but they make our streets safer for people in all modes of transportation. Truck side guards and speed governors are two simple, effective, and achievable ways to save lives on our dangerous streets,” says CalBike Policy Director Jared Sanchez. “CalBike is proud to be a cosponsor of Senator Wiener’s excellent safe streets package of bills.”

California Can’t Be a Climate Leader Until it Stops Building Freeways

December 8, 2023/by Kendra Ramsey

This piece first appeared in Streetsblog California.

Representatives from the State of California are in Dubai, United Arab Emirates right now for COP28, the climate summit where world leaders make agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Our state is promoting itself as a climate leader, and in some respects, that’s accurate. But California can’t claim the mantle of responsible climate stewardship while it continues to build freeways that increase emissions and pollute vulnerable communities.

California’s delegation of high-level state officials discusses wind energy and EVs at COP28; back in California, Fresno residents have had to sue Caltrans for failing to disclose the carbon impact of two new freeway interchanges that will contribute to a significant increase in truck traffic.

While Caltrans spends billions each year repairing and mitigating the damage done by extreme weather caused by climate change, it continues to create the conditions for more harmful emissions. A planned freeway expansion in Yolo County, between Sacramento and Davis, may involve improper environmental review and misuse of state roadway repair funds. The controversy led to the firing of Caltrans deputy director for planning and modal programs Jeanie Ward-Waller, who planned to blow the whistle on the alleged malfeasance.

The Yolo Causeway project is supposedly designed to decrease congestion, but it’s old news that adding roadway capacity induces demand, resulting in more vehicle miles traveled and often more congestion. Calltrans understands induced demand–it even has information on its website–yet it continues to implement projects that will increase VMT without reducing congestion.

Caltrans should be inducing demand for active transportation by building protected bikeways with protected intersections that connect to robust local and regional networks of safe bike routes. It should be adding bus-only lanes and bus boarding islands, widening sidewalks, and improving conditions for people who walk or take transit.

In the middle of the last century, much of California’s identity centered on car culture. We invented drive-thru restaurants. You can even drive through a redwood or drive your car on the beach. We overshadowed once-bustling neighborhoods with freeways and built suburbs without sidewalks.

But California doesn’t have to be defined by its car-centric past. If we are to build a new image as a climate leader, we must move beyond the fragmented, speed-addled landscape dictated by subservience to the motor vehicle. We need to be leaders in mode shift, in 15-minute neighborhoods, in reducing pollution and deaths from traffic, in enhancing existing transit networks and building new ones.

A prerequisite to making these changes is radical change at Caltrans. We can’t let a benighted agency drag us into the past. Only by ending our state’s love affair with road building will we be able to realize the climate-friendly future Californians want and need. CalBike is focusing much of our energy on measures to make these changes a reality. We hope you’ll join us.

CalBike Complete Streets User Survey Exposes Network Gaps

November 13, 2023/by Andrew Wright