legislative agenda Archives

CalBike Senior Policy Advocate Reflects on Big Picture Agenda

June 30, 2022/in The Latest /by Jared Sanchez

by Jared Sanchez

The California State Legislature is advancing more bicycle-related bills than ever. At least three times this year, a legislative committee approved seven important policy changes in a single day. With my years of experience, I’ve never seen so much energy and attention on bicycling issues at the state level. I’m grateful to our members whose advocacy has made this possible and to the legislators advancing powerful policy changes. It’s great to watch, and I want our organization to do everything we can to influence the changemakers who are taking bold steps to make our streets safer in a year that could have a huge impact on active transportation in California.

Three goals that will bring better biking to California

These goals top CalBike’s agenda:

Build 100% complete, protected bikeway networks in five California cities in five years.

At current funding levels, most local and regional bike plans won’t be complete for another 30 years. And even then, those plans too often leave gaps where one dangerous intersection or one block of fast-moving traffic will scare most people away from biking. CalBike has proposed a new program to fund cities that build complete bikeway networks without gaps quickly. We won’t wait 30 years.

Make it easy and inexpensive to hop on a shared bike anywhere in California.

We need to subsidize bike-share as an integral part of public transit so that anybody who can afford the bus can afford a similar ride on a shared bike. Shared bikes and scooters can be just as valuable as public transit if they’re supported with the same level of funding. Good shared micromobility programs, equitably distributed and affordable, can help millions of Californians take advantage of multimodal public transit and bike trips instead of car trips and make transit more effective and efficient.

Make sure that when we talk about safe streets, we prioritize safety for Black and brown Californians.

Our policy team worked hard last year to pass bills that would have removed opportunities for pretextual policing—allowing bicyclists to treat stop signs as yields and decriminalizing safe mid-block crossings. The governor vetoed both bills, but we’re bringing them back this year with some changes that we think will garner his signature.

We can’t forget the climate crisis

Climate disaster looms closer every day. Fire, drought, and extreme weather hit disadvantaged people hardest, widening social inequities. Energy costs, including the price of gas, are rising faster than incomes, squeezing low-income people even more. We can’t separate climate policy from economic policy from transportation policy.

Bicycling is central to creating transportation policy that will meet this critical moment in California.

We know that to make transportation affordable for everyone, Californians need to be much less dependent on their cars. We can do that easily, as CalBike members well know, by relying much more heavily on bikes. And we have to make the switch quickly, in the next 10 years.

Yet California is moving very slowly to implement the changes necessary to make bicycling an easy choice for people. California’s policymakers know that bicycling is a low-cost, sustainable, healthy, and joyful transportation solution—bikeways are drawn on maps in every city and town in California. But local governments aren’t building them. That’s why CalBike’s 2022 agenda focuses on how we can speed up this transformation.

The past two years have proven that California’s lawmakers and agencies can move quickly when faced with a dire challenge. The climate crisis, and the cascade of issues that result from it, require the same level of urgent action.

No more “something is better than nothing” for bicycle infrastructure.
No more prioritizing freeway building over creating safe neighborhoods.
No more programs that advantage the comfortable and leave everyone else behind.

We can’t do this work without YOU. We rely on individual supporters, and your involvement is hugely impactful to the work we do.

This is the time for bold action. Are you with us?

Bike Parking Bill Killed by COVID-19

August 14, 2020/in The Latest /by Kevin Claxton

Add one more item to the (loooong) list of legislative priorities that have been derailed by the coronavirus pandemic: Assembly Member Robert Rivas’s bike parking incentive bill. It is the last of many bills that CalBike was working on in 2020 to improve the policy environment for biking.

CalBike now has more capacity to plan and campaign for bills in the next session which starts in December. We also have more capacity to invest in a handful of close races for Assembly and Senate. More bike-friendly legislators can make a huge difference.

CalBike started this year with a full docket of bills in the Legislature. Our priority bill would have given the same purchase incentives for e-bikes that California gives for electric cars. Another would add the Dutch Reach to California driver’s education manuals. We were working on changes in how speed limits were set. All those bills were pulled by their authors in March as the legislative session got upended by the pandemic.

The Bike Parking Bill

One key bill was not pulled. Assembly Member Robert Rivas proposed a fantastic statewide incentive for bike parking and car-sharing: incentives to build bike parking in new housing. AB 3153 would have allowed housing builders to reduce the amount of car parking they would be required to build if they built a certain amount of bike parking or car-sharing spaces instead. Thanks to hundreds of CalBike supporters who called and emailed in support of this measure, it made it through the Assembly and into the Senate. Even with that outpouring of support, however, this pandemic year created too great a headwind in Sacramento.

The bill would not have made a huge impact on California’s housing stock, because it provided an optional incentive (instead of a mandate) and would only have impacted new housing in some counties. But where it applied, it would have overridden local zoning laws, making an incredibly bold statement on behalf of sustainable transportation. Housing builders could have used this law to build less car parking and more bike parking than local regulations require, and local officials could not have prevented it. It would have encouraged new local ordinances to reduce car parking requirements and increase bike parking requirements in the name of local control.

CalBike’s bike parking campaign continues

Minimum parking requirements are among the worst zoning laws. By forcing developers to add the cost of car parking to new homes, parking requirements add to the already high cost of housing construction. In addition, these laws increase inequality and impede sustainable transportation. Unfortunately, legislators are extremely unlikely to change minimum parking requirements at a statewide level.

However, legislators are happy to impose a new statewide building code. For example, as of January 1 2020, all new residential buildings must have solar panels.

Thanks to your tremendous show of support for the Bike Parking Bill, we are looking forward to positive developments in 2021. Senator Mike McGuire (SD 2) has committed to working with us to bring a bill about bike parking in next year’s session and has already reached out to CalBike to discuss it.

In the next legislative session, CalBike will launch a campaign to change the state’s mandatory residential building code to require bike parking in all new residential buildings. While such an initiative would not have the benefit of incentivizing a reduction in subsidized car parking, it would have a much more dramatic impact on the availability of secure bike parking in new residential buildings.

Are you interested in supporting a campaign for mandatory bike parking in new California residential construction? Add your name to the form below to join the movement for better bike parking.

CalBike 2020 Agenda

December 6, 2019/in Newsroom, The Latest /by Kevin Claxton

At CalBike, we have spent the weeks since the end of the 2019 legislative session plotting our direction for 2020. Soon, we’ll begin to implement the CalBike 2020 agenda by meeting with stakeholders, planning campaigns, and finding legislators to author bills to create the policies necessary to achieve our strategic plan.

We will announce our 2020 agenda in person at an event in Sacramento on December 10. Our priorities for the coming year reflect our continued focus on making California communities more safe, livable, bikeable, and equitable. With help from CalBike members and supporters, we believe 2020 will be a year of big steps toward a truly bike-friendly California.

CalBike 2020 Initiatives

CalBike will pursue campaigns in 2020 to make the streets safer, get more people on e-bikes, and change the manuals that tell planners how to make space for bikes on California streets. We’re pursuing initiatives that are proven to make our communities safer and healthier. Here’s our plan for 2020.

Complete Streets

The governor’s veto of SB 127, the Complete Streets Bill, last year included the statement that he fully supports improving facilities to increase walking, biking, and public transit use. Newsom claimed he would hold Caltrans “accountable to deliver more alternatives to driving.” CalBike will make sure he follows through on that promise. In 2020, we’re hopeful that the new leadership at Caltrans will implement the goals of SB 127, and we plan to hold the department accountable for the safety of people who walk, bike, and take transit.

E-Bike Incentives

Nearly half a billion dollars of subsidies help Californians buy electric cars. This subsidy has brought the electric and plug-in hybrid cars registered in California to about 1% of the total California electric and hybrid fleet. Meanwhile, folks who can’t afford an electric car even with the subsidy, and everybody else who would love to have an electric bike to carry their kids to school or navigate a hilly commute get zero support. Many people who would happily get around on e-bikes are forced to rely on cars instead. CalBike proposes a $50 million pilot program to help more Californians buy electric bikes for transportation.

Design Manual Reform

Despite our success in allowing local jurisdictions to use alternatives to the official state Highway Design Manual, and the department’s promotion of flexibility, the manual itself still recommends very old-fashioned, car-oriented standards. The design manual encourages bike lanes to be placed in the door zone. At the same time, it discourages narrowing car lanes to accommodate wider bike lanes. We will work with Caltrans on an overdue update to this manual. Along with necessary changes to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), this effort should help local planners and engineers design streets that prioritize safety instead of fast car traffic.

Driver’s Manual Improvements

The Department of Motor Vehicles’ official manual for motor vehicle operators does a terrible job of telling motorists to expect bike riders in the traffic lane. It even tells drivers that it’s OK to park in a bike lane! It doesn’t suggest that drivers use the “Dutch Reach” to open their doors. The “Dutch Reach” is a practice of using your right hand to open your door requiring you to twist your body so that you’re more able to see a bike rider approaching. We will work with the DMV to change the manual to teach car drivers to share the road with bicyclists more safely.

Vehicle Code Improvements

CalBike updated the Vehicle Code five years ago to require motorists to give three feet of clearance when passing someone on a bicycle. However, the Vehicle Code still includes some outdated information about biking. A CalBike priority in 2020 is to amend the Vehicle Code to bring it up to date. This will include clarification that someone on a bike is not required to ride as far to the right as practicable if the traffic lane is not wide enough to share.

Change the Conversation on the Climate Crisis

In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector fast enough, we must quickly reduce the number of car miles driven by Californians. Yet, too many people still advocate for spending billions of dollars to build new infrastructure that will only result in increased car traffic. In coalition with diverse organizations, CalBike hopes to illustrate how these auto-oriented projects hurt our communities, especially low-income communities and communities of color already suffering from disinvestment. Car-centric projects hurt the planet, increasing greenhouse gas emissions when it’s imperative that we do the opposite. As a leader in the movement for safer streets and more biking, walking, and public transit, CalBike will continue to connect the dots for our decisionmakers between how humans move around and how we protect the future for all living things.

More 2020 Priorities

In addition to leading on the issues above, CalBike and our allies will work together on several other issues, not to mention additional challenges and opportunities that we can’t predict.

Automated Speed Enforcement
Changing how speed limits are set to make it easier to lower speed limits
Encouraging more housing, especially affordable housing, in walkable, bikeable neighborhoods
Improving bike parking requirements statewide
Student transit passes
Statewide goals to reduce vehicle miles traveled

We know that this is an ambitious agenda, but we also know that every item on it is important. Together, they add up to a better biking in California. With your help, we can get there.

Clean Vehicles: E-Bikes at the California Transportation Commission

December 10, 2018/in The Latest /by Kevin Claxton

E-bikes caused a buzz on the agenda at the California Transportation Commission meeting last Wednesday in Riverside, where CalBike recruited Jonathan Weinert of Bosch, a longtime supporter, to make a presentation and provide bikes for commissioners to ride to help illustrate the many transportation needs that electric bikes can meet.

Weinert presented on the development of electric bicycles and exciting technological developments in the field, and presented new research on their use in North America indicating that e-bikes are replacing car trips more than any other kind of trip. The study found that e-bike users are nearly twice as likely to be women as standard bike riders, a statistic greeted with enthusiasm by a number of commissioners.

Our co-presentation to the California Transportation Commission: The Rise of E-Bikes in the US

Commissioners were more engaged with this topic than with most others on the agenda, pressing Wienert and CalBike Executive Director Dave Snyder about electric bicycle technology and research about their use. By the end of the presentation, comments, and questions, commissioners were wondering why the state wasn’t doing more to get e-bikes into the hands of Californians.

One of the more encouraging indications to come from the last meeting of the year is that commissioners see some of the potential CalBike does in electric bicycles in providing healthy and sustainable transportation options to the communities that most need them. Ex-officio member Jim Frazier, Chair of the Assembly Transportation Committee, asked about the incorporation of e-bikes into the clean vehicle and electric car subsidization efforts the committee’s already engaged in, and we certainly agree with the assembly-member that a bill to expand e-bike access with Air Resources Board subsidies is a great idea (reach out to linda@calbike.org if you’re interested in working with us on legislation!)

The California Bicycle Coalition will continue to advocate for the inclusion of green, accessible mobility options like e-bikes as our state shapes tomorrow’s transportation system and its outcomes.

Edit: On our YouTube channel, you can see a 25-minute video of the whole presentation, or a 3-minute video of the highlights related to our e-bike purchase incentive campaign.

Announcing CalBike’s 2019 Legislative Agenda

November 14, 2018/in Newsroom, The Latest /by Laura McCamy

Posts