Melanie Curry
Recent Posts
CalBike Reminds Local Leaders: It’s Okay to Build Protected Bike Lanes
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The California Bicycle Coalition launched an unusual campaign this week to inform local leaders that building protected bikeways is not only allowed, but encouraged. In the past designing and building separated or protected bike lanes was deemed too difficult or impossible because of Caltrans’ disapproval. The state planning department, although it doesn’t control every local […]
Can Berkeley’s Bike Plan Keep it a Top Bike-Friendly City?
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The city of Berkeley just made its most recent draft bicycle plan available for public comment, and Dave Campbell, advocacy director of Bike East Bay, says it could be better. The city did some innovative work to create the plan, including conducting an extensive in-person survey of local residents that produced solid data about local […]
State Updates Measure of What Makes a Community “Disadvantaged,” Workshops Start Today
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The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) is updating CalEnviroScreen, holding a series of workshops and webinars starting this week and continuing throughout September—see the end of this post for locations and details. The first one takes place in Los Angeles this evening. CalEnviroScreen is the official tool used by state agencies to […]
Caltrans Report: Speeding and Aggressive Driving Cause Most Crashes
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Caltrans crunched four-year-old collision data from the California Highway Patrol and found that nearly twenty percent of traffic-related fatalities and severe injuries are speed-related. In the 2013 report, the most recent year for which data is available, more than 71,000 collisions were attributed to speeding. Likewise, rear-end collisions occurred far more often than “sideswipes,” the […]
Legislative Wrap-up: Environmental Justice, Cap-and-Trade Funding
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The lead-up to the end of the California legislative session at midnight last night included a standard amount of grandstanding, tearful farewells, laughter, and exhaustion. Some bills passed and will now await the governor’s good graces, and some died on the legislature floor. Here’s a quick recap of a few bills relevant to sustainable streets. […]
Legislature Must Decide the Fate of Three Environmental Justice Bills Before Midnight
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Among the bills the state Senate and Assembly must decide upon before today’s deadline—the session ends at midnight tonight—are several that attempt to make up for past and current injustices by giving voice to the California communities that are most affected by climate change and pollution. This focus on environmental justice is finally gaining some […]
New Transportation Funding Plan: A Hot Mess, With Some Active Transp $
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After several weeks of rumors, legislative leaders of the Special Session on Transportation and Infrastructure have released their proposal for a funding plan that shows how much compromise it can take to get an agreement. The bill, S.B. X1-1 and A.B. X1-26, is co-authored by Senator Jim Beall (D-Campbell) and Assemblymember Jim Frazier (D-Oakley), the […]
Assembly Passes Bills to Extend Greenhouse Gas Targets to 2030
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Today, the California Assembly passed A.B. 197, the companion bill to the Senate’s greenhouse gas reduction target bill, S.B. 32, which it passed yesterday. A.B. 197 will now go to Governor Jerry Brown to sign into law, which he has said he is eager to do. S.B. 32, which extends greenhouse gas reduction targets out […]
Legislative Update: Climate Change, Cap and Trade, Fare Evasion
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GREENHOUSE GAS TARGETS The Senate’s signature climate change bill, S.B. 32, cleared a hurdle this morning when it was approved by the Assembly on a vote of 42 to 29. The bill sets targets for California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2020, when the current Global Warming Solutions Act will expire. S.B. 32 […]
Stop Already with the “Cap-and-Trade Is Dead” Business
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Some members of the mainstream media seem to be enjoying a good rip on California’s climate change policies, especially its cap-and-trade program, heralding its imminent collapse and describing Governor Jerry Brown as desperate and “nervous” about whether he can save it. And some of those media pundits are going a little overboard, like the Los […]
California Senate Proposal for Cap-and-Trade Revenues Focuses on Equity
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The Senate released a spending plan for the unallocated portion of cap-and-trade revenues today, in the form of Assembly Bill 1613. The plan, say Senate leaders and advocates, focuses on environmental equity while supporting projects that will reduce greenhouse gases. Cap-and-trade revenues, raised at auction from companies that pollute, are required by law to be […]
CA Legislative Update: Student Transit Pass Bill Is Dead—For Now
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A bill that would have created a statewide program to fund low-cost transit passes for students stalled out in the Senate Appropriations Committee. There is still a slim chance to get something passed this session—more on that below—and there’s always next session, when bills can be introduced anew. But for now, A.B. 2222 from Assemblymember Chris […]