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CalBike’s blog — sharing the biking news you need to know

Stay informed about the bicycling movement in California by reading this blog and subscribing to our monthly newsletter, the CalBike Report. Keep apprised of which bills we are supporting with our Legislative Watch page, which we update regularly.

California Walks and CalBike Call on Cities to Implement Daylighting to Save Lives

California’s Transportation Spending Has the Wrong Priorities

E-Bike Purchase Incentives FAQs

Bike Riders’ Right to Safe Streets Tested in Court

My Mother Rode a Bike

Fate of Quick-Build and Bike Highways in Suspense

Inside the Black Box of Appropriations

NYBC: Bicycle Programs Are the New Student Movement

Building an Alliance Between Firefighters and Street Safety Advocates

CalBike Insider: Digging into the State Highway System Management Plan

What to Know About the Next California E-Bike Voucher Application Window

E-Bikes on the Agenda for California Legislature in 2025

CalBike Insider: Following Up on the Complete Streets Bill

June 26, 2025/by Jared Sanchez

CalBike does a lot of behind-the-scenes work to encourage state agencies to develop better policies and to follow up on the implementation of bills passed in prior years. One law we’re following closely is SB 960, the Complete Streets Bill. CalBike worked tirelessly for almost a decade to pass a Complete Streets requirement on state […]

California Cities with the Best and Worst Bike Networks

June 24, 2025/by Kendra Ramsey

PeopleForBikes has released its 2025 City Ratings, assessing the connectedness and stress level of the bike networks in over 2,500 cities worldwide, including many in the U.S. The survey rated 305 California cities, with three placing in the national top 10 for their city size. As CalBike works to pass the Bike Highways Bill, AB […]

What is the 85th Percentile Rule?

June 23, 2025/by Jared Sanchez

And why it belongs in the dustbin of transportation history. In 2021, CalBike helped pass the Slower Speeds Save Lives Bill, AB 43, authored by former California Assemblymember (and current U.S. Representative) Laura Friedman. The bill gives communities limited relief from the 85th percentile rule, allowing them more leeway to lower speed limits. This year, […]

CalBike’s Legislative Agenda at the Halfway Point

June 11, 2025/by Jared Sanchez

On June 6, bills with any chance of becoming law this year left their house of origin. Senate bills had to pass a vote of the full Senate and move to Assembly committees for review, and vice versa. We’re happy to report that our two priority bills made it past the midway point, though one […]

CalBike Works with Caltrans to Move Complete Streets Forward

June 11, 2025/by Jared Sanchez

In 2024, with help from our allies and thousands of CalBike supporters, we passed the Complete Streets Bill, SB 960, requiring Caltrans to add or upgrade facilities for people biking and walking when they repair state routes that serve those travel modes. Passing the bill was just the first step; as we’ve seen with the […]

California’s Budget Prioritizes Freeway Expansion Over Safe Streets

June 9, 2025/by Laura McCamy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 9, 2025 Contact: Jared Sanchez, jared@calbike.org, (714)262-0921 Sacramento — CalBike and other advocates had a modest ask from California’s nearly $20 billion 2025 transportation budget: give back the $400 million that was stripped from the Active Transportation Program (ATP) in 2024, as the legislature promised to do in last year’s budget. […]

This Is What a Bike Highway Could Look Like

June 9, 2025/by Jared Sanchez

The Bike Highways Bill, AB 954, passed the Assembly by a wide margin, showing strong support for protected, connected bikeway networks. CalBike is sponsoring this bill, authored by Assemblymember Steve Bennett, which will create a pilot project pathway to create bike highway networks in two regions. The networks could be planned using existing segments of […]

CalBike Insider: Design Guidance on Class IV Bikeways

June 9, 2025/by Laura McCamy

Caltrans issues Design Information Bulletins (DIBs) that set the parameters for specific types of facilities on the state highway network. DIB-89 provides guidance on how to build Class IV bikeways. Class IV lanes are on-street bikeways separated from car traffic by some type of physical barrier. CalBike’s analysis of Caltrans data found that, although protected […]

Central Valley Bikeways Project - Bakersfield

Bakersfield Convenes Grand Jury to Investigate Bike Lanes

June 3, 2025/by Kendra Ramsey

On May 27, 2025, the Kern County Grand Jury released a preliminary report titled The Proliferation of Bike Lanes: Whose Road Is It? The grand jury had been asked to “examine the impact of bike lanes in Bakersfield.” It returned findings that questioned the value of installing bike lanes in Bakersfield and accused the consulting […]

Quick-Build Designs Improve Street Safety

May 29, 2025/by Jared Sanchez

Photo: Anne Thomas riding the “mousehole” bike lane through underpass on State Route 273. Quick-build methods are a cost-effective way to reconfigure streets for greater safety for people walking and biking. Placing parked cars or planter boxes between moving cars and bike riders is less expensive to design and install than a raised curb. Quick-build […]

CalBike Webinar: Improving our Communities with Slow Streets

May 29, 2025/by Kendra Ramsey

The Slow Streets movement wasn’t new when the pandemic hit in 2020. Berkeley had restricted traffic on neighborhood streets that became bike boulevards decades earlier. But the sudden demand for safe space to walk and bike when everyone was staying home fueled a surge in Slow Streets. Slow Streets are shared spaces where only local […]

Nine Uses for Daylighting Space

May 28, 2025/by Kendra Ramsey

California’s new daylighting law prohibits parking within 20 feet of the approach to most crosswalks, creating greater visibility to reduce conflicts between people driving cars and people walking or biking across the street. The law allows communities to ticket people parked in that space, regardless of whether the curb is painted red or there is […]