Photo: AB 1976 seeks to make building projects such as the North Chorro Neighborhood Greenway in San Luis Obispo easier to build by cutting red tape.
Assembly Bill 1976, introduced by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Berkeley), has caught advocate’s attention after it was heard and amended in the transportation committee earlier this month.
In short, AB 1976 is a wide-ranging California Assembly bill aimed at streamlining the planning, construction, and protection of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure across the state.
“Too often, California makes the best transportation projects fight the hardest for approval. AB 1976 starts to change that by modernizing outdated rules, limiting unreasonable process hurdles, and creating a clearer path to safer, more people-oriented streets,” said Marc T. Vukcevich, Director of State Policy, Streets For All. Streets for All is one of the legislation’s sponsors.
However, not every advocate is on-board with the legislation, at least yet. In response to a post on Blue Sky that refers to the legislation as “wild,” Robert Prinz (of Bike East Bay fame, but speaking for himself) frets that its broad scope could create unintended consequences by removing too many places where the public can be involved in shaping a project to best meet local needs. Oftentimes legislation that proposes changes as large as AB 1976 gets modified and shrunk during the hearing process, but as currently written the law would dramatically change the public process for bicycle and pedestrian projects.
Key Provisions
Advocates note that the legislation would be a major help for cities that want to make truly transformational projects such as neighborhood greenways, school streets programs, or even converting traditional streets to outdoor pedestrian malls. Some of the legislation’s biggest changes include:
- Protecting Approved Safety Projects. Once a pedestrian or bicycle safety project has been included in an approved plan tied to a city or county’s general plan, the bill would prohibit local governments from holding additional community input meetings to gather public comment on that project. Furthermore, once a contract has been awarded or staff have been directed to begin construction, a city or county would be barred from terminating the project unless specific findings are made at a public meeting. This provision is designed to prevent approved projects from being derailed by last-minute political opposition.
- Traffic Calming Petitions. If a city or county has a petition process for residents to request traffic calming measures, the bill would cap the required number of signatures at a majority of residents whose homes fall within 1,000 feet of the proposed measure. This prevents cities from setting unreachably high signature thresholds that block safety improvements.
- Pedestrian Mall Law of 2026. The bill would repeal and replace the aging Pedestrian Mall Law of 1960 with a modernized framework. The updated law would eliminate the existing notice and hearing procedures, including a provision that allowed property owners representing a majority of frontage to block a mall’s creation, and instead allow a city or county legislative body to establish a pedestrian mall following a standard public hearing process. The new law would also allow private businesses to use and make improvements to pedestrian malls, while prohibiting those improvements from including vehicular parking facilities.
- CEQA Exemption. The bill would exempt the establishment or expansion of pedestrian malls from California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review requirements through January 1, 2040, aligning them with existing CEQA exemptions for pedestrian and bicycle facility projects, subject to applicable labor requirements.
- Slow Streets Speed Limits. Cities that have already adopted a slow streets program would gain the authority to set lower speed limits on those streets by ordinance or resolution, without having to first conduct an engineering and traffic survey, a process that can be time-consuming and costly.
- Statewide Application. The bill includes findings that its provisions address a matter of statewide concern and therefore apply to all cities, including charter cities.
Status
As of late March 2026, AB 1976 has been re-referred to the Assembly Transportation Committee and also needs to be heard by the Local Government Committee before it can move to the Assembly floor.
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