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Fate of Quick-Build and Bike Highways in Suspense

April 30, 2025/by Jared Sanchez

CalBike’s two priority bills will likely end up in the Suspense File in the Assembly Appropriations Committee shortly because both have price tags that require scrutiny in Appropriations. The Quick-Build Bill (AB 891, Zbur) provides Caltrans with an opportunity to incorporate quick-build methods, thereby improving safety for vulnerable road users. The Bike Highways Bill (AB 954, Bennett) would create two regional bikeway network pilots, testing the impact of bike highways on transportation mode shift. The Suspense File could be a stop on the way to a floor vote or a chance for opponents of these measures to axe them behind the scenes without having to publicly oppose the popular proposals.

Quicksand for quick-build and bike highways

Once bills arrive at the Appropriations Committee and get placed in suspense, they could, in theory, be voted out of committee at any time. In practice, however, the Quick-Build Bill and the Bike Highways Bill — plus some of the other measures CalBike supports — are likely to move forward to the Assembly floor or get buried in an unmarked grave during a fast-moving hearing with little or no opportunity for testimony from supporters or opponents.

May 23 is the last day for bills to leave committees in their first houses in the 2025 legislative year. The Assembly Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing at which it will vote some of the bills in the Suspense Files out, sending them to a vote of the full Assembly. The rest will not be voted down but will simply “stay in suspense.”

Most of the decisions about what bills live or die will be made before May 23. As we’ve previously covered, the Suspense File provides a way for lawmakers and lobbyists to work behind the scenes to stop bills they oppose.

Saving critical bills from suspense

The suspense process makes the Appropriations Committee chairs two of the most powerful people in the California Legislature. This year, the chair in the Assembly is Bay Area Assemblymember Buffy Wicks. We’re gathering petition signatures and, once the bills go into the Suspense File, you can use our action tool to easily send Assemblymember Wicks emails about the Quick-Build Bill and the Bike Highways Bill. Or visit our Take Action for Bike Month page to find both those actions and an action to support full funding for the Active Transportation Program.

Inside the Black Box of Appropriations

April 30, 2025/by Jared Sanchez

This post was originally published on May 10, 2023. It was updated on April 30, 2025.

In May, California’s appropriations committees wield their influence in the legislative process, as the state’s budget begins to come into focus. Appropriations committees in both the Senate and Assembly have outsize power and can affect the passage of a bill in unexpected ways. Here’s a look behind the scenes.

Kill bill

A recent CalMatters investigation found that, in the 2023-24 two-year legislative session, 2,043 bills didn’t make it to the governor’s desk. Only 25 of those were voted down; the rest died in committee, many of them in Appropriations.

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

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

What is the appropriations committee?

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

How a bill gets killed in Appropriations — the Suspense File

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

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

What really is the Suspense File?

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

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

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

How CalBike fights for bills we support, with your help

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

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

Which bills can you help get off suspense this year?

Our two priority bills, the Quick-Build Bill (AB 891, Zbur) and the Bike Highways Bill (AB 954, Bennett), could be placed on suspense in May. You’ll find actions you can take to move these critical bills and others forward on our Bike Month Action page.

CalBike’s 2025 Legislative Agenda

February 25, 2025/by Jared Sanchez

The deadline to submit legislation in Sacramento has passed, so we have a preliminary look at CalBike’s legislative agenda. Despite new limits on the number of bills each legislator can submit, there are many bills of interest to people who care about active transportation and safer streets.

Some of the bills we expect to support (or oppose) have been filed but the specific language is still in the development stage, so we’ve put them on our watch list for now. We’ll provide updates as bill provisions become clearer.

Here are the bills CalBike is sponsoring, supporting, or monitoring at the very beginning of the legislative session.

CalBike sponsors bills for better bike infrastructure, e-bike classification

CalBike is sponsoring or co-sponsoring three bills we think will bring significant positive changes to California streets and make our shared spaces safer for vulnerable road users.

Caltrans Quick-Build Pilot (AB 891, Zbur): Quick-build allows public agencies to respond quickly to unsafe road conditions by adding paint, planter boxes, soft-hit bollards, and other inexpensive infrastructure for bicycle and pedestrian safety. This bill would establish the Quick-Build Project Pilot Program within Caltrans, allowing the agency to implement more Complete Streets on state-controlled roadways without a yearslong planning and funding process. Many local governments already use quick-build to test new bikeways and other active transportation infrastructure; this will allow the same safety interventions on the state routes that serve as local main streets or popular bike routes.

Bicycle Highways Bill (AB 954, Bennett): California has a highway system for motor vehicles, so why not an interconnected network of separated bikeways that allow for safe, fast bicycle transportation? This bill would create a pilot program at Caltrans. It’s an excellent step toward making the bike an appealing and convenient transportation option for more Californians.

Illegal E-Motorcycle Classification (SB 455, Blakespear): Much of the concern about e-bikes on California streets is actually about electric motorcycles and mopeds illegally marketed as e-bikes and often sold to underaged riders. Selling e-motorcycles as e-bikes allows sellers to circumvent California regulations about registration and licensing and puts unsuspecting buyers at risk. The language of the bill is still being written, but the author’s intent is to clarify state regulations, remove gray areas, and specify penalties for violations.

CalBike’s active transportation slate

We’re starting the session with five excellent bills in our active transportation slate. Look for more bills to be added to this slate.

School Streets Bill (AB 382, Berman): For now, this bill is a placeholder with provisions to be added. If it’s similar to Berman’s 2024 school zone safety bill, it will clarify and strengthen regulations to keep students safe from traffic violence as they walk into school. We look forward to working with our partners and the sponsor as this bill evolves.

Caltrans Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment (AB 1132, Schiavo): Extreme weather events, made more frequent by climate change, impact California’s transportation systems. Highway 1 has repeatedly been shut down by slides in Northern California, as were train tracks in Southern California. Fires in Paradise and Los Angeles showed the vulnerability of our escape routes. This bill requires Caltrans to identify what makes communities resilient to climate-caused transportation disruptions. It’s an excellent first step toward making all California communities more climate resilient.

Remove Bikeway Roadblocks Bill (SB 71, Wiener): Green transportation champion Senator Scott Wiener is building on his past work to make it easier to build transit and active transportation projects. California’s CEQA environmental review law has been used to stall the building of bikeways and the adoption of bike plans. In recognition of the fact that public transit, biking, and walking have positive environmental impacts, this seeks to make a current temporary CEQA exemption permanent.

Sustainable Transportation Permitting (SB 445, Wiener): Climate disasters are accelerating; we must accelerate our responses. One of the best antidotes to climate change is providing no-carbon transportation options. To that end, this bill speeds up the permitting and construction of sustainable transportation projects. It will have the additional benefit of allowing communities to fix dangerous roadways more quickly, thus reducing the heavy toll of traffic violence.

Safe Crossings Save Lives (SB 671, Cervantes): This bill would beef up requirements for walk signals to make them more pedestrian-friendly. One of the most important provisions is a requirement for the state to inventory the status of existing pedestrian signals. This will show which intersections aren’t using the latest technology or programmed for maximum pedestrian safety; it will highlight where funding and maintenance are needed and improve safety at intersections.

Bills we’re watching

There are a number of bills that could get added to CalBike’s support list once their provisions are clearer, and some we might oppose. In addition to the bills listed below, we are watching several bills that we don’t have all the details about. Check our Legislative Watch page for updates as we learn more.

State highway work zone speed safety program (AB 289, Haney): Establishes a speed enforcement system through Caltrans.
E-bike reflector requirement (AB 544, Davies): This bill would require e-bikes to have a rear red reflector or light visible at 500 feet at all times of day.
E-bike clarification (AB 545, Davies): Further clarification of the definition of an e-bike to include fully operable pedals and a motor that can’t exceed 750 watts.
Highway Design Manual: Increase Fire Department authority (AB 612, Rogers): This bill would give local fire departments greater say in active transportation improvements.
Illegal Electric Motorcycles (AB 875, Muratsuchi): The illegal e-motorcycle bill CalBike is sponsoring clarifies the regulations differentiating e-bikes from motorcycles. This bill invites police officers to confiscate e-motorcycles, which could lead to disproportionate enforcement against BIPOC Californians.
The Safe, Sustainable, Traffic-Reducing Transportation Bond Act of 2026 (AB 939, Schultz): This bill would put a $20 billion state bond on the 2026 ballot. The money would be divided among a range of transportation projects, including active transportation and micromobility. We’re looking forward to more details about where the funds would go.
Higher fines for minors not wearing helmets (AB 965, Dixon): This bill is exactly what the name says.
E-bike Disclosure for Parents and Minors (AB 968, Boerner): This bill would add a requirement that e-bike manufacturers and distributors include a warning about risks and responsibilities if a minor operates the bike.
Intelligent Speed Assistance for Dangerous Drivers (AB 981, Gipson): The governor vetoed the bill we cosponsored to add ISA to all new cars in California. This would require people convicted of reckless driving offenses to install the system in their cars.
Caltrans Slower Streets (AB 1014, Rogers): A bill to lower speed limits on state highways.
Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025 (AB 1243, Addis): This bill would put a price on damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions and require emitters to pay into a superfund program administered by CalEPA.
Regional housing needs and transportation plans (AB 1275, Elhawary): This bill would move California toward integration of housing and transportation plans to build more housing near transit, jobs, schools, etc.
San Francisco Bay Area Local Revenue Measure (SB 63, Wiener/Arreguin): This is a third try at authorizing legislation to develop a predictable operational revenue source to ensure the future of Bay Area transit providers.
Study for road and safety improvements (SB 78, Seyarto): A Caltrans study to identify high-collision spots and projects to improve safety at those locations.
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (SB 220, Allen): Updates rules about membership on the board of directors of LA Metro.
EMotos (SB 586, Jones): Yet another bill targeting the proliferation of two-wheeled electric vehicles, this one creates an eMoto category of off-road vehicles.
Polluters Pay Climate Superfund Act of 2025 (SB 684, Menjivar): The senate counterpart of Assembly Bill 1243 (see above).

We will undoubtedly add, remove, and move bills on this list. CalBike’s Legislative Watch page has the most up-to-date information. Subscribe to CalBike’s newsletter for regular updates on the most crucial bills for active transportation and periodic reassessments of the status of all the bills we’re supporting or watching.

CalBike’s Agenda for 2025

December 11, 2024/by Kendra Ramsey

On December 3, around 100 advocates and supporters joined CalBike on Zoom for a recap of a momentous 2024, a celebration of 30 years of bike advocacy, and a look forward to CalBike’s 2025 agenda. In breakout sessions, participants shared more ideas and enthusiasm for some of CalBike’s top priorities, including bicycle highways and shared streets legislation. You can view the whole webinar at the bottom of this post.

CalBike’s 2025 priorities

We outlined CalBike’s 2025 priorities, which will build on successes from 2024, most notably passing the Complete Streets Bill, SB 960. We are looking for partners in Sacramento to move our legislative agenda forward and working with staffers and agency stakeholders to move our budget priorities forward and implement the Complete Streets Law.

Here are some of the key elements of CalBike’s 2025 agenda.

Bicycle highways

We plan to recommend a pilot program establishing networks of bicycle highways that are numbered and signed. The goal is to test the concept in two major metropolitan regions. The bike highways would serve trips of five miles or more, and support higher speed travel of up to 25 miles per hour. The highways would connect to other regional routes, creating links between communities and making biking an even more convenient and safe way to get around.

Shared Streets

The Open Streets and Slow Streets movements gained momentum during the pandemic. Demand for safe spaces where people of all ages can comfortably play, ride a bike, roll, and walk continues to grow, building on ideas such as School Streets.

Shared Streets would create a new roadway classification where vulnerable road users would have the right of way at all locations, not just at intersections and crosswalks. Popular in Europe, Shared Streets are slow-speed facilities that truly prioritize travel by bike and foot. They are safe and vibrant spaces built around people-powered movement.

Quick-build pilot

A perfect companion to Shared Streets is a Bikeway Quick-Build Pilot Program. The program would expedite the development and implementation of safe, protected bikeways on the state highway system, much of which runs through our towns and cities. It would also give planners and road users the opportunity to live with safer streets and iterate the design process, leading to robust community support for building more permanent facilities.

CalBike’s concept would require Caltrans to develop guidelines for implementing bikeway quick-build projects, which would be both faster and less expensive to build than hardscape changes. Quick-build would be a catalyst for the development of facilities to improve safety for people on bikes, who continue to be injured and killed on unsafe roadways while long-term planning is done.

Bike Omnibus

In 2022, Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s OmniBike Bill made several significant changes to the California Vehicle Code as it applied to biking and walking. The commonsense changes in that bill make our streets more bike-friendly, and we’d like to run another bill to build in more change to the code for people who get around by bike.

The bill would:

Clarify hand signaling: Bicyclists would not be required to provide a signal if “circumstances require that both hands be used to safely control or operate the bicycle.”
Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon: this would clarify that a person riding a bicycle would have the rights and responsibilities of a pedestrian at a PHB or HAWK beacon but shall yield to pedestrians upon and along a crosswalk.
More daylighting: Prohibit extra-tall vehicles from parking for an additional specified distance from a marked or unmarked crosswalk to improve visibility for vulnerable road users at the crossing.

The Bicycle Safety Stop

We continue to seek the introduction and passage of this commonsense regulation, which allows people on bikes to treat stop signs as yields. Similar laws have existed for more than 40 years in other states with no adverse outcomes, and the Safety Stop helps bike riders and car drivers share the road more and makes bike riding safer. Whether or not we’re able to run a bill in 2025, CalBike will keep campaigning for this law.

A new bikeway classification

Many California cities have created bike boulevards — traffic-calmed streets where people on bikes are safe to take the lane. Currently, bike boulevards are classified as a subset of Class III bikeways, on which people in cars and people on bikes share a lane. However, bike boulevards are distinct from Class III bikeways, many of which consist of sharrows on high-speed routes. It’s time to create a separate classification for these low-volume streets, many of which have diverters to prevent non-local car traffic and prioritize bicycle through traffic. Bike boulevards would become Class 5 bikeways.

E-Bike Policy

E-bike safety is a hot topic and we are having ongoing conversations with our local partners and legislators alike on issues surrounding e-bikes. There were several pilot bills in different parts of the state in 2024, as well as local ordinances cracking down on e-bikes. Some key topics include clarification of illegal electric motorcycles, which may be marketed as e-bikes but have significant differences including not having operable pedals, operating at much higher speeds, and/or being able to be modified or switched between modes to go faster than the top speed allowed for e-bikes. We recently crafted a coalition letter on the topic and will keep working to ensure that e-bikes continue to be a safe and viable form of transportation in California.

We are also talking with legislators about more money for active transportation infrastructure in next year’s budget and working with Caltrans to ensure it fully implements the new Complete Streets law. CalBike had a big year in 2024 and we’ll continue to push for a California full of bikes in 2025.

Watch the Agenda Reveal, including a look back at CalBike’s 30-year history of bicycle advocacy.

6 Reasons Why We Love Quick-Build Projects

January 26, 2021/by Kevin Claxton

At CalBike, we have long been fans of quick-build projects. Early in the pandemic, we realized that quick-build projects are more crucial than ever. The pandemic temporarily reduced traffic, creating a demonstration of the way people-centered streets can look and feel. This created an opportunity for change. But we have to move fast.

The urgency of the situation spurred CalBike to action. We secured grants from the SEED Fund and the SRAM Cycling Foundation and collaborated with Alta Planning + Design to create a Quick-Build Guide that planners can use to develop quick-build projects.

If you feel resistant to quick-build, we’d like to change your mind — quickly.

What is quick-build design?

Quick-build is a method for reconfiguring streets without costly changes to the existing hardscape. Planners make intersection improvements and buffered bikeways using low-cost materials like paint, moveable planters, and bollards. The pre-implementation planning process is shorter. But, unlike traditional infrastructure projects, planning doesn’t stop once the design is on the ground. Because the elements of quick-build projects can be moved or altered without much effort or expense, the designs can easily evolve in response to community input.

Here are just six of the many reasons we love quick-build design.

Quick-build helps communities respond to the climate crisis with appropriate speed

In 2018, the IPCC warned that we have just 12 years to turn around our carbon consumption or face a planetwide catastrophe. To meet that deadline, we have to take bold action now, not in 2030.

Unfortunately, the planning process for a new bike lane or enhanced intersection in California can take years or even decades. A county-sponsored project to redesign a central transportation corridor in the East Bay for more active transit chose two initial projects to build quickly. The quick timeline: five years. The rest of the project will probably take ten years or more. With quick-build, these projects can be on the ground in five months at a fraction of the budget.

The climate crisis is already here. California has suffered through droughts and fires with increasing frequency as the Earth has warmed by 1℃. We can’t afford to double that

It’s more equitable to vet a design on the ground than on paper

With quick-build, we aren’t asking the public to spend their precious time studying drawings and imagining what their street could be like. Instead, we change the streets temporarily in real-time, so community members can get a feel for how the new designs work on the ground.

People with lots of time still get to see what it will look like and can still give input. Quick-build leads to more accessible and equitable outreach. Because commenters aren’t limited to people who are used to and comfortable with the “normal” outreach process, people who don’t usually get to weigh in on bike infrastructure have a voice.

Lower costs allow communities to build more for less

California cities don’t need one shiny, new bike project or a few protected intersections. We need safe, connected networks that allow riders of all ages to choose active transportation. Communities can put quick-build projects on the ground for a fraction of the price of traditional infrastructure. Not only are the materials less expensive, but communities can also save on staff time because the planning process is shorter and more practical. If we are to have any hope of making the transportation shift we need in time to mitigate climate change, quick-build is our best and perhaps our only hope.

Quick-build overcomes NIMBY resistance

If you’ve ever been to a public meeting about a bike project, you’ve probably heard statements like these:

“Why build a bike lane when so few people ride bikes here?”

“We need those parking spaces.”

“What about elderly people or parents with kids? They NEED to drive.”

Proposals to add infrastructure that will make biking safer strike terror in the hearts of motorists. They have visions of a helmeted mob dragging them out of their car and forcing them into the fresh air (or something equally horrific).

Quick-build bypasses the irrational fear stage of the public planning process. Car owners find that they can still drive, often more easily than before. People ride bikes and walk more, eliminating the “no one will use it” argument. Then streets become safer for kids to use, and the argument is won.

It’s easy to change flexible designs in response to changing conditions

When you pour concrete, you’re stuck with the street design, at least for a few years. But quick-build lends itself to iteration. Many quick-build features end up becoming permanent, but they can easily be altered in response to community feedback or changing community needs.

Quick-build projects save lives

With quick-build, there’s no excuse not to build protected bike lanes. Quick-build makes it cheap and easy to safe bike facilities that are protected from traffic. Buffers can be made from bollards, planters, or rubber car stoppers.

Separated bikeways benefit everyone. A recent study found that streets with protected bike lanes saw fewer traffic fatalities for all users – bike riders, pedestrians, and car drivers.

CalBike is working on getting our Quick-Build Guide into the hands of every California planner, administrator, and elected official who has input on street design. Your donation will help us make safe biking an option for more Californians. Do you want your planners to see the guide? Let us send them the executive summary. Give us the contact info and we’ll do the rest.

CalBike Releases Quick-Build Guide to Create Safer Streets

October 13, 2020/by Kevin Claxton

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 13, 2020

Contact: Dave Snyder, California Bicycle Coalition, dave@calbike.org | 916-251-9433‬

CalBike Releases How-to Guide for Building Safer Streets Quickly and Cheaply

The California Bicycle Coalition and Alta Planning + Design today released a Quick-Build Guide for planners, officials, and community leaders to encourage the construction of safe bikeways quickly and affordably.

The guide promotes the “quick-build” method for safety improvements. Quick-build projects use materials that can be installed quickly and at a low cost. Quick-build design allows active transportation projects to be completed in months rather than years. Because quick-build projects rely on inexpensive materials, they are a good fit for California’s COVID-strapped municipal budgets.

The 77-page Quick-Build Guide, created by Alta Planning + Design, is available for free. This resource will help planners, city staffers, and advocates understand the tools and processes that lead to successful quick-build projects.

In addition to the guide, the project includes a 4-page introductory brochure. Both are available online at calbike.org/quickbuild.

“We hope this guide will help California capitalize on the huge increase in biking and walking we’ve seen during the pandemic,” said CalBike Executive Director Dave Snyder. “Quick-build allows communities to build on that momentum to create the kinds of safe, separated spaces that people of all ages need to feel comfortable biking and walking in their neighborhoods. There’s no good reason to wait years for safer streets and plenty of reasons to act quickly.”

“Rapid implementation of bike and pedestrian networks through Quick-Build is one of Alta’s core priorities for transformative investment in transportation,” said Brett Hondorp, President of Alta Planning + Design. “This guidebook gives communities the resources to quickly, inexpensively, and equitably create safe spaces for people on our streets, turning the pandemic walking and biking boom into sustained active transportation mode shift.”

The partnership to create this guide matches Alta Planning’s design expertise and experience with CalBike’s network of planning and advocacy communities throughout California. It will give cities a tool they can use to build safe biking infrastructure when and where it’s needed.

The Quick-Build Guide was made possible by funding from the Seed Fund and the SRAM Cycling Fund.

Download the Quick-Build Guide 2020.

From the Quick-Build Guide:

“Quick-build works to meet mobility needs by helping people to choose active modes more often. Those mobility needs will vary depending on the community and may include safer crossings, slower streets, an extended bikeway network, or safer routes to transit, schools, and essential workplaces. In every case, people require a safe, connected, and comfortable network for active transportation.”

“We as transportation experts need to be thinking strategically about whether or not we need to spend three years talking about doing something important, or three weeks to just try something.”

― Warren Logan, Transportation Policy Director of Mobility and Interagency Relations at Oakland Mayor’s Office

A Preview of the CalBike 2021 Agenda

October 1, 2020/by Laura McCamy

Update: Attend our Agenda Announcement and Campaign Kickoff Party on December 10.

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.

Quick-Build Street Design: What It Is and Why We Need It

May 28, 2020/by Kevin Claxton

Our process for building transportation infrastructure is slow and expensive, even for bike projects. A simple protected bike lane will commonly require five years from approval to construction. Quick-build street design projects are an exception. They get bikeable and walkable infrastructure projects built fast and affordably. Quick-build is more vital than ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. California cities and towns need to reallocate street space quickly to allow businesses to reopen safely, protect workers, and meet the rising demand for safe biking and walking.

CalBike has made quick-build street design a major priority in 2020. To kick off this campaign, we are working on a toolkit that cities can use to guide them through the quick-build process.

Here’s what you need to know about quick-build street design, plus what CalBike is doing to bring quick-build street design to more California streets.

What is quick-build?

The normal timeline for projects that add Complete Streets elements or otherwise change streets to make them safer for bike riders and pedestrians can stretch for years and years. From conception, to inclusion in a community plan, project planning, community engagement, grant application, grant award, additional engagement and project amendment, grant expenditure (often many years after the award), and finally project construction, a project can easily take more than ten years.

Some projects, such as a new bike bridge, have big price tags and require longer timelines. But smaller projects, such as adding a bulb-out to reduce the width of a pedestrian crossing or adding a protected bike lane, don’t have to be costly or time-consuming.

The first part of quick-build street design is to use low-cost measures. Staffers or contractors can create pedestrian bulb-outs or a new bike lane with paint and bollards. Simple signs or heavy planters serve as traffic diverters. Most quick-build projects can be constructed in mere days or weeks. They can go from conception to reality within months. The measures are also temporary, designed to be removed or changed. Quick-build street design is literally not set in stone (or concrete), so elements can be changed in response to on-the-ground feedback.

That feedback to the actual temporary design becomes the public input process for the eventual project, if the public supports making it permanent. It is usually much better than traditional planning processes, where stakeholders are asked to imagine how it will feel to use a new street alignment based on renderings and PowerPoint presentations. It’s not surprising, under those circumstances, that many community members are resistant to implementing Complete Streets designs that will change how they navigate their environment.

Quick-build projects extend the public comment period beyond implementation. Unlike asphalt and concrete infrastructure, quick-build street designs can be easily adjusted by adding a planter box, moving bollards, or restriping a lane.

While planners design and implement quick-build projects using “temporary” materials, many end up becoming permanent. In some cases, planners add upgrades that started as quick-build to future repaving projects. It turns out, however, that the hardscape infrastructure that has been the standard for traffic engineers for decades is not always necessary. Quick-build improvements like colored paint, soft-hit bollards, or planter boxes can safely delineate projects for years.

Examples of quick-build street design

Bicycle advocates have long used the refrain, “It’s only paint” to promote quick-build projects. Paint is cheap to install and easy to undo. The secret is that, if communities get to live with new quick-build projects, they like them.

Perhaps the most famous examples of successful quick-build projects in the US are New York City’s move to pedestrianize portions of its busiest squares. These projects, which divert traffic on some of the busiest streets in the most populous city in the US, rely mainly on paint and planter boxes to create boundaries where bikes can ride through on separated paths and pedestrians can escape crowded sidewalks. These plazas include outdoor seating that provides a welcome respite for weary tourists and locals in search of fresh air. They were an instant hit.

Quick-build has arrived in California. When a pedestrian was killed by a car driver in Oakland in 2017, the city was able to quickly improve the street design with bollards and paint. After adding bike lanes and brightly-colored pedestrian refuges, OakDOT reported a small decrease in speeding and a more than 80% increase in car drivers yielding to pedestrians.

Go Human Open Streets & Safety Pop Up Events from SCAG on Vimeo.

The Southern California Association of Governments used tactical urbanism (another term for quick-build) in conjunction with its Go Human safe streets campaign. The project installed temporary bike lanes, bulb-outs and other active transportation features in cities around the region. This project used quick-build as a way to get better community feedback on potential safety improvements. The tactical urbanism approach also built engagement and support. The project made street design fun by hosting Open Streets and other events.

Amid the current pandemic, the need to respond quickly to changing circumstances is greater than ever. Many California cities have created Slow Streets to provide safe space for physically distanced outdoor recreation. Often, the only infrastructure needed is signs and portable barricades.

As California moves out of its current stay at home phase of COVID-19 response, communities will need to move quickly to adapt to the new realities of living with an ongoing pandemic. We can’t wait three to five years to plan and fund new bikeways and wider sidewalks. In addition, city and county budgets have been decimated by the crisis. Planners will need to do more with less. Quick-build is the perfect tool to help local governments deal with the changes brought by the coronavirus.

Pros and cons of building it fast

Facebook’s motto of “Move fast and break things” shouldn’t be applied to urban planning. Quick-build comes in for some justified criticism. The speedy planning and implementation process has both benefits and challenges when it comes to community engagement. Here are two of the biggest issues around community engagement.

Pro: An end-run around knee-jerk NIMBYism

If you’ve ever been to a public meeting about a streetscape project, you have heard the NIMBYs speak. They fear that the bike lane you’re advocating for is designed to drive them out of their cars. They worry that it will take them longer to drive to the store. Or they may be anxious that their neighborhood will be overrun by “those people.”

It makes sense that people fear change, particularly people who are invested in the car-centric status quo. Quick-build does an end-run around this fear. It lets planners put “temporary” improvements in place on a trial basis. With designs in place, planners and users get to see what works on the ground, rather than in theory. Residents often find that traffic nightmares don’t materialize and the safety benefits are nicer than they expected. The hard-core NIMBYs may be difficult to win over. However, the support of community members who like the change once it’s in place can help overcome objections and keep quick-build improvements in place.

Con: Limited time for community engagement

There is a downside to the limited public engagement that is a feature of quick-build projects. The short timeline rarely permits the kind of outreach needed for a truly inclusive planning process. However, planners can and should foster an inclusive evaluation process. Community engagement after installation should include people from marginalized and disadvantaged communities. The process has to address the transportation needs of people who are often shut out of planning processes.

Inclusive design takes work. The quick-build process doesn’t absolve planners from the obligation to reach out to communities whose voices are less often heard in the planning process. However, quick-build projects often respond to majority desires for safer walking and biking space. The process is less likely to allow those needs to be shouted down by a few loud voices.

CalBike’s own quick-build project

Here at CalBike, we have a quick-build project of our own. We are working with Alta Planning + Design to create a quick-build toolkit. The toolkit will give municipal planners the resources they need to use quick-build street design for their urgent projects. It will give community advocates the tools they need to win commitments from local officials to make our streets safer, quickly. It will give elected officials the encouragement and rationale for not waiting for the next round of grants. Instead, they can meet their public’s demand for safer streets right away.

Our Quick-Build Toolkit project is itself on a fast track. We expect to have it ready for distribution sometime this summer.

Finding more funding for quick-build street design

In addition to our toolkit encouraging quick-build projects, CalBike is working to increase the state commitment to this low-cost and accessible way of making our streets safer. We are working with regional agencies to help them find funding for local governments to implement quick-build projects.

We support the California Transportation Commission’s decision to set aside $7 million from the next round of ATP projects for urgent quick-build projects. The Commission delayed the next ATP round due to COVID-19 impacts, but it promises an expedited review for any project applying for the $7 million in quick-build project funding. Applications for these projects are due soon. We are also advocating for quick-build infrastructure money in federal stimulus packages.

At CalBike, we want everyone who is able to get to choose to bike to work. We want safe space for children to explore their neighborhoods on foot, scooter, bike, or skateboard. Our commitment to finding practical, workable ways to build the safe and equitable streets that California needs is stronger than ever. We believe that quick-build is one of the best tools for achieving this goal. That’s why we’re building the toolkit. It is why we plan to put the toolkit in the hands of every public works and planning department staffer in California. At the same time, we will be working with state agencies to remove any barriers to quick-build projects that might keep cities from adopting this important tool.

You can help by supporting our quick-build campaign.