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A Preview of the CalBike 2021 Agenda

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Oh, 2020. It’s been a hard year for too many. We extend our sympathies to everyone who is suffering from loss. 

Looking ahead to 2021, we here at CalBike have reasons to be optimistic. Among the silver linings of this tough year is that many people have turned to bicycling during the pandemic. Our demands for safer streets will be buoyed by a larger constituency.
Another silver lining is that our light legislative agenda this year gives us more time to plan for an ambitious 2021. We’re excited about the opportunity to make meaningful change for health, safety, community, equity, prosperity, and climate.
Here’s a preview of what we’re thinking.

CalBike 2021 Agenda

CalBike’s plans for 2021 are still developing, but we have five initiatives already in the works. 

  • E-bike purchase incentives. Our e-bike rebate bill, which would allow people to get a voucher to buy an e-bike, was one of the casualties of the pandemic in 2020. We’ll bring it back better than ever in 2021. Electric bikes have been proven to be the best option for replacing car trips. They have surged in popularity this year. However, the price tag for an e-bike puts one out of reach for many Californians. We believe an e-bike purchase incentive program is the most effective way to make energy-efficient transportation available to everyone. 
  • Micromobility. Shared bikes and scooters should be integrated with public transit and accessible to all. We want cities to take ownership of their shared mobility systems so users aren’t subject to the whims and price increases of a private company. This will also ensure that micromobility options are available in neighborhoods that have been historically underserved by transit.
  • Complete Streets at Caltrans. Despite the pandemic, CalBike was able to work with Caltrans to greatly improve its Complete Streets policies in 2020. The agency increased funding for biking and walking improvements and made positive changes to bring the needs of people who aren’t in cars into their planning processes. However, there is still more work to be done to change decades of car-centric planning at Caltrans. In 2021, CalBike will redouble our efforts to transform Caltrans-controlled local streets into Complete Streets.
  • Rewriting the street design rulebook. Two manuals hold sway over local planning decisions about street design in California: the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and the Highway Design Manual (HDM). If you’ve ever been at a planning meeting in your city and watched an innovative bike facility get rejected, the MUTCD and HDM may have been to blame. Planners are often reluctant to approve roadway designs that aren’t in them. CalBike is working with state administrators to revise these manuals to include designs for safer streets for people on bikes. These changes could turn a no into a yes the next time your local bicycle coalition lobbies for a new protected bike lane or protected intersection. 
  • Equitable traffic enforcement. CalBike is committed to doing our part to change state laws about traffic enforcement to reduce the risk of police violence for Black and Brown people. The measures we are considering include:
    • Automated speed monitoring and ticketing.
    • Changing the Vision Zero grant process to money doesn’t go pay for more police traffic stops and instead goes to measures that will be more effective at reducing traffic injuries and fatalities.
    • Decriminalizing walking and biking. This includes legalizing mid-block crossings (jaywalking) and the Idaho stop (which would allow bikes to treat stop signs as yields).
    • Reforming Office of Traffic Safety grants so they don’t support police stings of bike riders running stop signs on quiet, low-traffic residential streets.

Finishing 2020 strong.

CalBike has two important initiatives that we’re still working on that we believe will make a big difference for bikeable communities.

Quick-build

CalBike has partnered with Alta Planning to produce the Quick-Build Toolkit. Quick-build is a revolutionary philosophy that streamlines the roadway design process. This puts the bike lanes and other safety features we need on our streets in months rather than years. Our design manual (coming very soon) will give planners across California the tools they need to quickly implement bike projects as we emerge from the pandemic and confront the climate crisis.

Election 2020

Many of us are, understandably, laser-focused on the presidential election this year. However, as we know from firsthand experience fighting for bills in unfriendly committees in the State legislature, the people we choose to represent us in our state and local government play a bigger role in shaping how bike-friendly our communities are.

We have endorsed candidates in several races that we believe will be crucial to achieving our ambitious goals for 2021. Please check out our endorsements and support bike-friendly candidates.

Ride your bike + Raise money for CalBike = Fun!

The California Dream Ride is one of CalBike’s biggest annual fundraisers. This year, the Dream Ride Challenge is a self-guided 300-mile ride to wherever you choose. Ride all 300 miles in the saddle, or earn miles and get rewards for taking on fun, bike-related activities and daily pop-up challenges along the way. 

As a Dream Rider, you’ll join a fabulous bicycling community online to share the joy of riding in a brand new way. We’ve got perks and prizes, tips and tricks, an awesome support team, Happy Hours with special guests like mountain biking pioneer Gary Fisher, and so much more.

Best of all, the Dream Ride Challenge is a great way to raise money to support CalBike’s work in 2021 and beyond. You can register for as little as $25 and raise money as you ride. We hope you’ll join us from October 3-11 for this fun event.

We hope that 2021 is better than 2020!

No one can argue with the fact that 2020 has been crazy. For a lot of people, it has been a simply terrible year. Our heart goes out to anyone who’s dealing with  COVID-19 or who lost a loved one, everyone who lost a job or had to risk their health to keep a job, everyone on the West Coast dealing with fires and smoke. In addition, while racist violence and oppression started long before 2020, the burdens of our inequitable society have supersized this year’s many tragedies for Californians of color.

Here’s to a better year in 2021.

E-Bikes Deserve the Same Rebates as Electric Cars

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When you buy an electric car in California, you get help from the state. Purchases of all-electric automobiles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids are eligible for a rebate of up to $7,000. If instead, you’d like to buy what is arguably the most climate friendly practical form of transit – an electric bike – you are on your own. In 2020, we hope to change that. One of CalBike’s top agenda items is to push for a rebate program for people who purchase electric bikes, because people deserve support for biking.

The case against electric cars

Are EVs better for the environment than cars that run on gasoline? Absolutely. They don’t spew carbon dioxide or harmful toxins in their exhaust. They use energy from the electrical grid which gets about a third of its power from renewable sources and a little more than half from sources that don’t emit carbon. That’s definitely an improvement, but it’s clear that even if every Californian traded in their gas guzzler for a zero emissions car today, it would not be enough to solve our climate crisis. Besides, EVs still cause dangerous pollution, from tire and brake particulate; they create congestion, cause traffic deaths, and take up precious space in our crowded cities.

And crucially, most of the fleet is a fantasy in the short term. Sales of electric cars in California rose by more than 60% between 2017 and 2018, but they still accounted for less than 8% of all new cars sold in the state. An even smaller fraction of existing cars are electric. Californians drive approximately 35,700,000 cars; about 35,300,000 of them are not zero-emission electric vehicles. It will be a long time before a substantial number of them are electric.

Experts agree, the only way to really tackle the environmental crisis caused by cars is to reduce the use of cars. We drove ourselves into this crisis; we can’t drive ourselves out of it.

Time is running out to address the climate crisis

There are several good ways to reduce the number of miles that people travel in solo vehicles. Near the top of the list is improved public transit, transit-oriented development in walkable neighborhoods, and, of course, bicycling. While new transit services and housing construction will take years to complete, the fastest and best way to get people out of their cars is the bicycle. It’s important to move fast: as the most recent IPCC report showed, we don’t have that long.

The case for electric bikes

Bicycles are a near-perfect form of transportation. They give riders physical exercise, take up little space on the street or for parking, and they are always zero emissions. But not everyone is willing or able to get around town by bike. Barriers include physical ability, feeling too vulnerable on the road, limited range, not wanting to arrive at work sweaty, and the need to transport kids/groceries/stuff.

The e-bike is a solution to all or most of these problems. The extra power extends the range of bike trips while making riders safer. Electric cargo bikes are ideal for family transportation. In fact, studies have shown that people with access to e-bikes use them to replace car trips about 50% of the time.

However, price is a significant barrier to e-bike adoption. Electric bikes often cost over $2,000 and cargo bikes can cost even more. While the price is a fraction of the cost of buying a car, it is still a barrier for many Californians.

A rebate program for e-bike purchases would cost a fraction of the EV program. And, unlike the car-centric program, an e-bike rebate would be a significant step toward climate progress for California.

The budget process

Any e-bike rebate program will be funded through the California budget process, which runs from January through June. Here’s a rundown on this year’s budget and the prospects for e-bike rebates.

On January 10, Governor Newsom released a $222B proposed budget for the 2020-2021 fiscal year. The budget plan includes the allocation from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which includes incentives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. As the budget takes shape, CalBike will lobby hard to get a bicycle purchase incentive program included in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund expenditures. We don’t expect this to be easy. We’ll need your support to get e-bike rebates into the 2020 budget. You can start by signing our e-bike rebate petition, to send a message to legislators that e-bikes deserve rebates, too.

The rest of the budget is critical, too. Transportation gets $18B including almost $9B for the California Department of Transportation. There is also $220M in funding for the Active Transportation Program (ATP). The ATP is the state’s only pot of funds dedicated to biking and walking. The ATP funding level is about the same as last year.

The next step is for the legislature to hold hearings on the budget before passing a budget bill. State agencies and departments will submit recommendations for adjustments to the Department of Finance. Newsom will consider these recommendations along with the latest data from the Department of Finance and produce a revised budget in May. The legislature must approve a budget for the governor’s signature by midnight on June 15.

During the budget process, CalBike will advocate for maximum public engagement and a minimum expansion of road capacity. California’s priorities must be to maintain what we have, make the streets safer, and, above all, reduce vehicle miles traveled.

Assembly Transportation Committee Supports E-bikes for Mobility Option

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On Monday, July 1, the E-Bikes for Mobility Bill (SB 400 – Umberg) passed in the Assembly Transportation Committee. The vote was 14-0. This bill expands the definition of “mobility options” in the Clean Vehicles for All program to include bikesharing and electric bicycle purchases.

Currently the Clean Vehicles for All program provides vouchers for trading in your old polluting car for low income residents. The vouchers are only good for electric, hybrid, and plug-in cars and “mobility options” like car-sharing memberships and transit passes. 

The addition of bikeshare and e-bikes for mobility in the voucher program will provide an important incentive for Californians to switch from car to bike travel. E-bikes enable more people to ride a bicycle for longer distances, even with physical limitations, difficult terrain, and heavy cargo. This is an important step forward for healthy communities.

By passing the E-bikes for Mobility Bill, California’s Assembly Transportation Committee has taken a very important step in reducing our state’s GHG emissions. A study in Portland found that just a 15% increase in e-bike mode share results in an 11% decrease in CO2 emissions, even when using the dirtiest electricity generation profile in the USA.  Another study found that as many as 50% of trips by electric bicycle would have been car trips, if the rider hadn’t had access to a pedal-assist bike.

The next step for the E-Bikes for Mobility Bill is to move through the Assembly Appropriations Committee. CalBike is committed to getting this important bill signed into law this year.

CalBike Moves Bike-Friendly Bills Forward in Sacramento

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Two important bills for better biking are moving forward in the California legislature. Bike-friendly legislation continues to advance, thanks to the work of CalBike and our partners to keep up the pressure.

Bike-friendly turn lanes bill passes with bipartisan support

AB 1266, introduced by Assemblymember Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), passed on the Assembly floor on May 13, by a vote of 66-0. The next step for this bill is the Senate. We are optimistic that it will be passed into law later this year.

The measure requires Caltrans to develop new bike lane design guidance for planners and engineers. This guidance would facilitate a typical and safe maneuver by people on bicycles: going straight through an intersection via the left portion of a right-turn lane. Currently, design guidance for these features is not included in the state’s official Highway Design Manual. Without guidance, it is difficult for planners to include these markings in street design. The lack of guidance makes it hard for bike riders to safely navigate straight through at an intersection with a turn lane.

AB 1266 resolves these problems. It clarifies the legality of the commonsense position that bicyclists take in the left side of a right-turn lane. The bill also requires the Department of Transportation to develop designs to facilitate this maneuver. 

E-bike vouchers near a vote

SB 400 will add vouchers for e-bikes and bikeshare memberships to a program that helps low-income Californians trade polluting cars for green transportation. The bill has passed out of committee. It heads for a vote on the Senate floor on Monday, May 20.

This bill, introduced by Senator Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana), is an important step toward recognizing bicycles as part of the clean transportation revolution. The voucher program helps bring transportation justice to California streets, a goal that CalBike strongly supports.

You can help ensure victory for SB 400. Raise your voice before the vote on Monday.

What you can do:

Contact your state senator and urge him or her to support SB 400. You can find your senator here.

Join Senator Umberg on Saturday morning, May 18, in Long Beach for a celebration of SB 400. Learn about e-bikes and bikeshare and support the bill’s passage through the Senate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

E-Bike Vouchers Advance in the Senate

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California residents are one step closer to being able to trade in their old polluting car for a brand new electric bicycle, thanks to the advancement of SB 400 in the California Senate.

The E-Bikes for Mobility Bill, SB 400 (Umberg), expands the definition of ‘mobility options’ in the Clean Vehicles for All program which provides vouchers to low income residents who trade in inefficient cars. The vouchers, issued by a number of regional Air Districts across the state, are good for electric, hybrid, and plug-in cars and “mobility options” like car-sharing memberships or transit passes. The new definition of mobility options will include bike sharing and electric bicycle purchases.

Assistant Director of UC Institute of Transportation Studies Laura Podolsky gave expert testimony at Tuesday’s hearing to the power of e-bikes to get people to switch from car to bike travel. A recent UC Davis policy brief reported on the effectiveness of European e-bike purchase incentive programs. As many as 50% of trips by electric bicycle would have been car trips, if the rider hadn’t had access to a pedal assist bike.

This bill, authored by Senator Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana), has passed the Environmental Quality Committee and was just voted out of the Transportation Committee on a unanimous vote. This amendment to the Health and Safety code still has several steps to go before it becomes law, but given the early enthusiasm and support,  we are optimistic about its chances in this legislative session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLACK LIVES MATTER

California will never have the equitable, prosperous and inclusive communities that CalBike advocates for until we address and redress anti-Black violence. We want to actively contribute to ending systemic racism, especially in transportation policy, and most especially in bicycling advocacy. We promise to listen and learn how we can best do this work. To our community members who experience the violence of racism on a daily basis: we see you, we hear you, and we stand with you.

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