Melanie Curry

This was a super busy week in Sacramento. Any bill that requires approval from the Appropriations Committee had to pass out of all its policy committees by today. Naturally, that meant very long hearings, as there was lots of legislation to be debated up to the last minute.

Buried in a five-hour long meeting of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee yesterday, a short discussion ended in a vote to move legislation that will delay the state's shift away from car-centric planning.

Bills have started moving through committees in both houses of the California legislature as the hearing season starts.

Caltrans released its new Strategic Management Plan [PDF], and it includes priorities and performance targets that show the department is serious about reforming itself.

The mandatory bicycle helmet bill, Senator Carol Liu's Senate Bill 192, has been dropped—or rather amended. Instead of requiring bicyclists to wear helmets, it calls on the Office of Traffic Safety to conduct a study of bicycle helmet use.

The California Transportation Plan 2040 [PDF], currently in draft form, officially recognizes what many have been saying for a long time: the state cannot keep building highways, and its residents cannot keep driving as much as they do now, if California is going to reach its own climate change goals.

A bill that would allow bicyclists who are ticketed for traffic violations to reduce their fines by attending a traffic safety class was introduced in the California Assembly last week. Assemblymembers Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) and David Chiu (D-San Francisco) amended A.B. 902 to repeal a provision in the vehicle code that currently prohibits such diversion programs except in the case of “minors who commit infractions not involving a motor vehicle for which no fee is charged.”

Despite predictions that California's climate change policies would destroy its economy, recent data seems to show that the opposite is happening.

A broad coalition of organizations called today for California to increase funding for walk and bike projects. More than 120 organizations signed a petition urging the state to increase its investment in the Active Transportation Program (ATP), citing cost savings and health benefits from better bike and pedestrian infrastructure and the low level of funding currently available.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times wrote a mostly thoughtful editorial against Senate Bill 192, Carol Liu's proposed mandatory helmet law for bicyclists. In the Times' opinion, there isn't enough evidence to show that helmets make bicycle riders safer to justify changing the law.