Orange County

Last week, State Senator Scott Wiener introduced SB-127, the Complete Streets for All Bill.

The California Transportation Commission kicked off 2019 by releasing its staff recommendations for the Active Transportation Program (ATP) Cycle 4 Statewide a

Last month, we were pleased to join other walking advocates at PedsCount 2018, hosted by California Walks. California Senior Policy Manager Jonathan Matz and Senior Equity and Policy Manager Demi Espinoza both attended the conference, which highlighted the obstacles to full use of and participation in our streets faced by communities that are marginalized due to race, gender and disability.

While we wait for the results of Cycle 4 of the Active Transportation Program (ATP) to be announced at the end of the year, we have produced an analysis of the submittal log. A few things stuck out to us about the types and sizes of the applications that were submitted:

Last week, California voters rejected Proposition 6, which would have repealed the SB1 transportation funding increases, by a ten point margin. As we noted in previous editions of the e-news, Proposition 6 would have resulted in a self-inflicted crisis on our state’s transportation system, not only removing billions of already allocated dollars, but rendering virtually impossible any future increases in revenue.

With the end of the 2017-2018 legislative session, it’s an opportune moment to review the fortunes of some of the bills we have supported this year.

Hundreds of applications were submitted for the recent Cycle 4 of the Active Transportation Program (ATP), and only a small percentage will be successful.  Our new publication, California’s Active Transportation Program: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Application Process, can help you work through the process. This 22-page document offers a road map to all five application categories of the ATP in a digestible form.

Join us and The Alliance for Healthy Orange County, as we will be hosting a Community Vigil and Forum in Santa Ana on Tuesday, September 25th at 6:00 pm. The Vigil and Forum is sponsored by SCAG’s Go Human Campaign as a part of their Community Engagement Call. We will be facilitating a discussion around highlights from our 2018 Orange County Pedestrian and Cyclist Safety Issue Brief. A vigil will be held ahead of the discussion forum to honor pedestrian and bicyclist victims of traffic crashes who lost their lives.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will be convening a September board meeting to discuss Assembly Bill 617, the Community Air Protection Program. AB 617 will mandate new community-driven action strategies to reduce air pollution and improve public health for communities who experience disproportionate burden of poor air quality.