Tag Archive for: featured

Assemblymember Friedman tweaks speed limit laws to save lives

/by

A bicycle commuter and Assemblymember from Pasadena, Laura Friedman, is fighting hard to defend her proposals to give local officials more power to set lower speed limits where doing so will save lives. CalBike strongly supports all measures that reduce the speeds of automobiles wherever people walk and bike. We need you to support Friedman’s proposals in AB 43.

Speed kills but speed limits keep rising  

Even though speed is the top risk factor in pedestrian fatalities in California, our rules about setting speed limits are designed to reward speeding. To set a speed limit, current regulations require local officials to measure the speed of existing drivers and set the limit at the closest 5 mph increment to the 85th percentile speed. This means that the speed of the driver who is going faster than 85 out of 100 drivers on the road determines the speed limit. 

As cars get bigger and more powerful and safer — for their occupants but nobody else — people drive faster. Local officials are often forced to raise speed limits when they measure existing conditions. In other words, speeding drivers set speed limits.

AB 43 makes small changes to the rules about setting speed limits that will lead to significant changes in the lives of Californians whose families won’t have to mourn the violent death of a loved one hit by a car. 

Primary elements of AB 43:

  • It allows local agencies to reduce the speed limit on designated “high injury corridor streets” to 5 mph below what would otherwise be required. 
  • It extends the time that an agency can maintain a speed limit before being forced to raise it from 10 years to 14 years. 
  • It reduces the absolute minimum speed limit in certain narrowly defined commercial districts from 25 mph to 20 mph or 15 mph. 
  • It allows local agencies to consider the safety of people walking and biking when they set speed limits. 

Together, these changes represent the biggest challenge to the 85th percentile rule since its establishment. 

The origins of the 85th percentile rule

If you’ve driven in rural areas, you’ve probably seen speed limits go down as you approach a small town, even though the roadway hasn’t changed. In the past, towns would deliberately set lower speed limits to generate revenue from out-of-town motorists. The town sheriff or police officer would set up a speed trap and hand out tickets.

Legislators outlawed such speed traps and instead required that speed limits be set at a “more reasonable” speed. On the assumption that most motorists don’t exceed a safe speed, they defined “most” as 85%. 

However, over time, most drivers have come to consider it practically a civil right to drive as fast as the road will safely allow. This sense of entitlement has stymied earlier efforts to change the 85th percentile rule, which makes the tweaks in Friedman’s AB 43 an impressive policy effort. 

How AB 43 changes the 85th percentile rule

Let’s take the example of a 4-lane arterial that passes by senior centers and playgrounds and has bike lanes. The speed limit is 35 mph. To enforce that speed limit, local officials have to update their measurement of actual speeds every five or seven years. 

If they find that 85% of drivers are going at least 43 mph, they have to raise the speed limit to 45 mph, because that is the closest 5 mph speed increment to the 85th percentile of drivers. If some exceptions apply, a local agency may round down instead of rounding to the closest 5 mph increment, so they might be able to set the speed limit at 40 mph. 

In this scenario, 40 mph is still an increase over the current speed limit and way too fast for safety, considering the uses of this street. If this road is on a city’s “high injury corridor,” AB 43 will allow local officials to reduce the speed limit by an additional 5 mph. In this case, that would keep the speed limit unchanged. 

This will save lives in Los Angeles, where officials very reluctantly had to raise speed limits on hundreds of miles of arterials, thanks to the 85th percentile rule. AB 43 will allow them to reverse that deadly change. 

AB 43 won’t solve all our problems with speeding motorists, but it is a significant step in the right direction. If you agree, please sign our petition to show your support.

What California needs to create truly safe streets

So how do we solve the problem of roads built to prioritize fast cars? The best answer is better street design to limit speed. Features such as protected bike lanes, bulb-outs, chicanes, and speed humps can create slow-speed streets that are friendlier and safer for people on bikes and walking. 

When repaving, cities should add these features. But we can’t wait decades to rebuild our streets, which is why CalBike created a Quick-Build Guide to help planners design the changes we need now and implement them in months rather than years.

California Cities Ranked Top Places to Live Car-Free

/by

We don’t know why a lawn care company decided to rate the best U.S. cities to live without a car, but we like LawnStarter’s list. The rankings include 14 California cities, with San Francisco topping the list as the best city in the U.S. to live car-free. The ability of Californians to get around by active transportation is something CalBike and thousands of local leaders all over the state have worked hard to achieve, and we’re glad to see that work bearing fruit.

Best cities to live without a car in California

Here are the 14 California cities in the top 50, with their ranks:

  • San Francisco, 1
  • Oakland, 7
  • Los Angeles, 16
  • Irvine, 17
  • Santa Rosa, 18
  • San Jose, 21
  • Huntington Beach, 22
  • Santa Ana, 23
  • Oxnard, 27
  • San Diego, 28
  • Long Beach, 29
  • Fremont, 31
  • Sacramento, 41
  • Glendale, 46

What makes a city ideal for car-free living?

LawnStarter evaluated the 150 biggest cities in the U.S. based on 20 metrics. Walkability, bikeability, and transit all figured into their calculations. The survey looked at the walk score, bike score, and the number of bike rental facilities per 100,000 residents. Other metrics were commute modes, safety including crime and pedestrian fatalities, and climate, which evaluated weather conditions that might discourage active transit.

California cities got a boost from the climate metric. San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles tied for the lowest number of days below freezing. And San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, and Fremont had the fewest days with temperatures over 90 degrees. 

San Francisco ranked third in the percent of residents who commute by public transit, after New York City and Jersey City, NJ. 

Not all the results for California cities were positive, however. Fremont, Moreno Valley, and Santa Clarita had some of the longest commute times. And, while no California city was in the bottom 10, Stockton was far down the list at 116.

More work to be done

While we are encouraged by the availability of transit options that allow people to live without a car in so many California cities, we have more work to do. We want more Southern California communities to rank high because of their terrific bike networks. And we’d like to see more communities in California’s interior expand active transportation options, as Redding is doing right now. With your help, CalBike will keep working to make California communities more bikeable and liveable.

High-Speed Rail Funding Dispute Holds Up Transportation Spending

/by

A disagreement over the allocation of high-speed rail (HSR) funding is holding billions of transportation dollars hostage in Sacramento, including the Active Transportation Program, California’s only dedicated source of funding for critical biking and walking infrastructure. But don’t worry — a solution to the impasse has begun to take shape.

Governor Newsom and the legislature are engaged in a particularly Californian fight. The governor wants to put the available HSR funding into building the core section already under construction in the Central Valley. (In 2020, CalBike’s Central Valley Project drafted plans to help improve biking and walking access to planned HSR stations in Merced, Bakersfield, and Fresno.) Legislators want the funding to go toward electrification of and improvements to existing rail services at the terminuses in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

The resolution may come from the extra revenue in California’s coffers, thanks to higher than expected interest income. Legislators may be enticed to make a deal with the governor if the package includes funds to support popular projects in their districts. This could, in fact, work in favor of active transportation. Bike and pedestrian projects are very popular with constituents and the legislators know that, so the deal could include a significant additional investment in those projects.

The ATP provides $220 million in annual funding for active transportation projects across the state. The current budget already includes an additional $500 million in ATP funding. CalBike would love to see another funding boost on a similar scale, but nothing is certain at this point. Additional funds would be a welcome boost for the program, especially since at least $1 billion in good projects didn’t make the cut in the last ATP round because there was not enough money. 

In addition to the extra ATP money, CalBike is pushing to increase the amount of funding allocated to build the connected bike networks and bike highways envisioned in AB 1147. This funding is separate from and in addition to the ATP monies.

Remembering CalBike Founder Thomas S. Higgins

/by

We are sad to report that CalBike founder Thomas S. Higgins passed away on Monday, July 12th, 2021, after a battle with cancer. CalBike extends its deepest condolences to Tom’s wife Glenda, daughter Alexandra, brother Charles, and his entire family. All those who knew Tom were touched by his exceptional kindness, boundless good cheer, and fierce dedication to public service. 

Tom was a longtime Capitol legislative staffer and bike commuter who understood bicyclists’ daily challenges, the potential for bicycling to transform our communities, and the power of organizing for change. With vision and determination, Tom founded CalBike in 1994 and began establishing the organization as an effective representative in Sacramento for all those who love bicycling.  

“Tom was a treasured colleague and friend. I hope everyone who rides a bike in California will pause for a moment today and give thanks to Tom for all he did to make bicycling better,” said former CalBike Executive Director Chris N. Morfas. 

A love of bikes and travel while working for the greater good

Tom Higgins loved to travel, go on adventures, and help others. Here’s an excerpt from his obituary, written by his brother Charles:

“Tom was known for his warmth, wisdom, and sense of adventure. From an early age, in San Francisco, Monterey, and Marin counties, Tom engaged the world around him and developed a drive to know more and make this life more interesting and better for everyone he encountered.

“After receiving his B.A. in political science from San Francisco State University in 1983, Tom dove into a career of campaigns and public policy that included the founding of the California Bicycle Coalition and work on pioneering legislation to improve the environment, public health, education, and justice.

“While serving as Chief of Staff to the California Senate’s Chairman of the Task Force on Youth and Workplace Wellness, he developed strategy and legislation for a statewide, groundbreaking effort to promote physical fitness and improve food and nutrition for schools, workplaces, and communities. During his twenty years in the state Capitol, Tom found ways to add adventure to his work. This included a helicopter trip to a floating platform pumping oil from a sunken tanker off the California coast with Senator Torlakson; a private train ride across the Mexican border with Senator Killea; and numerous showdowns with Caltrans and special interest groups about improving conditions for bicycles.”

Tom’s daughter, Alexandra, shared these memories of her father’s love of bicycling throughout his life:

“He loved riding the slow streets in SF during the pandemic. With his wife Glenda, he did a two-week bicycle trip in Vietnam that he often remembered and told stories about. The Halloween Critical Mass rides in past years were some of his favorite SF nights. He loved his Gitche Gumee Gary Fisher commuter and rode it all over Sacramento in the middle of the night, around SF during long stays in the city, and all around the hills near Bolinas.”

A remembrance of Tom Higgins from CalBike’s first executive director

Chris Morfas shared the story of how Tom came into his life — and forever changed it:

“The mid-1990s event promoting a greenway along the Sacramento River was a rather sleepy affair. A colleague and I were staffing a booth for a local environmental organization, but we weren’t seeing much action. There was a table for something called the California Bicycle Coalition. As a recent convert to bike commuting, I ambled over to see what they were all about.

“Tom Higgins and Ed Cox introduced themselves. Tom, a staffer at the state capitol, enthusiastically pitched the idea of a statewide bicycle advocacy organization he was launching that would work to pass legislation to create better places to ride. I shared with him some experiences I had had as a campaign organizer, and soon enough, he had me in the office fundraising off the organization’s then-tiny membership list—bless you all—during my summer off from teaching high school math. The response was favorable, and soon enough, I was hooked. Three themes of my life—bicycling, politics, and ecology— had come together as one in the form of bike advocacy. 

“A couple of years later, CBC (as we knew CalBike back then) was ready to hire an executive director. I tossed my hat into the ring, and when nobody else was crazy enough to take the job, I was offered the gig and eagerly accepted. We—staff, board, allies, members, volunteers—had a good run, passing a handful of bills that created the Bicycle Transportation Account and Safe Routes to School Program, which later became key elements of what is now the Active Transportation Program that is investing hundreds of millions of dollars annually to make bicycling and walking safer and more attractive transportation options for all Californians. That’s the stuff of legacy. Along the way, I met some of the most inspiring people I’ve ever known.

“That’s how Tom Higgins changed my life.”

Memories of Tom from the early days of CalBike

A few people who knew Tom during those early CalBike days shared remembrances:

“Tom Higgins founded CalBike, and I was honored to try to keep up with him as the contract lobbyist. I vividly recall walking the halls in the CA State Capitol with Tom. Bike helmets and bags in tow, we wore bike-friendly suits (skirt for me). Tom loved his community with his vision and drive to lead and succeed when others would not take a risk for right. Every time we create change for good, Tom lives on. Miss walkin’ the halls with you, Dude.” 

Aimee Rutledge, CalBike’s first contract lobbyist who played an expert role in guiding us to many of our early legislative successes

“When bicyclists in progressive states started organizing advocacy organizations for sustained political initiatives, Tom Higgins was the go-to strategist in Sacramento. His expertise led the fledgling California Bicycle Coalition to some early political wins, creating trust among the founders and momentum for the organization. He was humble, gracious, funny, and smart. Tom knew how to lead leaders.”

Charlie Gandy, who played a seminal role identifying and nurturing leaders for the bike advocacy organizations that were sprouting during the 1990s

“When Tom’s leadership led to the formation of the California Bicycle Coalition, there were many people who knew that we had the groundswell, the passion, and the vision to push for greater advocacy at the state level. However, I don’t think we would have gotten there without Tom’s political acumen, ability to bring people together, and patience to sit through long meetings with ornery bicyclists.” 

Carolyn Helmke, CalBike Board President circa 1999-2000

“Thank you, Tom. We ornery bicyclists will carry on the fight.”

Chris N. Morfas, CalBike Executive Director 1997-2003

Honoring Tom Higgins

A celebration of Tom’s life is planned for October 23 in Stinson Beach.

Instead of sending flowers, Tom’s family asks that people make a donation in his name to one of these causes that he cared about:

California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike)

Commonweal Garden – Natura Institute for Ecology and Medicine

Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates (SABA)

Clean Mobility Options Awards Will Bring Bike Sharing to Underserved Communities

/by

CalBike applauds California’s Clean Mobility Options (CMO) program for its latest round of zero-emission transit grants, one-third of which are for bike share programs or include a bike sharing component. The program will distribute $18 million to provide cleaner and better transit options in underserved communities and $2 million for Native American tribal governments. One of the recipients is Downtown Bikeshare in Redding, administered by Shasta Living Streets, a fiscally-sponsored project of Calbike.

Shasta Living Streets delivers on a decade of vision and planning

Shasta Living Streets is delivering on a ten-year vision of a set of coordinated services and amenities that make biking a real option for people in Redding and the surrounding area.   Although the region is home to hundreds of miles of gorgeous wilderness biking, the City of Redding didn’t offer good connections between those trails and destinations in town. Redding’s Sacramento River Trail has been named one of the four best biking trails in the U.S. by the Rails to Trails Conservancy, but locals and visitors couldn’t reach them by bike. 

Shasta Living Streets Redding Bikeway Celebration
Shasta Living Streets Downtown Redding Bikeway Celebration

Shasta Living Streets hosted a grand opening in collaboration with the City of Redding and other partners on July 15, 2021, to celebrate the completion of the first safe, two-way protected bikeway connecting Downtown Redding to the Sacramento River Trail. A complete 5-mile Downtown Connector Loop Trail is planned, and when completed, the bikeway will take riders past the Shasta Bike Depot, which will be run by Shasta Living Streets. The Depot, which will be a hub providing a gathering place and services to help connect riders and help get more people on bikes, is scheduled to open in Spring 2022. Read CalBike’s full article on the Shasta Bike Depot. 

The current plan is for the new bike sharing system to launch within a few months after the Shasta Bike Depot (though pandemic delays have added an extra layer of uncertainty to opening dates). In addition to bike share, the Depot will provide e-bike tours, long-term bike parking, in-person information, and community-building events.

Downtown Bikeshare offers Redding clean, active mobility options

​​The $1 million CMO grant will allow Downtown Bikeshare to deliver services including community engagement, planning, and launch plus 70 bikes, stations, staff, administration, and maintenance of Downtown Bikeshare operations for four years. Shasta Living Streets is partnering with the Redding-based McConnell Foundation to administer the CMO grant. Shasta Living Streets Executive Director Anne Thomas is thrilled that the grant gives her organization funding to work with residents to create a bike share system that truly serves the community. 

“This grant focuses us on the downtown community and addressing what people need,” Thomas said. “We know that nonprofits managing bike share is a model that has proven to be effective. Now that we know we have the funding, we can work directly with the community on planning.”

Shasta Bike Depot under construction
Shasta Bike Depot under construction

The Shasta Bike Depot location near the core of downtown Redding is an ideal location for outreach. Downtown is an opportunity zone with many residents living in affordable housing. Thomas plans to have staff meet with residents in their buildings to discover how Downtown Bikeshare can best serve them and learn what they need to overcome barriers to using the system. The CMO grant will allow her organization to help people learn to ride, find the best bike routes, understand how to carry groceries on a bike, or whatever assistance they want.

Thomas applauded the CMO for recognizing that bike share systems can benefit smaller cities as well as dense urban areas. “What’s special about this funding is that the CMO administrators recognized the needs of underserved communities like ours and helped us with this money,” she said. Thomas sees Downtown Bikeshare as an essential transit option for residents. Bikeshare is, she notes, “the cheapest transit you could ever get” if communities recognize it as transit.

AB 371 Goes Dormant and Bike Share Lives — for Now

/by

Thanks to CalBike and the “all-powerful bicycle lobby,” AB 371, the Kill Bike Share Bill, has halted its journey through the California legislature. The bill included a burdensome and unfair insurance requirement for bike and scooter sharing systems that would have ended shared micromobility in California. The bad news is that we might have to fight this fight all over again next year.

Kill Bike Share Bill could return in 2022

AB 371 isn’t technically dead — it is a two-year bill, which gives it another chance to pass the legislature in the 2022 legislative session. 

A lot could happen between now and 2022. The bill’s author could decide not to bring it back, or he could revise it to remove the insurance requirement. CalBike will continue to work hard for one of those outcomes.

However, unprecedented bike share operator indemnity seems to be a zombie idea that just won’t die. CalBike and our allies succeeded in excising a similar insurance requirement from a bill in 2020, and yet it came back again in AB 371.

Contradictory California policies

California desperately needs more carbon-free transportation options to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. To further that goal, the state’s recently-announced Clean Mobility Opportunity (CMO) grants included several bike sharing programs. 

Ironically, the insurance requirements in AB 371 are at odds with the state’s policies because they would put an end to all bike share in California. The insurance requirement, as currently written, would make system operators liable not only for accidents related to equipment failure but for those caused by bike share users. Such an insurance policy doesn’t currently exist and, if it did, it would be so expensive that it would make bike and scooter sharing systems impossible to operate. This would not only put venture capital-backed systems like Lime and Lyft out of business; it would also end the LA Metro municipal bike share and close down the very projects California’s CMO has funded.

Bike sharing systems have a tremendous safety record. A 2016 study found that bike share riders are less likely to get into accidents than people on their own bikes. If legislators are worried about traffic injuries not covered by insurance, shared micromobility is not the target with the most significant impact. 

About 16.6% of California motorists are uninsured — the tenth highest rate in the nation. That’s almost 2.5 million uninsured, 3000-pound, gas-powered vehicles on our streets. There’s a problem worth solving.

Advocates and Elected Officials Urge Senate Appropriations Committee to Pass Jaywalking Repeal

/by

On July 14, 2021, CalBike joined more than 90 others to send a letter to Senator Anthony J. Portantino, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, asking him to move the Freedom to Walk Act (AB 1238, Ting) forward. The bill, which will repeal California’s unjust jaywalking laws, is currently in the suspense file at the Appropriations Committee. Unless it comes off suspense, this crucial piece of legislation won’t get to the full Senate for a vote. 

The Senate Appropriations Committee evaluates the budget implications of each bill. The committee appropriately passed one of CalBike’s other bills, the Bicycle Safety Stop (AB 122, Boerner Horvath), because allowing people on bikes to treat stop signs as yields will have little or no impact on the state budget. However, any bill with fiscal implications of $50,000 or more is automatically placed in suspense. The bill’s author and supporters advocate for it to come off suspense and get a committee vote. The committee, especially the Appropriations Chair, has the power of life or death over the bills that reach them. If a bill doesn’t come off suspense, it dies in Appropriations. That’s why it’s so crucial that the Chair should allow the Freedom to Walk Act to come off suspense and get a vote.

The letter to Senator Portantino, which was signed by California and national NGOs, and elected representatives from California communities, urges the fiscal committee to support the Act’s critical social implications, in light of the major hidden social costs of pretextual policing and racism.

How to correctly calculate the fiscal impact of ending jaywalking tickets

It might seem obvious that the Freedom to Walk Act will negatively impact California’s budget by removing a revenue source. However, the truth is more complex. Police don’t write a jaywalking ticket when someone in a wealthy suburb makes a mid-block crossing to visit a neighbor. People in disadvantaged neighborhoods are more likely to be ticketed for jaywalking, particularly because their communities are less likely to have adequate infrastructure. 

Because of this, as we note in our letter, the dollar amount of fines levied for jaywalking doesn’t provide an accurate accounting of the fiscal impact of AB 1238. In fact, the Judicial Council of California estimates that less than 15% of the fines are collectible. 

Besides, any consideration of the financial impact needs to offset the revenue from jaywalking tickets by the cost of police time to write the tickets and the cost of collection efforts. When you add those factors, jaywalking citations may be a net loss for the state. 

Jaywalking tickets also create harms that are harder to quantify. If someone can’t pay the fine, the penalties for nonpayment can lead to cascading damages. The burden of this unnecessary debt is borne by both society and the state, as well as the individual and their family.

Jaywalking fines and penalties extend racist policies from the past, and it’s time for them to end

Black Californians are as much as four times more likely to be ticketed for jaywalking than their white neighbors. Jaywalking citations perpetuate a system of racial oppression that diminishes all of us without making our streets safer. Jaywalking citations, in effect, are one of the many ways our criminal justice system raises revenue on the backs of the most oppressed. This must end.

Ending unjust jaywalking laws is an essential step towards building a just and equitable California. CalBike and our allies ask the Senate Appropriations Committee to do the right thing and send the Freedom to Walk Act to the full Senate for a vote.

Read the letter to Senator Portantino.

Call to Action for Bike-Friendly California Legislation

/by

The many bike-friendly bills CalBike is tracking and the one bad bill we are opposing are moving through the Senate after passing the Assembly. Several of them have hearings in the next two weeks. CalBike is reaching out strategically to our members who have legislators on key Senate Committees: Transportation, and Judiciary. If you are one of those people, your call or email to your State Senator could make the difference in making California more bikeable, our streets safer for all users, and future generations safer from the climate crisis. 

If your senator isn’t on one of those committees, we’ll be sure to tell you when the issue is up for a floor vote and it’s time for you to reach out.  

Want to do something now? Make a donation to support this critical work. Any amount makes a difference.  

Here’s your guide to emailing and calling to help push bike-friendly bills forward.

AB 371: Save Bike-Share

This bill would impose burdensome and unprecedented insurance requirements on bike-share and scooter-share operators. CalBike would like to see bike and scooter sharing become elements of public transportation systems, operated by transit authorities and priced like other forms of transit. AB 371 would take California in the opposite direction. If it passes, no shared mobility systems, public or private, will be able to operate in our state.

Status:

In the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Hearing Date:

TBD (postponed from 6/22)

Take Action:

  • Use CalBike’s tool to email your senator and tell them to vote NO on AB 371.
  • The bill will come before the Senate Judiciary Committee soon. If your senator is on the committee, call them and urge them to kill AB 371 in committee. Here’s the list of committee members:

AB 122, the Bicycle Safety Stop Bill

Also known as the Idaho stop, the bicycle safety stop allows people on bikes to treat stop signs as yields. The safety stop has been proven to reduce collisions involving bicyclists in states that have adopted it. AB 122 (Boerner Horvath) easily passed the Assembly, but it’s meeting more opposition in the Senate.

Status:

In Senate Transportation Committee

Hearing Date:

Tuesday, 6/29/21

Take Action:

AB 1238, the Freedom to Walk Act

The Freedom to Walk Act would repeal California’s unjust jaywalking laws. These laws shift blame for unsafe driving from car drivers to walkers, are unfairly enforced against Black Californians, and initiate potentially deadly police interactions. AB 1238 (Ting) is an essential step toward safer streets for all.

Status:

In Senate Transportation Committee

Hearing Date:

Tuesday, 6/29/21

Take Action:

AB 117, the E-Bike Affordability Act

CalBike’s E-Bike Affordability Program would help 10,000 low-income Californians buy the cleanest electric vehicle: an electric bike. AB 117 (Boerner Horvath) creates the program, and the budget process will provide the funding to make it happen.

Status:

In Senate Transportation Committee and ongoing budget negotiations

Hearing Date:

Thursday, 6/24/21

Take Action:

AB 1147, Reform Regional Active Transportation Planning

This visionary bill would pave the way for 15-minute neighborhoods and bicycle freeways. AB 1147 (Friedman) will incentivize the kinds of changes California needs to make our communities more livable and climate-resilient.

Status:

In Senate Environmental Quality Committee and ongoing budget negotiations

Hearing Date:

Thursday, 7/1/21

Take Action:

  • Sign CalBike’s petition in support of AB 1147’s forward-thinking active transportation planning reforms
  • If your senator is on the Environmental Quality Committee, contact them and ask them to vote YES on AB 1147:

More bills to watch

AB 43 (Friedman): Changes the 85 percentile rule to allow communities to set lower speed limits

Status:

In Senate Transportation Committee

Hearing Date:

Tuesday, 7/13/21

AB 1401 (Friedman): Ends mandated parking minimums for new buildings near transit, moving California away from the car dependency that’s driving the climate crisis.

Status:

In Senate Governance and Finance Committee

Hearing Date:

Not yet set

Take Action:

  • Sign CalBike’s petition in support of AB 1401 and ending parking minimums near transit.

Contact the Senate Transportation Committee

Senate Transportation Committee members:

Join CalBike’s list to get timely updates on all the bills you care about.

Check out CalBike’s Legislative Watch page for an update on all the bills we’re working on.

AB 371 Could Deal Fatal Blow to Bike/Scooter Sharing

/by

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UPDATED: July 7, 2021

AB 371 Could Deal Fatal Blow to Bike/Scooter Sharing

Sacramento – The California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) opposes AB 371 by Assembly Member Jones-Sawyer that would impose an onerous insurance burden on shared-mobility providers and likely put them out of business across the state. A similar provision was defeated in the 2020 legislature.

The bill is now headed to the Senate Committees on Judiciary and Insurance. 

Dave Snyder, executive director, CalBike:

“Shared bikes and scooters are a critical complement to public transit. We’ve only just begun to see the benefit that we’ll enjoy once we expand these systems and integrate them with transit. Unfortunately, we may never see that future if AB 371 passes. It will place unprecedented insurance requirements on bike- and scooter-share systems that would end this vital last-mile transportation option in California.

Private and Public Micromobility Systems Threatened

The insurance requirement will apply to nonprofit services, like bicycle libraries that lend out bikes on a short-term basis to low-income neighborhood residents, as well as public transit agencies like LA Metro, and private providers like Spin or Bird. 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.

Update: View our OpEd produced in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and TransForm.

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

/by

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.

Follow a manual added link

Get Email Updates

Follow a manual added link

Join Calbike

About Us

Board
Careers
Contact Us
Financials & Governance
Local Partners
Privacy Policy
Staff
State & National Allies
Volunteer

Advocacy

California Bicycle Summit
E-Bike
Legislative Watch
Past and Present Projects
Report: Incomplete Streets
Sign On Letters

Resources

Maps & Routes
Crash Help and Legal Resources
Quick-Build Bikeway Design Guide
Report: Complete Streets
All Resources

Support

Ways to give
Become a Member
Donor Advised Funds
Donate a Car
Business Member

News

Blog
CalBike in the News
Press Releases

© California Bicycle Coalition 2025

1017 L Street #288
Sacramento, CA 95814
© California Bicycle Coalition 2025