Take ACTION: Senate Bill 127 for Complete Streets

NATCO Performance Measures

This is an urgent call to action. The Cal Senate votes 8 July 2019.

 The California Legislature found that pedestrians cyclists and other non-motorized roadway users are disproportionately injured or killed in relation to motorized roadway users. SB-127 seeks to enforce provisions to improve non-motorized roadway user safety. Encourage your district assemblyman to vote YES on SB-127. To find your assemblyman simply insert your address and click-to-send your support - takes 30 seconds. 

Calbike vote YES page for support email is here. 

Calbike page explaining Complete Streets Policy here. 

The California Legislature found (abbreviated) that:

a) A household survey finds that walking and bicycling trips have doubled between 2000 and 2012 and constitute nearly 20 percent of all California trips.

(b) People walking and bicycling are killed or seriously injured in California at much higher rates than car drivers or passengers.

(c) An update in 2014 now requires The Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to consider complete streets in all phases of design, delivery, construction, and rehabilitation on all projects.

(d) Caltrans adopted Strategic Management Plan 2015-2020, 2015–2020, which includes goals to triple bicycling and double walking by 2020, which cannot be achieved without significant improvements to infrastructure and safety on major roadways and highways.

(e) The SMP also includes goals to include “complete streets” improvements on an increasing number of projects between 2015 and 2020.

The objectives of the Bill are set in requirements (abbreviated) that:

1. This bill would require a process for community input and complete streets implementation to prioritize safety and accessibility for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users on all proects, as specified. 
2. The bill would require that projects starting in 2020 2022 meet specified requirements set forth as part of the State Highway Operation and Protection Program.
3. The bill would require the California Transportation Commission, to adopt performance measures that include conditions of bicycle and pedestrian facilities, accessibility and safety for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users, and vehicle miles traveled on the state highway system. 
4. The bill would require that the State Highway Operation and Protection Program projects include capital improvements relative to accessibility for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit users. 
5. The bill would require that each project include in its budget the cost of pedestrian and bicycle facilities.
6. The bill would require the department, commencing with the 2022 State Highway Operation and Protection Program, when undertaking any a specified capital improvement project on a state highway ... to include or improve new pedestrian and bicycle facilities. 

Full Bill Text here.    UPDATE: SB 127 Result: PASS   (10:3 vote)

-LS 

The LB Traffic Time-BOMB

Laguna's parking demand and traffic congestion grows exponentially, so what does exponential growth of congestion look like?  Let's use rice on a chessboard with 8x8=64 squares to demonstrate exponential growth.

The time elapsed for Laguna's car population to double is called the doubling period. Imagine each grain of rice on the chessboard is a car and each square represents the doubling period in years. The sequence goes 1,2,4,8,16,32 years and so on. For a growth rate at 6-percent the doubling period is 12 years. If the first horse and buggy arrived in 1900 and cars followed, the car population doubled in 1912, 1924, 1936 and so on.  Watch what happens to the population of cars.

Exponential growth means the number of cars using our streets will double and so must the spaces needed to park them, the condition when all the public space for cars is occupied is called saturation.  Urban consultants (RBF, MIG) have told us the demand for parking grows at 4.5-percent per year while Caltrans tells us in 2015 peak traffic volume growth was 13.5%.*

It should be clear Laguna Beach cannot build enough roads or parking to accommodate the exponential growth of cars nor faster than Japan/Germany/Detroit can build them. Lagunatics need to use alternatives to the car and both the city of Laguna Beach and Caltrans should provide the infrastructure.

*Caltrans SR-133 Peak traffic growth factors from base year 2015 are 2023: 13.5% and 2043: 6.25%  

-LS 

Councilman of Amsterdam: Remove 10,000 Parking Spaces

"When you take a boat trip in Amsterdam canals the first thing you see are the fronts of cars. " - Zeeger Ernsting Member of City Council Amsterdam.  Councilman Ernsting promised Amsterdam if elected he would remove 10,000 parking spaces downtown. He Won. As promised the Councilman of Amsterdam is removing parking spaces. To see why watch the video. (Credit Streetfilms)

-LS