The CalBike Resident Survey on CALTRANS

The short answer by the numbers:

• 83% Feel Uncomfortable/Very Uncomfortable walking/biking on Caltrans streets
• 99% Would be Uncomfortable with a child walking/biking on Caltrans streets 
• 99.86% Would be likely to walk or bike if Caltrans implements Complete Streets components

Many of California's major roadways are CALTRANS highways, operated and maintained by under CALTRANS jurisdiction, two of them trisect Laguna Beach and dominate where the majority of injuries and fatalities in Laguna occur. This fall the California Bicycle Coalition (CalBike) surveyed Californians how comfortable they felt on Caltrans-controled highways that like Laguna, serve as surface streets and roads (Stroads) in local neighborhoods around the state. The survey confirmed that Californians are desperate for solutions to CALTRANS road safety; a majority of respondents felt uncomfortable walking or biking on CALTRANS Stroads, and nearly unanimous that the roadways are hazardous for children even with supervision.

CalBike is reviewing how well CALTRANS implements its own mandate for Complete Streets Policy (DD-64) and whether it meets the needs of people who travel by walking, biking, or using transit. The survey strives to bring meaningful change to a state agency focused too long on moving cars and trucks while neglecting active transportation.

Each year 4000 Californians die statewide from traffic violence, one quarter of those are pedestrians (Calbike). The California Office of Traffic Safety collects traffic collision data from various sources including the CHP, the most recent collision data shows how Laguna Beach ranks among 103 similar California cities. 

LATEST UPDATE: 2020 CRASH RANKINGS FOR LAGUNA BEACH
   Pedestrians : 14
   Bicyclists : 8
   Motorcycles : 2
   Alcohol involved : 2
   Speed involved: 1.

CalBike conducted the survey to understand how Californian's viewed road safety on CALTRANS nearby roads, and whether they would view the roads differently if CALTRANS adopted and installed Complete Streets safety measures on those roads. 

"The Caltrans’ historic failure to consider the needs of active transportation when building or maintaining roadways has built barriers that prevent communities from creating the connected, protected bikeways and walking routes their residents need to replace car trips with bicycling or walking. And it often fails to respond to safety concerns, even after deaths and injuries of people biking and walking."

The survey asked respondents how comfortable they were with the nearby Caltrans route and assign a score from 1 to 4, where '1' is most comfortable and '4' least comfortable. The scores were assigned to a color map by Caltrans highway route and by County. The average score for road safety was 3.28 or 'somewhat uncomfortable'. The results colorized on a map surrounding Laguna Beach look like this.

The survey then asked how likely respondents would feel if CALTRANS adopted and implemented their complete street changes to their highway, on a scale of '1' to '3' the average score is 2.67 or 'very likely'. For a nifty user-friendly zoom map of results for the entire state of California, see the complete results at Felt.

From the CalBike report:

"Our user survey clearly shows that Caltrans is doing too little and moving too slowly to build Complete Streets infrastructure on its State Highway System. CalBike will continue to hold the agency to account and push for more funding for Complete Streets and prioritization of active transportation at the state level."

-LS