Legislation & Implementation

The compounding effects of the pandemic stay-home orders and the drastically reduced revenues have had an enormous effect on the legislative agenda and schedule in Sacramento. Though the State Senate and State Assembly are starting to reconvene, lawmakers are drastically cutting back on the bills they have introduced and sponsored, as very little legislation not directly tied to the emergency is being pursued.

After the veto of SB 127, the Complete Streets legislation, we continue to work with our partners and CalTrans on development of a statewide Complete Streets Action Plan.

In the meantime, we hosted the second in our ATP Webinar series last week, and 300 participants tuned in, far exceeding our expectations. The webinar, Writing a Compelling Statement of Need was hosted by California Senior Policy Manager Jonathan Matz and featured Panelists Meghan Pendrocelli, Program Analyst at the California Transportation Commission and Bill Sadler, Bill Sadler, Director of Operations at the Public Health Alliance of California.

The California Transportation Commission approved the guidelines and released applications for Cycle 5 of the Active Transportation Program at its March meeting.

Congratulations to Jeanie Ward-Waller, our former California Senior Policy Manager, who was promoted earlier this year to Deputy Director for Planning and Modal Programs at CalTrans! Jeanie recently served as Sustainability Program Manager and Acting Director of CalTrans District 2. We look forward to continuing to work with her. 

Workshops to refine the ATP Cycle 5 Guidelines are continuing, and since our January update, there have been a few changes: 

• The Healthy Places Index will now be accepted as a fourth statewide metric to qualify for Disadvantaged Community Status, with full severity points available. We’re very pleased that this option will be available to applicants. 

Last fall, Governor Newsom unfortunately vetoed SB 127, the Complete Streets bill. In his veto message, the Governor promised that new leadership at CalTrans would find ways to increase active transportation investments.  Building on that, we have been working with CalTrans on a Complete Streets Action plan.

We are disappointed that Tamika Butler has had to resign as a CTC commissioner only a few months after her appointment last fall.

Workshops to determine guidelines for Cycle 5 of the Active Transportation continue, with input coming in from around the state. The schedule of workshops, as well as downloadable materials, is available on the CTC's ATP website under the 2021 ATP Cycle 5 header.