Cheers

The California Public: Citizens Demand Safer Streets for Walking. In the past five years, the number of individual organizations dedicated to walking and the promotion of pedestrian safety and rights in California has zoomed from zero to 14. This unprecedented growth in local civic groups represents nothing short of a mini rebellion – citizens tired of fighting speeding traffic, vanishing crosswalks and a dearth of funding to improve conditions for pedestrians. As these organizations have found, there’s strength in numbers, and their existence is the primary reason we can continue with this list at all and that so many of these changes have happened so quickly.

The most recent addition to the pedestrian advocacy movement in California could also be one of the most important: California Walks, formed in June of 2002, is a statewide organization designed to help coordinate and strengthen local walk groups and give them a louder voice in the state capitol. For more information, contact Zac Wald (510-682-5605) at California Walks.

The California Legislature: Politicians Hear the Public. In the past five years, the legislature has approved four major pieces of legislation that have vastly improved conditions for pedestrians across the state, and state legislators are currently considering a fifth (SB1555 - Torlakson). The Safe Routes to School bill, approved in both 1999 and 2001 (AB1475 and SB10 - Soto),, sets aside $25 million a year in federal transportation funds to make it safer for California schoolchildren to walk and bike to school. The Pedestrian Safety Act of 2000 (AB2522 - Shelley) raised fines on motorists violating pedestrian rights of way, strengthened pedestrian rights and required new questions on drivers’ tests specifically covering pedestrian safety topics. Another bill approved in 2000 (AB2767 – Jackson CHECK THIS) provided flexibility to an arcane state law (the so-called “85^th percentile rule”) that prevents local governments from lowering speed limits on residential streets (see the “Jeers” section below for why thise speeding law still encourages speeding). A bill (SB1555) that is currently pending in the legislature would establish a $3.25 million annual pedestrian and bicycle safety and education fund at the state level. For more information, contact James Corless (415-956-7795) or Kristi Kimball (415-956-7835) at the STPP’s California offices of the Surface Transportation Policy Project.

The Incredible Shrinking Street: Three lanes are Better than Four. All over the United States, and in towns throughout California, traffic engineers have proposed, – and city councils have endorsed, – the widening of streets to accommodate increased traffic. The two two-lane street is close to becoming an endangered species in many fast fast-growing communities. But street widenings – and the move toward four- and six six-lane streets – are more often than not a death knell for pedestrians.

Now, armed with new traffic engineering techniques and research that two two-lane streets can work just as efficiently as four four-lane streets, – so long as a dedicated turn lane is provided, – communities across the country are shrinking their streets, widening sidewalks and adding bicycle lanes. Examples of this change exist or are proposed in more than 20 California cities, including. Those include Sacramento (Auburn Boulevard); San Francisco (Valencia Street); Mountain View (Dana Street and Cuesta streets); Sunnyvale (Mary Avenue); Palo Alto (University Avenue &and East Meadow Drive); Santa Barbara; San Jose (proposed on 10^th & 11^th streets south of Santa Clara); Santa Cruz (Soquel Avenue – proposed); Willow Creek (Main Street); Oakland (Grand Avenue); and Santa Monica (Main Street).For more information, contact Dan Burden at Walkable Communities (Dburden@aol.com) or James Corless at Surface Transportation Policy ProjectSTPP (415-956-7795).

The California Department of Transportation: A Change in Thinking.

Prior to the late 1990s, the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) was heavily criticized for not paying enough attention to the needs of local communities. But things have started to change within the ranks of the massive agency. The devotion of resources specifically targeted towards walkable communities and pedestrian safety, – while still small in comparison to the scope of the problem, – has started to make a difference. In addition to the $25 million per year devoted to the Safe Routes to School program for local construction projects, Caltrans is pursuing a pedestrian travel and behavior survey, a bicycle and pedestrian education campaign and several lines of research towards the goal of safer and more pedestrian-friendly streets. Caltrans has also started a new Office of Community Planning and distributed planning grants for local cities and towns to help them promote livable neighborhoods and traffic safety measures. Caltrans has also unveiled a new “Context Sensitive Solutions” policy, – an effort to replace their rigid “one-size-fits-all” engineering standards with more flexible roadway design guidelines that many hope will allow greater flexibility to incorporate the needs of pedestrians, bicyclists, local businesses and other important local stakeholders. For more information, contact Ken Baxter at the Caltrans Office of Community Planning: (916) 654-2719.

City of Oakland: A Citywide Pedestrian Safety Effort. Once one of the most dangerous cities in the state for pedestrians, Oakland now has a nationally acclaimed pedestrian safety project. Hailed as a model program by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, the pedestrian project’s success can be found in its focus on community education, street improvements and the broad support it receives from residents and city officials.

Project staff regularly conduct outreach to schoolchildren, parents, seniors and neighborhood groups. Using tools such as the Safe Moves Town in schools and community centers, Oakland residents are taught about traffic hazards and safe pedestrian practices. Street improvements have included installing speed humps and the liberal use of stop signs. One study of Oakland’s traffic safety conducted by U.C. Berkeley researchers found that a child living within one block of a speed hump was half as likely to get hit by a car as a child living on a street without one.

Also noteworthy is the recent introduction of a pedestrian master plan for the City. Project staff developed this plan to serve as a blueprint for safety pedestrian practices and an index of priorities. If approved, it will be one of the state’s first comprehensive programs specifically created for pedestrians. For more information, contact Tom Van DeMark with the City of Oakland (510-238-7049).

City of San Jose: Conversion of One Way Streets. In the 1950s and ‘60s, the number of people commuting from suburbs to jobs in older urban centers grew rapidly. To accommodate the rising vehicle traffic in neighborhoods surrounding city centers, planners pursued networks of one one-way streets to increase traffic capacity and speeds. Yet at the turn of the twenty-first 21^st century, communities across the country are increasingly turning one one-way streets back into two two-way streets, realizing that pedestrians, nearby homeowners and adjacent business owners all benefit from the traditional two-way street design.

Convinced that neighborhood livability and downtown business development should take precedence over traffic speeds (a majority of which was found to be cutting through the city without stopping downtown or anywhere else), the San Jose City Council voted in June 2001 to convert 10 major one one-way thoroughfares back into two two-way streets. Many other streets are slated for additional enhancements to protect pedestrians and promote walking and bicycling, and the city’s “traffic calming” fund was increased from $300,000 to $5 million in the last couple of years. For more information, contact Russell Westbrook at Walk San Jose (russ@walksanjose.org, or 408-295-4715) or Harry Freitas with the City of San Jose (408.277.4217).

City of Pasadena: A Quiet Revolution. In 1994, the City of Pasadena adopted a general plan that provides holds as one of its seven guiding principles that "Pasadena Shall be a Place Where People Can Circulate Without Cars." Since then the city has undergone a quiet renaissance, and has recently increased its pedestrian-friendly efforts. Bucking national and statewide trends, Pasadena has not removed mid-block crosswalks, but has instead enhanced them. – iIn one case, installing an experimental crosswalk with embedded flashing lights in the pavement was installed, as were, and installing all-way pedestrian scrambles in the revitalized Old Pasadena neighborhood. Two years ago an enclosed auto-oriented shopping mall fell to wrecking balls and was resurrected last fall as a pedestrian-oriented mixed-use development not far from a future light-rail train station.

Pasadena is also planning or considering adding pedestrian-oriented transit zones, parking maximums (rather than minimums) for certain developments near train stations, requirements for pedestrian- oriented development within transit zones and elsewhere, an increase in the local free shuttle bus from two lines to nine, ordinances to increase sidewalk widths and development design guidelines to encourage pedestrian and bicycle mobility. In addition, the Metro Gold Line light rail train service (with six stations in as many miles in Pasadena) will open for business in less than a year by late 2002 or early 2003 and heralds a new era of pedestrian -oriented opportunities. For more information, contact Roger Gray at Pasadena Walks! (626.-399.-4729).

City, County & Region of San Diego: Reversing an Anti-Pedestrian Reputation. Three different and distinct levels of government in San Diego are all doing their part to improve the pedestrian environment. The City of San Diego is moving forward on its update of the city’s general plan, a document that will play a key role in guiding future growth, development and infrastructure for decades to come. The City has dubbed its plan the “City of Villages” and is undertaking an ambitious effort to strengthen existing neighborhoods, a primary focus of which will be creating more walkable communities. The City has recently released a new street design manual that narrows travel lane widths, tightens corner radii and reduces so-called “design speeds” for streets through the city.

The County of San Diego is one of California’s leading examples of how geographic information systems (GIS) pedestrian injury mapping can provide a comprehensive look at where traffic fatalities and injuries are happening. County staff will be using the this information as baseline data to measures impacts of municipal pedestrian safety and traffic-calming programs. The report is also seen as an enabling tool for community groups to identify problems in their areas and take action. Neighborhood organizations have used the data to persuade elected officials to include or increase pedestrian safety elements in proposed developments. Others have included it in grant applications to teach schoolchildren about injury prevention. San Diego County’s injury mapping report can be viewed at http://www.sdsafecommunities.com/Images/SafeCity2000Plus.pdf.

Finally, the regional transportation agency in the area, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG),, recently took a significant steptowards by adopting “Planning and Designing for Pedestrians: Model Guidelines for the San Diego Region.” The guidelines are the first document in the United States to recommend pedestrian design approaches for an entire region. Topics include street standards, walkways, disabled access, traffic calming, parking placement and designing private developments to encourage walking. SANDAG staff will present the guidelines to each city council in its region and encourage their adoption into local ordinances and standards. For more information, contact Walk San Diego (858-650-4671 or mail@walksandiego.org) or SANDAG (619-595-5324 or sva@sandag.org). San Diego County’s injury mapping report can be viewed at http://www.sdsafecommunities.com/Images/SafeCity2000Plus.pdf.

Marin County: Getting Kids Back on Their Feet. In the fall of 2000, Marin County launched an aggressive program to get more children to walk and bike to school more often in the fall of 2000. Initially, surveys showed that 21 percent of kids at its nine pilot schools walked or biked to school. The county’s strategies included After two years of an intensive “Safe Routes to School” program combining the addition of new bicycle and pedestrian facilities, with student incentives (such as a Frequent Rider Miles contest), a public media campaign and a massive outreach and education effort., surveys indicated that 38 percent of kids in participating schools now walk or bike to school. The Town of Mill Valley adjusted a traffic signal where a bike path and sidewalk feed into an elementary school to give children more time to cross. The Town of Fairfax built a new bike path and recently committed to extending a sidewalk network to the west side of town.

Before the campaign, surveys showed that 21 percent of kids at its nine pilot schools walked or biked to school. Two years after the county program started, surveys indicate that 38 percent of kids who attend participating schools now walk or bike to school. A

s a result of the campaign, the number of children who get to school by car dropped significantly, falling from well over half of all home to school trips in 2000 to 38 percent in 2002. Traffic surveys in Marin County had shown that before the campaign started, parents driving their kids to school was were responsible for up to 21 percent of rush hour traffic. The broad-based effort has won financial support from a wide variety of sources, including the California Department of Health Services and the U.S. Department of Transportation. For more information, contact the Marin County Bicycle Coalition (MCBC): Debbie Hubsmith (415-456-3469 or debbie@marinbike.org) or Wendi Kallins (415-488-4101 oe wendi@marinbike.org).

City of Sacramento: Slowing Residential Traffic and Shrinking Streets. Sacramento’s mid-town traffic calming program was one of the most ambitious efforts in the country when it was launched as a pilot project in 1997. The initiative to shrink residential streets, install mini-roundabouts, reduce cut-through traffic and generally reduce the speed of vehicles has so far been a success, and it has won approval from the city council to become a permanent part of the Public Works Department’s Neighborhood Traffic Management Program (NTMP). In June of 2002, Sacramento also decided to narrow its standard travel lane width from 11 feet to 10 feet, a move to reduce traffic speeds and increase livability and space for other streets users like bicyclists and pedestrians. The initiative also calls for marked crosswalks at all intersections, a new policy on mini -traffic roundabouts, and countdown pedestrian signals and at high- volume intersections. For more information, contact Anne Geraghty at Sacramento Walks (916-444-5864) or Mike Kashigawa, Director of Public Works with the City of Sacramento (916-264-7100).

City of Santa Ana and U.C. Irvine: Reaching Out to Diverse Communities. There is no one culprit when it comes to motor vehicle collisions, which is why it is important to involve multiple, diverse groups in pedestrian safety programs. U.C. Irvine’s Pedestrian Safety Initiative in the City of Santa Ana targeted its this city’s residents, of which two-thirds are Latino and nearly one-tenth are Asian. The initiative was developed in partnership with city agencies, schools and community organizations, and it also convened a 25-member task force that included ethnic-based groups, the medical community, automobile clubs and elected officials.

The program focused on developing culturally and linguistically appropriate tools and materials that could eventually be used throughout the state. Project staff, community organizations and city agencies worked together to develop a “Pedestrian Safety Toolkit” that included an assessment tool, solution guidebook, educational video with guide and public information materials written in both Spanish and English. Program activities continue today as the City of Santa Ana assumed ownership of the project and obtained a grant to implement them. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) featured the project as a successful school transportation safety program in its 2001-2002 “Getting to School Safely” kit. For more information, contact Dianne Winn at UC Irvine (949.824.7410 or dgwinn@uci.edu).

City of Carlsbad: Requiring Pedestrian-Friendly Street Designs. In 2001, the City of Carlsbad, located in northern San Diego County, adopted “Livable Streets Standards” to reduce speeding in new neighborhoods. The standards reduce neighborhood street widths from 40 feet to 34 feet, and require traffic calming in all new developments. Since most of the city is built out, and many residential streets are wide and dangerous, the program also included a new Residential Traffic Management Program (RTMP). Through the RTMP, residents may request traffic calming treatments on problem streets. In creating the program, the Carlsbad’s city council also established an annual budget for traffic calming treatments.

In July 2002, the city council approved a new development called Bressi Ranch.. The 623-home development is the first to be approved following adoption of the Livable Streets Standards. Consistent with the new standards, Bressi Ranch features narrower streets, traffic calming devices, a modified grid street pattern and sidewalks separated from the curb by a planting strips. Speeding traffic will be all but impossible thanks to the inclusion of four traffic circles and corner “bulb-outs” at most intersections. The development includes 2two million square feet of light industry/offices, a commercial center, 200 assisted living units, apartments, homes and estate homes. Parks are scattered throughout the development, which is surrounded by permanently protected habitat areas and walking paths. For more information, contact Walk San Diego (858-650-4671 or mail@walksandiego.org).

County of Los Angeles: A Transit Agency Plans for Pedestrians. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) organized a section within its planning department to focus on pedestrian safety and its linkages to transportation. The planning team drafted a chapter for the 2001 Long Range Transportation Plan for Los Angeles County that focuses on Ppedestrian needs, and it conducted technical analysis to support and document the ways in which and very important walking as element of contributes to the quality of urban life. The MTA also conducted three pedestrian symposia to gather input from local cities and community stakeholders to better determine pedestrian needs in transportation and to discuss the incorporation of pedestrian needs into local cities planning efforts. The MTA has also increased funding for pedestrian projects from $2 million per year in 1993 to $10 million per year in 2001. For more information, contact James Rojas at the MTA (213.629.9122, or 213-922-2451).

San Francisco: Marketing Safety Through the Media. One of the most prestigious San Francisco advertising firms jumped into the pedestrian safety fray in 1999 with a series of shocking ads that caught the attention of both city residents and the national media. One of the ads was tagged, “I’m sorry I ran over your grandma, but I didn’t want to spill my latte,” and featured an elderly woman glancing over her shoulder at an approaching car. Another ad showed a child running in front of a car speeding in a residential area and read, “Steel is stronger than flesh: Slow it down.”

These campaign messages by ad agency Goody Silverstein & Partners was were probably the most visible and talked about component of a citywide education and outreach campaign on aggressive driving and pedestrian safety. These activities were initiated by a city supervisor’s concern about the high numbers of pedestrian injuries in San Francisco. According to the National HighwaNational Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), San Francisco has the highest number of pedestrian fatalities per capita in California and the third-highest number of pedestrian fatalities per capita in the nation.

Salinas: A Grassroots Effort for Safer Streets. This rural town’s traffic and pedestrian safety activities grew out of the activities of a coalition of community groups and city departments. Dubbed Mano a Mano, or Hand to Hand, the coalition began with the partnership between the local Sun Street Centers and the Monterey County Health Department. A previous working relationship led the two groups to apply and win a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety. Money from this grant was used to support Walk to School Day, pedestrian education activities, and run sobriety checks and child car seat safety checks in conjunction with the local police department. These efforts garnered the support of city officials and residents, some of whom provided donations to expand the program.

City of Alameda: Officials Heed Pleas From Pedestrian Advocates.

When a resident of Alameda witnessed a horrific pedestrian fatality, they contacted a member of the City Council and demanded actionthey . The result was a redesign of the problem intersection, converting making it into a four-way stop and adding pedestrian refuge islands. Momentum grew, and after a Ttown Hhall Mmeeting was held to explore the possibilities to improve the conditions for pedestrians citywide, citizens formed Pedestrian-Friendly Alameda (PFA). In the past year and a half, PFA has succeeded in blocking the planned removal of a crosswalk, convinced public works officials to repaint and add crosswalks at dangerous intersections, helped develop encouraged the implementation of the local Police Department's Selective Traffic Enforcement and Education Program (STEEP), won support for new intersection pedestrian countdown clocks and assisted the city in preparing a Safe Routes to School grant.

PFA brought "Walk a Child to School Day" to Alameda for the first time in 2001, involving four elementary schools at that time. In 2002, partnering with Parent-teacher associations (PTAs), we joined soon after, and 12 elementary schools are now involved. PFA, in partnership with the PTA Council, introduced the "Keep Kids Alive - Drive 25" awareness program to Alameda. Activities of Tthe Police Department's STEEP Program resulted in a 39% percent decrease in automobile-pedestrian accidents and a 152% percent increase in issued citations for pedestrian right -of- way violations. The local newspaper ran two full full-page ads supported by local businesses, that read, "The speed limit in Alameda is 25.". PFA is a member of the Alameda Transportation Coalition, - three transportation-related advocacy groups that have come together to bring an even stronger voice to pedestrian and bicycle safety and to transportation issues. For more information, contact PFA at 510-522-4651; www.pedfriendly.org.

City of Santa Cruz: Reappearing Crosswalks. When crosswalks along Highway One (also known as Mission Street), the main north-south thoroughfare through Santa Cruz, started to fade, the state Department of Transportation (Caltrans) refused to restripe any crossings in the middle of blocks or at unsignaled intersections (see “Jeers” section below). Yet lLocal residents became upset and a petition to restripe the crosswalks was circulated that attracted over 700 signatures. Signors represented a broad cross-section of the community, including business owners, PTAs, associations and local safety and civic groups. The overwhelming response from local residents helped form a new pedestrian advocacy group for the area, “Mission: Pedestrian.” Caltrans took the local outcry for a safer streets to heart, and starting repainting them in 2001. Several tragic fatalities have recently occurred on the street, but thankfully Caltrans responded by is now pursuing a policy to make the pedestrian crossings even more visible by adding overhead flashing lights and putting in more prominent ladder markings as part of the crosswalks. For more information, contact Debbie Bulger at Mission: Pedestrian (dfulger@cruzio.com).

Jeers

Removing Crosswalks: Less Isn’t More. California has an unfortunate reputation for being one of the states to lead a national traffic engineering movement by advocating for the removal of crosswalks in the middle of blocks and at intersections without traffic lights or stop signs. Several California studies in the 1970s concluded that pedestrians were more likely to be hit by cars when crossing in a crosswalk without a light or stop sign to slow traffic. While one response to this problem might have been to increase the visibility and traffic controls associated with crosswalks, traffic planners unfortunately decided to begin removing them instead. AB2522, the Pedestrian Safety Act of 2000, now requires that local jurisdictions at the very least give residents 30 days notice and the option of a public hearing when removing a mid-block crosswalk. But some cities and counties in California are still removing crosswalks at an alarming pace. And many more are afraid to install new mid-block crosswalks due to liability concerns – even though well-protected and highly visible mid-block crossings are critical in more suburban communities with longer blocks and technically safer than crossing at intersections due to the lack of vehicle turning movements.

Segways on Sidewalks: Watch Your Back. As if dodging fast moving speeding vehicles while crossing the street isn’t bad enough, now the Segway – the fast- moving electric “vehicle” that may indeed revolutionize short-distance transportation, as its founder claims – is poised to invade sidewalks in legislation either pending or approved in 20 states across the country. The California legislature is considering its own version of this policy (SB1918) to define the Segway vehicle as a “pedestrian.” The good news is that local governments in the California version of the bill have the option to ban Segways from sidewalks if they want. The bad news is that Segways are defined as pedestrians at all. The bill would prohibit Segways from traveling in bike lanes or in the street on slower residential roads.

The truth is that Segways aren’t pedestrians;, they’re a new form of vehicle. They should be welcomed into the traffic flow and protected from faster moving traffic where necessary. Riding them on sidewalks in a few sparsely populated areas maybe OK. But restricting them only to sidewalks and defining them as “pedestrians” isn’t. For more information on safety issues related to the Segway scooter, visit http://www.injurycenter.org/segway/segway.cfm.

Pedestrian Barricades: Inconvenient, Inconsiderate and Downright Dangerous. Another familiar sign that you’re in a California city are pedestrian barricades: the “No Pedestrian Crossing” signs that require people to go out of their way to cross an intersection three times when once would have been enough. These are another unfortunate holdover from the days when traffic engineers defined pedestrians as “traffic flow interruptions” in street design manuals. They favor unimpeded traffic turning movements over the ability of pedestrians to cross the street, – reasoning that pedestrians in a crosswalk will hold up the flow of traffic. But the result is that many pedestrians are thus forced to cross three legs of an intersection rather than one, tripling both the number of potential conflicts with a vehicle as well as and the actual distance that a pedestrian has to walk.

New all-red pedestrian “scrambles” at some intersections in California can provide one way to get around this. An all-red phase of the traffic signals for motorists provides pedestrians with an “all-walk” phase during which pedestrian can actually cross the intersection diagonally. This treatment, and similar ideas, and complementary technologies ought to be enough to ban the “No Pedestrian Crossing” signs in California for good.

The Invisible Majority: Undercounting California’s 35 million Pedestrians. Transportation planners live and breathe by traffic data: who drives where, why and for how long. Millions of dollars are spent on counting everything from left turn movements to the roughness of the road, except when it comes to walking. The only reliable statistics for walking are generally produced by a handful of regional transportation agencies and the U.S. cCensus Bureau, and those only count the number of people over 16 years old who walk to work. Several other studies that have counted walking as a mode of transportation have found that pedestrian journeys account for between 8 eight and 10 percent of all trips in California. In reality, there are probably many more walking trips that would show up if all ages and demographics were surveyed properly and consistently. The California Department of Transportation and regional transportation planning agencies should conduct annual travel surveys that vastly improve the methodology for measuring how much Californians walk and bike.

Disappearing Dollars: Failing to Put Our Money Where our Mouth is. Transportation agencies in general have failed to spend any money on pedestrian safety, often citing the issue as a local problem or city concern and not a legitimate transportation issue. Unfortunately, California spends even less on pedestrian safety than most other states – less than one percent of all federal transportation funds from 1997-98 were spent to protect pedestrians and encourage walking.

Several notable exceptions to this trend in California have emerged in the last five years and should be copied. The Sacramento Area Council of Governments recently approved its 23-year long range transportation plan with $529 million allocated for bicycle and pedestrian safety measures in addition to $500 million for projects that improve neighborhood livability and promote walkable communities. A similar program in the San Francisco Bay Area developed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission allocated $27 million a year to enhance communities partly through pedestrian amenities. Smaller but similar programs have been advanced in Monterey and San Diego counties. The state Department of Transportation, Rregional Ttransportation Aagencies, and even local transportation sales tax measures should all contain earmark at least 10 percent of their funding for measures that contribute to more bicycle and pedestrian-friendly streets.

The 85^th Percentile Rule: A License to Speed. Speed is one of the most critical factors in both the severity of pedestrian-vehicle collisions as well as the overall comfort and appeal of the walking environment. Anyone can tell you that walking along a six -lane arterial where the average speed is 50 mph isn’t a pleasant experience. And pedestrians hit by a car traveling 40 mph have only a 5five percent chance of survival, while being hit at 20 mph gives you an 85 percent chance of living.

Unfortunately, California’s speeding law actually encourages speeding due to an arcane policy known as the “85^th percentile rule.” Speed limits on local streets cannot legally be set below the the speed of the 85^th fastest car out of every 100. If a speed study of a street shows that people are routinely driving faster than the speed limit, local officials actually have to raise the speed limit. While the law was amended to allow some consideration for pedestrians, bicyclists and residential density, these amendments don’t go far enough. The 85^th percentile rule for speeding has turned local streets into speedways throughout California and allowed reckless drivers to set the rules of the road. The time has come to vastly overhaul this law or do away with it altogether.

For Whom the Bridge Tolls: Charging Pedestrians on the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most beloved and recognizable symbols of California. Yet financial troubles at the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transit District have forced the agency to suggest charging a toll to walk or bike across the famous bridgelandmark. If California wants to promote walking and bicycling as well as tourism, it will continue to allow people to walk or ride their bicycles across the Golden Gate Bridge free of charge.

Turning Our Back on the Problem: The California Racial Privacy Initiative. One of the most significant demographic changes in the last five years has been the racial and ethnic shift within the population – minority groups now account for a majority of Californians, and California is now one of the most racially and ethnically diverse states in the country. As previous research conducted by STPP and the Latino Issues Forum has shown, Latinos and African-Americans account for a disproportionate share of pedestrian injuries and fatalities relative to their share of the population. One of the reasons for this is likely income (individuals from lower income neighborhoods both tend to both walk more and to be exposed to faster, more dangerous streets). Another significant factor in this equation is immigration. Understanding both ethnic and cultural backgrounds are critical in terms of providing outreach and education to target populations, particularly in native languages other than English.

California desperately needs to collect more data on the causes of pedestrian fatalities and injuries in order to do a better job preventing them. Yet a ballot measure proposed by the American Civil Rights Coalition and Ward Connerly for the 2004 California primary would ban local and state agencies within California from collecting any data about Rrace. While some exceptions are granted in the initiative, vehicle and pedestrian collisions are not one of them.