After many years of being shut out, bicycling now has representation on the powerful Caltrans advisory committee that sets statewide standards for bike lanes and other traffic control devices.
This month, in response to legislation we sponsored last spring, Caltrans appointed transportation planner John Ciccarelli and Bryan Jones, deputy director of the City of Carlsbad Transportation Department, to two new seats added to the California Traffic Control Devices Committee to represent so-called "non-motorized" interests, including bicyclists, pedestrians and transit riders. The committee sets standards for traffic signals, signs and pavement markings such as bike lanes and crosswalks. This spring we suspended our bill when Caltrans announced it would add the seats on its own.
The appointments are a big win for bicycling. Both are well known to CBC; Ciccarelli is a former CBC board member and the main author of our safety website, bikesafecalifornia.org.
Until this month the committee's membership was limited to local government, law enforcement and the AAA, which has two seats. We expect to see the committee begin making more informed decisions as California continues to embrace the kind of innovative bicycling facilities that have successfully increased bicycle ridership elsewhere.
CBC seeks better bikeway standards
A big obstacle to the creation of bicycle networks in California communities is an outdated state law that limits local government to using the bikeway designs specified in the California Highway Design Manual developed by Caltrans. Yet cities and counties have no such restrictions when designing local streets and roads. What's wrong with this picture?
Limited to the designs in the manual, cities and counties are unable to adopt designs such as cycle tracks, contraflow bike lanes and buffered bike lanes that have improved safety and bicycle ridership outside of California. We're going to fix that!
We're sponsoring Assembly Bill 819, authored by Fremont Assembly Member Bob Wieckowski, to give local agencies the same leeway to design bikeways that they have with their own streets and roads. Cities and counties will still be liable for the safety of bike facilities they build. But by eliminating the Caltrans monopoly on bikeway designs, AB 819 will lead to a huge expansion in safer bikeway designs throughout California. Let a thousand safe bikeways bloom!
The bill's first hearing is Jan. 9. Stay tuned for more information.
Read more about best practices in innovative bike facilities
Preserving funding for bicycling and pedestrian projects
As the Congress prepares to eliminate dedicated funding for bicycling and pedestrian programs and projects, we're asking the California Legislature to commit to maintaining the current proportion of federal funds it spends for these uses.
The goal is to help insulate California from the effects of a proposed federal transportation bill that would reduce federal funding used to help support local bicycling and pedestrian projects and programs and would make those uses compete for funding with others unrelated to bicycling and walking. The result would be a potentially catastrophic overall reduction in federal funding used to build local bike lanes, sidewalks and trails and support programs such as Safe Routes to School.
We're also asking legislators to sign a letter calling on U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, chair of the Senate committee that drafted the federal bill, to protect federal bike-ped funding. Congressional negotiations over the bill are expected to heat up in the next month or so.
Three-foot-passing bill to be reintroduced
Gov. Jerry Brown's veto of Senate Bill 910, our bill to require drivers to give bicyclists at least three feet of clearance when passing them from behind, didn't make the issue of unsafe passing go away.
Early next year we'll reintroduce the bill in a form Brown said he would sign in his Oct. 2011 veto message. We're not certain this will satisfy powerful opponents such as AAA and the California Highway Patrol, which appear ready to keep opposing clearer guidance for California drivers about how to share the road safely with bicyclists.
Yet bike-friendly Californians united behind SB 910 this past year and interest in a 3-foot-passing law remains strong. Nineteen other states have 3-foot-passing laws, including such progressive strongholds as Georgia, which enacted its law this summer with support from AAA South, and Oklahoma, which strengthened its law this year with support from AAA Oklahoma. How much longer can California hold out?