Category News Wire

Yesterday, the California Bicycle Coalition, CalBike, put out an action alert urging supporters to contact Assembly Appropriations Committee Chair Buffy Wicks to schedule a hearing for AB 891: Quick-Build Project Pilot Program. Under the legislature’s rules, all bills that require passage…

You’ve seen the headlines by now.  Governor Newsom released a revised budget for the next fiscal year. The budget spends $322 billion and has a nearly $12 billion deficit that will be paid down by the state’s reserves.  Newsom is proposing cuts to just about everything…

This week, a bi-partisan coalition of the United States House of Representatives passed a pair of resolutions rescinding three EPA permits that allow California to regulate emission standards for diesel trucks and set sales requirements for electric personal vehicles and…

This piece also appears at Calbike. CalBike’s two priority bills will likely end up in the Suspense File in the Assembly Appropriations Committee shortly because both have price tags that require scrutiny in Appropriations. The Quick-Build Bill (AB 891, Zbur) provides Caltrans with…

“If they were actively trying to sabotage the program, what would they do differently than this?” – anonymous e-bike voucher hopeful in an email to Streetsblog. Last night, the California E-Bike Incentive Project was scheduled to open their portal for applicants to…

The Air Resources Board’s long–delayed and controversial e-bike voucher program will be opening its application portal for a second time at 6:00 p.m. on April 29th. This time instead of a first-come, first-serve approach that left out tens of thousands of hopeful applicants, the…

This story also appears at Streetsblog California. Photo: Senator Wiener and BART General Manager Robert Powers confer on BART. Photo: Melanie Curry/Streetsblog Cutting red tape for large transit projects may be a rare bipartisan issue. The California Senate Transportation Committee…

This story also appears at Streetsblog California. Last week, Sacramento became the first city in the country to use bus-mounted cameras to ticket scofflaw drivers who drive or park in bike lanes. The program is a partnership between the city…

While state legislators, city councils, and activists all look for ways to make California’s streets safer, a groundbreaking report by CalMatters illustrates the important role that our state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) plays in keeping our roads unsafe. In “License…

This article via Calbike. CalBike has 14 bills on its legislative watchlist this year, and almost half of them (six) are e-bike regulations. As we have documented repeatedly over the past couple of years, the swift rise in the popularity of e-bikes has…

This article first appeared at Streetsblog California Yesterday, the California State Senate Judiciary Committee rejected S.B. 222, the Affordable Insurance and Climate Recovery Act. The legislation needed seven votes to pass the committee, but received only five. A full tally of…

This article also appears at Streetsblog California. Last week, Clean RIDES Network, a coalition of advocacy groups aimed at reforming state departments of transportation, released Reducing Costs, Commutes, and Climate Pollution: State Solutions for Better Transportation, a new blueprint for helping states…

Joshua Baum is an urban economist and the Principal of Hilgard Analytics, a mission-driven real estate and economic development research firm founded in 2020. This op/ed also appears at Streetsblog California. California stands at a crossroads when it comes to public…