Complete Streets Bill Clears Major Hurdle

This past Monday, July 8, Cal Walks and our coalition partners (Cal Bike, American Heart Association, AARP California, Safe Routes Partnership) celebrated a hard-won victory: garnering 10 votes in support, our Complete Streets bill  (SB 127) passed the Assembly Transportation Committee.

Cal Walks' Esther Rivera and CalBike's Linda Khamoushian celebrating with star witness Moses Trujillo (5th grader at Malcolm X Elementary School in Berkeley) and his mother after SB 127 passed out of the Assembly Transportation Committee.

A huge shout out and thank you to Moses Trujillo, a 5th grader at Malcolm X Elementary School in Berkeley, who shared his personal story of how unsafe it is to try to cross Ashby Avenue (State Route 13) to get to school and how our Complete Streets Bill would make it easier for him and his classmates to walk and bike to school for their own health and the health of the planet. Check out his testimony for yourself here (starting at 54:50)

As we've previously written about, Caltrans owns hundreds of streets across the state that function as local streets and in many places, the Main Street. The unfortunate reality is that despite numerous policies and internal goals on the books, Caltrans has continued to neglect the needs of people walking, biking, and taking transit on these streets, even when they're already repairing or repaving them. Our Complete Streets Bill will change that--if SB 127 gets signed into law, the default would be for Caltrans to add Complete Streets elements for people walking and biking every time it repairs or repaves on a state route that serves as a local street.

The amazing coalition partners working to make Complete Streets a reality in California posing with our star witness Moses Trujillo.

 Thank you to everyone who took action and contacted their Assembly Member! While we're thrilled to have cleared a major hurdle, we're not done yet! The Complete Streets Bill still has to pass the Assembly Appropriations Committee and the full Assembly. After that, it has to be signed by Governor Newsom. So we still need all of your support to keep up this drumbeat for change! 

For more information or details on how you can lend support or get involved, contact Esther@CaliforniaWalks.org.