Cars kill 9 people in California every day, and almost 700 more suffer serious injuries every day. Pollution causes asthma, cancer, and heart disease in people who live near traffic. And our petroleum-fueled transportation system, left unchecked, will lead to catastrophic climate impacts that will affect the whole planet.
Car-choked communities hurt everybody, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged among us. Parking and traffic lanes take up space that could be devoted to parks, schools, and housing.
We are building a movement to demand the enormous changes necessary to reduce automobile use. Are you in?
Yes, I want to live in a clean and healthy world where everyone can drive less and bike more!
How to reduce driving
In 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared that we have only 12 years to act to stop catastrophic climate change. It’s 2020, and our leaders have done nothing to reduce pollution from the largest emitter: the 14.5 million vehicles driven in California every day. To the contrary, they have chosen policies to accommodate and subsidize more and more automobile use.
CalBike and our allies have made great progress in getting political support for bicycling as part of a sustainable and equitable system based also on walking and public transit, helping to quadruple funding for biking and walking in the last ten years. But that won’t change the system.
Until elected officials and agency staffers have the courage to stop subsidizing and accommodating Californians’ (and other Americans’) ever-increasing driving, we’ll have no chance of averting a climate catastrophe.
Don’t let our leaders duck responsibility by relying on the false promise of electric cars. It’s essential to electrify the fleet, but California can’t accomplish its climate goals unless we dramatically reduce total vehicle miles traveled. We must redesign our communities so that the first choice for most people is to walk, bike, or take public transit. Here’s how to make that happen.
- Divert billions of dollars from road expansion projects to public transit, walking, and biking.
- Use those funds to build protected and low-stress bikeways connecting all the destinations in our communities.
- Use those funds to increase public transit.
- Use those funds to support massive increases in housing, including affordable housing, in walkable, bikeable neighborhoods so that people don’t have to drive to do most things.
- Provide low-cost shared bikes and scooters everywhere.
- Subsidize the purchase of e-bikes, especially utility bikes and bikes that can carry children, so that everyone can enjoy that alternative to the automobile.
These are big goals. To accomplish them, we will need all hands on deck. Your support for CalBike’s work helps us bring the systemic change we need to reduce the need to drive, and improve our communities in the process. Thank you for sharing this petition with your friends!