Tag Archive for: featured

CalBike Insider: The 12-bill limit, a status report, and CalBike in the news

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Some of the most significant work to further better biking, active transportation, and healthy communities in California happens out of the spotlight. CalBike Insider shines the light on some of these critical developments in Sacramento and beyond. 

The 12-bill limit puts a damper on the 2021 legislative session

COVID-19 put a severe crimp in the 2020 California legislative session, reordering priorities and forcing many good bills to wait another year. And the pandemic is still affecting legislation in 2021. It’s the justification for a new rule: each assemblymember and senator can only move 12 of the bills they authored out of their house of origin. The pandemic has made debate harder, so the legislature simply won’t consider as many bills. This is further evidence that our system for keeping the essential work of government moving in a crisis is suboptimal.

Status report: where are the bills to watch?

Today marks the deadline for bills introduced by one House to be approved by a majority of its members to advance to the second House. All of CalBike’s bills happened to be Assembly bills this year. Our three sponsored bills passed the Assembly; we went 3-1 on the bills we actively supported and 0-1 (so far) on a bill we opposed. CalBike is working hard to help create the world you want to see while working within a system that is not nearly as small-d democratic as we might like it to be.

The imposition of deadlines can force votes before legislators have a chance to fully understand the implications of the bills. We’re sure that’s why the bill we opposed passed so readily. The assemblymembers did not know its impact. Thankfully, the schedule is more generous while the bills are in the second house, giving us time to educate the Senators. Committee meetings will start in a week and continue until July 16, and then a one-month recess will provide some breathing room before the legislators return to vote on the bills in late August.  

The distribution of power in the California legislature

Another undemocratic factor is the power of key legislators. It’s bad enough that merely 40 people in the Senate represent nearly 40 million Californians; it’s worse that a few of those elected officials (usually the ones who can raise lots of money) have extreme power compared to their colleagues. The Appropriations Committee is a good example. Its Chair has nearly independent control over whether a bill gets out of the committee and onto the floor where the members have a chance to vote on it. Two of the bills we love suffered harm in Assembly “Approps.” The committed killed bill to allow speed safety systems outright and weakened our e-bike affordability program through amendments, both without public debate. Even if the leaders of these committees are fantastic representatives who usually fight for everything we love, the process is not very democratic, and we wish that it were.

For details on these bills, and others, see our halftime legislative agenda update. 

CalBike in the news

CalBike’s E-Bike Affordability Program has been getting the attention of the press. An editorial in support of the E-Bike Affordability Program was picked up across California and beyond:

CalMatters | Desert Sun | MSN | Davis Enterprise | San Francisco Patch | Lompoc Record

Our bill to decriminalize jaywalking also generated headlines as it passed the Assembly. And Streetsblog ran a piece on our petition in support of ending parking minimums for new buildings near transit (AB 1401, Friedman). You can add your name to the petition here.

E-Bike Affordability Program on Chinese news:

Read past editions of the CalBike Insider.

Assessing CalBike’s Legislative Agenda at the Halfway Point: Many Wins, Few Losses

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All bills that are going to advance need to move from their house of origin by the end of this week. That halfway mark is a good point to take stock of the bills on the CalBike legislative agenda. Spoiler alert: it’s almost all good news.

CalBike’s Three Sponsored Bills Pass their First House

CalBike’s three sponsored bills all passed their first significant test with decisive majority votes on the Assembly floor. However, bills often face their toughest test in the second House, so we still have a lot of work to do before declaring victory.

E-Bike Purchase Incentives

AB 117 (Boerner Horvath), the E-Bike Affordability Program, passed the Assembly by a vote of 74 to 2. As introduced, AB 117 would have created an e-bike incentive program in the California Air Resources Board. However, it was amended in the Assembly to remove the mandate and merely authorize the Board to create a program. That amendment is not necessarily a setback because whether the program is mandated or merely authorized, it needs to be funded through the budget process. That’s a separate campaign that CalBike and our allies are fighting hard for, as the legislature will continue to debate more aspects of the budget this summer and into the fall. 

Decriminalizing Jaywalking

AB 1238 (Ting), the Freedom to Walk Act, decriminalizes jaywalking. The Assembly endorsed it by a vote of 58 to 16. CalBike is cosponsoring this bill along with California Walks, and Los Angeles walks. The bill has broad support and little opposition. We hope that the Senate takes this historic opportunity to correct inequities in access to our streets and remove a pretext for biased policing. CalBike is leading this effort because our work for more bike-friendly communities requires friendly and safe streets where the automobile does not dominate. We are working toward a world where normal and safe behavior like crossing the street is not an illegal act that draws the unnecessary attention of law enforcement. 

The Bicycle Safety Stop

AB 122 (Boerner Horvath), the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill, passed the Assembly on a 53 to 11 vote. The bill makes it legal for people on bikes to treat stop signs as yields. CalBike has tried to get this measure (known then as the Idaho stop) passed in previous years, but unfriendly legislators in powerful positions stopped it. The success (so far) of the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill this year, thanks to better committee leaders in the Assembly, is a reminder that elections matter. 

CalBike’s Advocacy on Other Bills Is Effective, but We Didn’t Win Them All

CalBike supported two bills that will change land use to lead to more active transportation, and they both passed the Assembly. 

  • AB 1147 (Friedman) will reform transportation planning to emphasize active transportation. The bill is truly visionary, creating a roadmap for 15-minute cities and bicycle freeways. If it becomes law, AB 1147 could provide the foundation for transformation in communities around California.
  • AB 1401 (Friedman) eliminates mandated parking minimums in new buildings near transit. While it has passed the Assembly, it has attracted powerful enemies, including NIMBY and affordable housing groups, even though it will make it cheaper to build housing in California.

The need to reduce car speeds

We also supported two bills that will help to control speeding. Speeding the primary factor that makes streets unsafe for children. Most of us have had a scary close call with a car whose driver was going way too fast. Unfortunately, only one of these bills made it out of the Assembly.

  • AB 43 (Friedman, Ting, Chiu, and Quirk) seeks to reform the way Caltrans manages our public roadways. Significantly, it allows communities to set lower speed limits to keep streets safe without being hamstrung by the terrible 85% percentile rule, which requires cities to set the speed limit at the speed of the car going faster than 85 out of 100 car drivers.
  • AB 550 (Chiu and Friedman) would have legalized speed cameras, but, unfortunately, it died in the Appropriations Committee without fanfare. Speed cameras make streets safer in two ways: by reducing speeding more consistently than occasional police stops can and by removing police from traffic stops that can turn lethal for Black and Latinx Californians. We hope to see it come back next year.

More work to be done to save bike sharing systems

One very bad bill would deal a fatal blow to the burgeoning shared bike and scooter systems across California. CalBike supports these systems as a critical complement to public transit. They should be funded by public transit agencies and made available to the public on the same terms and with the same fare media as the bus. Unfortunately, AB 371 will place onerous insurance requirements on bike- and scooter-share systems that would end this vital last-mile transportation option in California.

We’ll be working with our allies to remove the insurance requirement from this bill in the Senate and educate Senators about this measure’s harmful effects.

Check our Legislative Watch page for the latest.

CalBike Insider: Micromobility Fights for Its Life, Ending Parking Mandates, and MUTCD Update

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Some of the most significant work to further better biking, active transportation, and healthy communities in California happens out of the spotlight. CalBike Insider shines the light on some of these critical developments in Sacramento and beyond. 

Fending Off an Attack on Shared Bikes and Scooters

Shared bikes and scooters are under attack, again. Last year, CalBike defeated a bill that would have imposed an unprecedented insurance requirement on providers of shared mobility services. The cost of the insurance mandate was so steep it would have put them out of business. By marshaling a coalition of environmental organizations to oppose the bill, we got that provision removed at the last minute.

Assembly Bill 371 has revived this same bad idea. The bill requires providers to carry $1 million in insurance to cover the liability of a user who injures another party. It includes another provision that is a good idea: requiring providers to have identification Braille markings on scooters and shared bikes so that vision-impaired people can report dangerously parked devices. But there will be no shared bikes and scooters if the bill passes with the insurance provision intact.

The insurance requirement will apply to private providers like Lyft as well as public shared mobility operators like LA Metro and nonprofit services like many bicycle libraries around the state. It would put them all out of the shared micromobility business and kill this promising low-impact, low-cost transportation mode. This comes just when we need it the most and when bikeshare systems are reporting record ridership.

The Assembly Transportation Committee didn’t hear the bill, so AB 371 passed the Assembly without much education of the legislators about the bill’s impact. CalBike, along with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition, has met with Senator Lena A. Gonzalez, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, to urge her to call the bill to her committee hears this bill. That will be our best chance to remove the micromobility-killing insurance requirements.

Ending Car Parking Mandates in New Buildings

AB 1401 (Friedman) would end minimum car parking requirements for new buildings within a half-mile of transit. This legislation is an excellent example of the intersection of housing, biking, and walking issues. CalBike supports this excellent bill.

People who live near transit hubs can often commute without cars. In walkable, bikeable neighborhoods, like the 15-minute cities envisioned by AB 1147, residents can do all or most of their errands car-free as well. Yet many cities require new buildings to include at least a minimum number of parking spaces, often one per unit or more. Worse, some buildings link each housing unit to a parking space, so people without cars are forced to pay extra for an amenity they don’t need.

Parking minimums drive up the cost of construction, adding an average of $24,000 – $34,000 to the cost to build a unit, according to UCLA Urban Planning Professor Donald Shoup. Plus, they waste valuable space that could be used to add more units and create the kind of density that creates vibrant neighborhoods and reduces carbon footprints. 

By making residents face the actual costs of parking, reducing parking minimums incentivizes people to use other transit modes. That’s good for the climate, and fewer cars will make the roads safer for people biking and walking.

It’s hard to imagine anyone opposing legislation that will make housing cheaper and more plentiful in California, but forces are working against the Parking Minimum Reduction Bill. Livable California, a NIMBY group, is working against the bill because, well — we need more cars or something.

CalBike will be on the side of those working to pass this vital legislation, which will come up for a vote in the Assembly very soon.

Reform the MUTCD

Now we step deep into the weeds for a topic that is as important as it is obscure to all but the most loyal transportation nerds: the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). The MUTCD, produced by the Federal Highway Administration, is the governing document for traffic engineers around the country. If a road striping scheme or intersection treatment is not in the MUTCD, it’s hard to convince public works departments to put it on the street.

Historically, this design manual has emphasized safety and convenience for motorists traveling at high speeds. It has been slow to include elements to make the streets safer for people who bike and walk. A draft of the 11th edition of the MUTCD is currently accepting public comment. Despite a climate crisis and a historic surge in biking and walking over the past year and despite NACTO providing a roadmap for how to do bike- and pedestrian-friendly street design, the MUTCD update is still far too car-centric. 

CalBike has signed onto a letter along with several other active transportation organizations. The text of our sign-on letter is below. If you’d like to advocate for a more bike-friendly road manual, People for Bikes has an action page that lets you easily send a comment letter. 

Here’s the letter that CalBike and our allies sent.

CalBike Insider: Street Safety, Budget Surplus, and the Death of a Good Idea

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A great deal of the work your CalBike staff does in Sacramento is behind the scenes. We attend technical advisory committee meetings, advise senior (and junior) staff on best practices, and nudge state agencies to advance in our direction: toward better communities where more people can experience the healthful joy of bicycling, with equity, prosperity, and inclusion as top priorities. This week we’ve been reflecting on advances at Caltrans, advocating for active transportation allocations from the budget surplus, and mourning the speed camera bill, which died in committee.

Some of our work is necessarily private, but here’s what we can tell you.

Caltrans is Making Progress 

Changing a huge bureaucracy is often difficult. It’s been a slow process to transform Caltrans from an agency that safeguards the interests of cars to one that responds to our current challenges, and there is much more work still to be done.

However, under the leadership of Toks Omishakin, Caltrans has impressed us with structural changes. One great example is the creation of a high-level Division of Safety Programs and the appointment of longtime bicycle advocate Rachel Carpenter as its Chief Safety Officer. Carpenter previously worked on Livable Streets at SFMTA and she’s a regular bike commuter. The division will bring additional focus to the goal of zero traffic deaths. This should have influence over other offices within Caltrans which impact safety, such as Traffic Operations and the Division of Design. 

Budget surplus provides an opportunity to fund active transportation projects

California’s May Budget Revision showed a $76 billion surplus, with $38 billion in discretionary spending. The competition for that money is fierce. It’s the source of the $600 checks that most Californians will receive, and a welcome boost to early childhood education and afterschool programs. It’s also a great source for infrastructure funding, especially since it’s a one-time boost. The competitive statewide portion of the Active Transportation Program is funded annually at about $220 million. In 2020, California communities submitted applications for $2.3 billion of projects. It desperately needs an infusion of cash.

Yet active transportation advocates had mixed reactions to a proposal from a cohort of California Transportation Commissioners with ties to the road-building industry. The commissioners asked for an incredible $2 billion infusion into the ATP. However, their intention was to derail an earlier proposal suggested by the California State Transportation Agency in its draft “Climate Action Plan for Transportation Infrastructure” that called for an ongoing increase in the ATP by taking a little bit from other programs that mostly fund highways.  

Advocates promote an alternate proposal for the budget surplus

CalBike and our allies made an alternative proposal to the Budget Committees, seeking $1 billion for the ATP and an additional $1 billion for other active transportation projects, such as the 15-minute neighborhoods and bicycle highways envisioned by AB 1147.

The governor’s May revision proposed a $500 million augmentation to the ATP and $500 million for regions to implement the goals of AB 1147, although the governor’s proposal is not as visionary as that bill imagines. 

This week, CalBike is advocating to win our original request of $1 billion for the ATP and $1 billion for other active transportation projects. The coalition of road builders has joined us in asking for $1 billion for the ATP, but we parted ways on the additional funding for the programs that expand highway capacity that the road builders wanted.

Whatever happens, it looks like the ATP will get a huge infusion of funds. By law, half of the funds enter the statewide competition and half are distributed to local agencies. The state’s portion of the funding will help to implement scores of projects that were unfunded in last year’s round. Also, CalBike will continue to advocate for a longer-term solution to the underfunding of the ATP. The governor’s proposed expenditures on transportation in the next fiscal year are $32.6 billion. Unfortunately, much of this is for highways and other subsidies for driving that make bicycling and walking harder. The ATP does not stand a chance to achieve its goals unless the balance of funding shifts. 

CalBike endorses speed camera bill, but the Appropriations Committee does not

AB 550 proposed a pilot project to test the efficacy of speed cameras in several California cities. The bill would have required local agencies to develop guidelines for the program with strict limitations that ensured the system would not increase inequities in California. Fines would have to be low, and only charged at speeds 10 mph or more over the speed limit. Fines could not have additional fees tacked on. The car owner would get the fine, like a parking ticket. Police would not be allowed to be involved. The bill also put privacy controls in place. 

The bill’s author, Assembly Member David Chiu, did such a good job addressing these equity concerns that we were excited to support it. Camera speed enforcement reduces crashes and saves lives, and it might be the only acceptable solution to scofflaw speeders on certain streets.  

However, the Appropriations Committee killed the bill at its May 20 hearing. The committee didn’t offer any clues for their reason for killing this bill, but the demise of AB 550 is a loss for safe streets. CalBike supports the concept of speed safety systems. If another bill is introduced that addresses equity concerns as comprehensively as AB 550, we’ll support it. 

Webinar: A National Discussion on Decriminalizing Jaywalking

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On May 3, 2021, CalBike co-hosted a national panel discussion on decriminalizing jaywalking. Leading academics, advocates, and legislators discussed local efforts to end the enforcement of jaywalking. They shared lessons learned and steps to success. 

CalBike has joined a surging national movement to repeal unjust jaywalking laws by co-sponsoring the Freedom to Walk Act (AB 1238, Ting). More and more cities and states are rethinking rules that criminalize walking. From Virginia to California to Kansas City, decriminalizing jaywalking is no longer a radical idea but an increasingly viable policy proposal. 

The discussion included:

  • Nine reasons to decriminalize jaywalking from Charles Brown of Equitable Cities
  • Michael Kelley on how BikeWalkKC used a review of the municipal code ordered by Kansas City’s mayor as an opening for decriminalizing mobility
  • Writer Angie Schmitt on shifting the responsibility for safety from individuals to system designers
  • And much, much more

You can watch the full presentation here:

These national efforts highlight the need to protect vulnerable pedestrians against racially biased, pretextual policing, inequitable fees and fines, and unnecessary and potentially lethal interactions with law enforcement. More and more cities, counties, and states are considering repealing jaywalking laws. And the movement to ensure that safe and accessible walking is a key component of a sustainable transportation system continues to grow stronger.

Kansas City becomes the first to repeal jaywalking laws

Since our national discussion, Kansas City, MO, became the first city in the country to repeal its jaywalking laws. This repeal followed strong efforts from BikeWalkKC. We hope that CalBike’s campaign will make California the first state to decriminalize jaywalking statewide.

Eliminating jaywalking laws is an important step towards a more just society. Protests following George Floyd’s murder by a police officer led to a movement to re-examine the role of policing in our communities. As part of this reflection, jurisdictions began to look at discriminatory enforcement of jaywalking laws. Examination of jaywalking citations in Kansas City clearly showed that Black pedestrians were disproportionately targeted. The City Council’s repeal removes a tool for biased policing. 

CalBike is committed to reforming traffic laws to reduce inequities and racially biased policing. Eliminating laws against jaywalking is an essential step toward this goal. By co-sponsoring the Freedom to Walk Act, we hope to end the enforcement of unjust jaywalking laws in California. At the same time, this will facilitate healthy and safe travel modes that are necessary to meet California’s environmental goals.

Decriminalize-Jaywalking-graphic

Studies Show Increases in Biking and Bike Safety in Numbers

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A spate of new studies has shown that both biking and bike safety grew during the pandemic. The research found that more bikes on the streets leads to safer biking and that “build it and they will come” works well for cycling infrastructure. Perhaps the most exciting of the recent studies broke down bike ridership data from 2020 and found that the increase in cycling was greater than the aggregate numbers indicate.

Here are summaries of this exciting new research about biking and bike safety over the past year.

COVID-19 impacts on cycling, 2019–2020

Ralph Buehler, a professor and chair of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech, and John Pucher, Professor Emiriats of Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, collaborated on COVID-19 Impacts on Cycling, 2019–2020. The researchers, whose work CalBike has highlighted before, drilled down into the data on increased cycling during the pandemic to reveal a more nuanced picture of the increase in bike ridership.

In the U.S., for example, 12% more people rode bikes in 2020 than in 2019. However, fewer people rode during commute times in cities like Portland, OR, and Washington, DC, dragging down the average. In addition, fewer people biked in specific locations as governments instituted lockdowns and people stayed home during regional COVID flareups. The researchers found similar patterns in cities around the world. 

In reality, cycling numbers weren’t steady in 2020 but varied widely in response to local pandemic conditions. When you exclude lockdown periods, the increase in bike ridership is dramatic, almost doubling in Paris and increasing by 17% in New York City.

“If anything good came out of the COVID pandemic, then it is that communities redesigned streets for the use of cyclists, pedestrians, and outdoor socializing,” Buehler told CalBike. This has shown us that we can use street space for things other than cars. This new use is healthier, more pleasurable, and more sustainable.”

“The COVID crisis has demonstrated dramatically the crucial importance of cycling, both as a backup alternative to public transit and as an extremely healthy, safe, and immunity-enhancing form of physical activity for physical, mental, and social health,” Pucher added.

Safety in numbers for cyclists

If you have ever done a group bike ride or just ridden a city street where bikes outnumber cars, you know the feeling of safety and increased visibility from sharing the road with lots of bikes. A new study from the Department of Safety and the Environment Institute of Transport Economics in Oslo, Norway, gives us the data to back that up.

Unlike other studies of the correlation between increases in biking and bike safety, this research was able to control for other factors affecting safety. It used seasonal variations in bike ridership at fixed locations to determine safety in numbers. Notably, the study counted instances of car drivers failing to see bike riders and near-misses that didn’t result in collisions. This is critical because, while collisions between bikes and cars may be infrequent, daily near-misses create a justifiable sense of danger among bike riders.

The study found that, as the cycling season progressed and other road users expected to encounter bikes on the road, there were fewer near-misses. The more bikes there were, the more drivers saw bikes and were able to coexist safely with riders.

Next time you’re in a local planning meeting and someone says that creating facilities that encourage biking will endanger people who bike, you can cite this study. It’s great to have concrete evidence that the more people ride bikes, the safer all bike riders are on the streets.

Provisional COVID-19 infrastructure induces large, rapid increases in cycling

The world’s pandemic year provided a laboratory for researchers to study the effects of better infrastructure on cycling adoption without waiting years for cities to build new bike lanes. Researchers used data from bike counters in 106 European cities to study the effects of pop-up COVID bike lanes on ridership.

The study found that bike riding rose between 11% and 48%, according to data from 736 bicycle counters. Those numbers may be too low since they don’t account for lockdown periods as Buehler and Pucher’s research did. Even using these numbers, the researchers estimated that the bicycling infrastructure added to these cities during the pandemic will pay off, leading to health benefits valued between $1 billion and $7 billion per year.

Increases in biking and bike safety don’t only benefit the health of people who ride and their local communities. A new study that assessed the economics of electric vehicle purchase incentives found that e-bikes are the best investment for the climate as well.

E-Bikes Are the Best Climate Investment for California

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DATE May 10, 2021

CONTACT:
Dave Snyder, Executive Director, California Bicycle Coalition, 916-251-9433, dave@calbike.org



STUDY: E-Bikes Are the Best Climate Investment for California



SACRAMENTO – A recent study found that subsidies for electric bikes are more cost-effective than electric car incentives at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from private cars. Yet very few programs to incentivize the uptake of the best climate investment exist. As lawmakers in California contemplate billions of dollars in spending to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from private cars, including $1.5 billion to subsidize electric cars, they have a chance to also support electric bikes with a bill being advanced by the Assembly.  

AB 117, the E-Bike Affordability Bill (Boerner Horvath), would establish a pilot program to incentivize the purchase of electric bicycles as a means of reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT), reducing air, water, and noise pollution, and helping Californians get more exercise. To implement the program, legislators must allocate $10 million in the budget being negotiated among the capital’s leaders this month.

“If California is serious about tackling climate change, promoting e-bikes needs to be front and center,” said Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath, the bill’s author. “E-bikes help us cut out shorter car trips, reduce emissions, and move closer to our ambitious climate goals. Now is the time to make e-bikes affordable for all Californians.”

“Compared to EVs, e-bikes are carbon crushers. This fact adds urgency to the effort to help communities move away from car dependence and its terrible impacts,” said Dave Snyder, Executive Director of the California Bicycle Coalition, the sponsor of the E-Bike Affordability Act. “If California’s climate investments are supposed to prioritize solutions that have additional benefits, then this is a no-brainer. Investing in biking makes people healthier and happier, improves traffic safety, and reduces traffic congestion.”

The study focused on the greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts of subsidies for electric bikes, battery-electric cars, and plug-in hybrid electric cars in Oregon. It found that e-bike subsidies, like those in CalBike’s proposed $10M E-Bike Affordability Program, were the most cost-effective way to reduce GHG emissions.

Even with rebates, most Californians can’t afford electric cars. Fewer than 1% of vehicles registered in California today are all-electric. The E-Bike Affordability Program provides purchase incentives targeted at low-income residents, putting zero-emissions transportation within reach for many more Californians. Plus, e-bikes plug into a regular wall outlet and cost about $0.01 per mile to operate — no need for charging stations.

“Electric bicycles (e-bikes) have been found to offer a promising solution to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) impact of a region’s passenger transportation system….The literature shows that despite having slightly higher lifecycle emissions than conventional bicycles, privately owned e-bikes emit far less than other motorized modes.”

From The E-Bike Potential: Estimating regional e-bike impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, Published in Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, October 2020

Proposed Law Would Bring the 15-Minute City and Bicycle Highways in California

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Despite ambitious goals, California has made little progress toward building safe and convenient bike routes. Safe bikeways don’t connect the destinations people need to reach. Roads and intersections that prioritize cars make bike trips unpleasant at best, dangerous at worst. A bill working its way through the legislature could change this landscape. AB 1147 (Friedman) would emphasize people-centric concepts like 15-minute cities and bicycle highways in new transportation plans.

California’s investments in active transportation infrastructure are not big enough nor strategic enough to create genuinely bike-friendly communities. However, one of California’s strongest champions for bicycling, Assembly Transportation Committee Chair Laura Friedman, has introduced a bill that could make a huge difference. 

AB 1147 would hold regions accountable for their goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. It provides tools and incentives to achieve these goals, including a new block grant program that has CalBike very excited. 

Onramp to the bicycle highway

The block grant program in AB 1147 supports two kinds of planning and infrastructure efforts. One is inspired by the idea of a 15-minute city. A 15-minute city is a place where practically everything people need is accessible by a 15-minute bike ride or walk. The other is a program to fund the development of bicycle highways.

We’ll repeat that since you probably just dropped your coffee: bicycle highways. A bicycle highway is a limited access, fast-moving, separated route for bikes only. Imagine riding across town without dodging cars or pedestrians. 

Of the few examples in the United States, the Minneapolis Midtown Greenway best illustrates a separated bikeway connected to the street grid by highway-style ramps. Bicycle highways create safe places for the majority of people who don’t feel safe sharing streets with cars. At the same time, they also serve confident riders who seek fast and convenient bike trips. 

The bill’s grant program for 15-minute cities could provide funding for CalBike’s proposed bikeway network grant program. The program would provide substantial funding to communities willing to design safe bikeways that offer continuous connections to key destinations. It would also include incentives to avoid the compromises that create roadblocks in otherwise connected networks. For example, the bill would discourage city officials from refusing to approve parking or traffic lane removal that’s necessary to bridge a gap in an otherwise safe, low-stress bikeway network. 

What is a 15-minute city?

Friedman’s grant program may be Inspired by the commitment of the Parisian mayor to make Paris a 15-minute city. A 15-minute city is a city where residents can reach the services they need within 15 minutes without getting in a car. The 15-minute city requires mixed-use zoning where grocery stores and other shops, schools, medical offices, and workspaces are situated among or near residences. 

Cities use different definitions of the 15-minute city radius: it could be walking distance, biking distance, or 15 minutes on public transit. 

That’s why Friedman suggested that the Strategic Growth Council (SGC) host the 15-minute city grant program. The SGC brings together people from multiple state agencies to coordinate efforts to create a more sustainable California. AB 1147 would fund multi-faceted planning and land-use changes needed to increase density. This will bring key destinations closer to where people live. The 15-minute city could be coming to a neighborhood near you if AB 1147 becomes law.

Next steps for AB 1147

This bill is a wonky piece of legislation with dozens of provisions about compliance and policies and process. It only has a number, not a name. But sometimes visionary change comes in a deceptively bland wrapper. Assembly Bill 1147 is a truly innovative piece of legislation that could open the door to more liveable communities, more humane commutes, and stronger neighborhoods.

CalBike strongly supports the concepts of bicycle highways and 15-minute cities. We are working with legislators to ensure the bikeway network concepts in AB 1147 are clearly defined and fully funded. 

Initially, funding for the projects in this bill was slated to come from the Active Transportation Program (ATP). However, the ATP is already oversubscribed. We don’t want to see funding stripped from other worthy active transportation projects to meet the very worthy goals of this initiative. Instead, a group of nonprofits is asking that the funding come from California’s $15 billion budget surplus.

We are excited to watch the evolution of this revolutionary bill. Stay tuned for opportunities to voice your support as it makes its way through the legislature and to the governor’s desk.

CalBike to Host National Panel on Decriminalizing Jaywalking

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On May 3, 2021, at 1:00 pm Pacific time, CalBike will join our cosponsors of the Freedom to Walk Act (AB 1238, Ting) and leading experts on pedestrian safety to host a national panel discussion on decriminalizing jaywalking.

The discussion will be held on Zoom and all are welcome to attend. The event is free but preregistration is required.

CalBike is committed to reforming traffic laws to reduce inequities and racially biased policing. Eliminating laws against jaywalking is an essential step toward this goal. By co-sponsoring the Freedom to Walk Act, we hope to decriminalize jaywalking in California. But this movement should be national, so we created a webinar to connect people working on this issue from across the country.

The panel discussion will be moderated by Dr. Charles Brown of Equitable Cities and John Yi from Los Angeles Walks, a co-sponsor of AB 1238. The panelists are Angie Schmitt, Author of “Right of Way,” Caro Jauregui from California Walks (also a co-sponsor of AB 1238), Patrick Hope, a delegate in the Virginia House of Delegates, and Michael Kelley from Bike Walk Kansas City. Jared Sanchez from CalBike will introduce the session. Additional hosts are 3MPH Planning + Consulting and Arrested Mobility.

We look forward to this opportunity to build a national movement to decriminalize jaywalking. We hope you will join us.

Jaywalking Webinar flyer

Assembly Transportation Committee Supports Freedom to Walk Act

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April 26, 2021

For Immediate Release

Contact:

Assembly Transportation Committee Supports Freedom to Walk Act

First Step to Decriminalize Jaywalking in California

Sacramento – The California Assembly Transportation Committee voted 12-2 to support AB 1238, the Freedom to Walk Act. This measure will eliminate jaywalking laws, making it legal for pedestrians to make mid-block crossings and cross against traffic lights.

The Freedom to Walk Act, sponsored by Assemblymember Phil Ting, is a necessary step to right historic injustices. Jaywalking citations are disproportionately issued to Black Californians, and policing these infractions provides an opportunity for biased and pretextual policing. Decriminalizing jaywalking will remove an unjust burden from low-income Californians, who can least afford to pay the fines. Low-income residents are also more likely to live in neighborhoods that lack infrastructure for people who walk, making jaywalking unavoidable. 

‘’We applaud the Assembly Transportation Committee for advancing this important bill,” said Jared Sanchez, CalBike Senior Policy Advocate. “Their strong support is a sign that California is ready to leave these regressive and oppressive laws in the dustbin of history, where they belong.”

“The incredible rate at which pedestrians are dying from crashes should compel us to understand why fellow Californians navigate as such, not criminalize them. This is just the first of many steps in our fight to provide all those who walk and roll with a little more dignity. We look forward to the work ahead,” shared John Yi, Executive Director of Los Angeles Walks.

“The decriminalization of “jaywalking” is the first step in ensuring a culture of belonging on our streets for all road users. We will continue to work towards ending the current dangerous car culture across the state that is accepted as the norm and prioritizes drivers, “ said Caro Jauregui, Co-Executive Director of California Walks. 

CalBike, California Walks, and Los Angeles Walks are sponsoring the Freedom to Walk Act, which has strong support from a broad base of community organizations. To date, more than 85 groups and individuals have signed on to a letter supporting AB 1238. Supporters include the Ella Baker Center, Courage California, Disability Rights California, and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. Elected leaders supporting the measure include Berkeley City Councilmember Rigel Robinson, Albany Mayor Ge’Nell Gary, and Albany Vice Mayor, Preston Jordan.

On May 3, CalBike will join Los Angeles Walks and California Walks to host a national discussion on decriminalizing jaywalking. All are welcome to attend.

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