Bill to Reform Parking Minimums Passes CA Senate Transportation Committee
After some delay and a surreal debate, a bill that could help create affordable housing by easing parking requirements passed the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee on Tuesday on a 5-4 vote. Now it goes to the Committee on Governance and Finance, where it will be heard as soon as next week.
July 10, 2015
Dems, Repubs Far Apart on Solving CA Transportation Funding
The California legislature held its first joint special session on transportation funding just before the holiday weekend. The session was called by Governor Jerry Brown when he and the legislature punted some big decisions so they could sign a budget before the June 30 deadline.
July 7, 2015
Affordable Housing Awards from Cap-and-Trade Funds Announced
On Monday, the California Strategic Growth Council announced its recommendations for the first round of funding under the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program. SGC staff recommended 28 projects, to be awarded a total of $122 million. The projects are split about evenly between Northern and Southern California.
June 24, 2015
Legislative Update: Budget, Cap-and-Trade, LOS, Gas Tax
This week the California legislature was mostly focused on the budget, since the Assembly and the Senate must by law present a budget bill to the governor by midnight on Monday, June 15. The joint Budget Conference Committee succeeded in producing an agreement [PDF] well before the deadline; their budget bill, A.B. 93, should be available later today, ready to be voted on in both houses on Monday.
June 12, 2015
California Legislative Update
This week Sacramento saw long hearings in the Senate and Assembly, as both houses pushed to meet their deadline to pass bills. Any bill that doesn't pass its house of origin by the end of this week is dead--for this year at least.
June 5, 2015
Where Parking Is Tight, People Find Solutions
UCLA Professor, now Emeritus, Donald Shoup thinks about the ways people find to get around parking limitations—and some of the ramifications of their behavior—in the latest issue of Access magazine from the University of California.
June 4, 2015
Caltrans Gathers Feedback on Upcoming Standards for Protected Bike Lanes
Caltrans tried an experiment last week. Under a legislative deadline to create standards for Class IV Bikeways, also known as cycle tracks or protected bike lanes, the state department of transportation reached out to people who had expressed an interest in the subject and asked them for ideas.
June 2, 2015
California Moves up the “Bicycle Friendly States” Ranking to #8
The League of American Bicyclists today released its state rankings for “bicycle friendly states” and this year California is ranked 8th in the US, behind Washington, Minnesota, Utah, and Oregon.
May 12, 2015
California Legislative Update: Parking Requirements, Cap-and-Trade Funds
This week we're tracking some of the bills that got left out of last week's too-long legislative update. These bills relate to transportation funding, climate change, and urban planning.
May 8, 2015
Caltrans Awards $9.8 Million in Sustainable Transportation Planning Grants
California's Department of Transportation released a list of over 51 cash grants it will allocate for local planning efforts focused on sustainable transportation.
May 8, 2015