HIGHLIGHTS:
LIVABLE COMMUNITY BILLS SENT TO GOV DAVIS
TRAFFIC AND SPRAWL BIG ON LOCAL NOVEMBER BALLOT
FRESNO COUNTY COALITION LAUNCHES CAMPAIGNS
SANTA MONICA ON CROSSWALK REMOVAL: JUST SAY NO

STATE BRIEFS:
Feds put MTC on notice
MTA boosts ridership
Caltrans gives up Tahoe freeway
LA #1 again in smog
Santa Clara delays tax
Quotable

LIVABLE COMMUNITY BILLS WIN MAJOR VICTORIES, ADVANCE TO GOVERNOR'S DESK

A historic package of bills that would provide tens of millions in new funding for bicycle and pedestrian facilities won several key legislative votes in August and are now heading to the Governor for approval. SB1629, SB1772, SB1809 and AB2522 would collectively provide over $35M a year for walking and bicycling improvements along with requiring proper accommodations for both modes in all future road expansion projects throughout the state. Each bill suffered major setbacks towards the end of the session, but all ultimately benefited from a well coordinated grassroots campaign by bicycle and pedestrian advocates in the wake of being shut out of the Governor's transportation plan earlier in the year.

"California needs a balanced portfolio of transportation investments," explained Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Policy Director Laura Cohen, sponsor of SB1809 that will funnel an additional $20M into the state transportation enhancements program. Yet whether the Governor's will sign or veto the bills -- possible happen anytime up until the September 31st deadline -- is still unclear. Only a fraction of a larger slate of smart growth, transportation and affordable housing bills were heading to the Governor's desk after the legislature adjourned their two year session in the early morning hours of September 1. AB2140--sponsored by STPP and aimed at requiring regional agencies to produce alternative growth and transportation scenarios as part of their twenty year plans--is one of the few smart growth bills to survive the session. However, the legislative mandate was removed at the last minute resulting in merely a permissive statute unless funding can be secured in next year's state budget.
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NOVEMBER BALLOT HEAVY ON LOCAL TRAFFIC AND GROWTH CONTROL MEASURES

Across California, growth and transportation are once again likely to be some of the hottest issues being contested on the upcoming November 7th ballot. With the recent $6.8 billion transportation deal struck by the Governor and the legislature precluding the need to return to voters statewide for additional funding along the demise of SCA3, attention is now turning to local ballot initiatives for the latest round of battles over traffic and sprawl.

With most deadlines passed for qualifying local measures for the fall election, dozens of transportation funding and growth control proposals have apparently won prime spots on the local ballots throughout the state. Transportation sales taxes will appear on the ballot in Alameda, Santa Clara, San Benito and Placer Counties. Alameda County's may prove to be one of the more interesting as an unheralded coalition of builders, contractors, environmental and social justice groups have crafted a broad measure to fund new highway interchanges, bicycle facilities, expanded bus and rail service as well as transit-oriented development. Many around the state will be watching whether this unlikely alliance can pull off what only two of 34 such funding measures in California have ever achieved -- two-thirds voter approval. A litany of local growth control measures will also face voters at the ballot box in November, most of which aim to restrict large scale developments or approve new urban limit lines as a means of redirecting growth towards existing areas. One of the more innovative approaches is underway in Placer County where a coalition of farmers, environmentalists and business interests will ask voters to approve a quarter cent sales tax increase to conserve open space and agricultural lands via purchases and development rights throughout the county. Other aggressive land conservation measures will appear on the ballot in Sonoma County, Alameda County, and the cities of San Jose, Danville, Dublin, Healdsburg, Santa Paula, Pasa Robles and Fillmore.
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FRESNO COUNTY GROUPS FORM NEW COALITION; TARGET TRANSPORTATION FUNDING, SAFER STREETS

The newly formed Fresno County Transportation and Land Use Coalition, including the League of Women Voters, 1000 Friends of Fresno, and the Sierra Club, joined forces with rural officials concerned about funding for road maintenance and helped raise enough objections to a proposed countywide transportation sales tax that the measure--initially proposed for the November 2000 ballot-- was withdrawn from consideration. Measure C would have raised an estimated $1.4B in revenues from a 20 year sales tax with more than two-thirds slated for freeway expansion.

Coalition members also participated in the release of STPP's "Mean Streets 2000" pedestrian safety report along with representatives from Latino Issues Forum, the Mexican American Political Association, the Fresno Metro Ministry and local disability groups.

Using Fresno's ranking as 2nd most dangerous metro area in California for pedestrians, organizations involved in the coalition launched a campaign for safer streets and better pedestrian facilities citywide as well as a bid to include more pedestrian and transit-oriented development funding in the next incarnation of Measure C. Officials with the Council of Fresno County Governments expect to rewrite the sales tax measure with greater public input and try once again to place a new measure on the ballot in 2002. Fresno County is one of 16 so-called "self help" counties with existing transportation sales taxes; Fresno's will expire in 2007 unless renewed. For more information contact Kevin Hall, Chair of the Fresno County Transportation and Land Use Coalition at 559.227.6421.
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SANTA MONICA DEMANDING RETURN OF MARKED CROSSWALKS; OFFICIALS, RESIDENTS BUCK STATEWIDE REMOVAL TREND

The citizens of Santa Monica complained loudly when crosswalks began disappearing in that seaside city several years ago--so loudly that their complaints were picked up by newspapers on the east coast and in Europe. Cities across the state began removing crosswalks at unsignalized intersections and mid-block in the 1990s because of studies suggesting they gave pedestrians a false sense of security and increased the likelihood of accidents. That rationale didn't satisfy residents of Santa Monica, who demanded that local officials do more to protect pedestrians and enhance rather than remove pedestrian crossing facilities.

The city just approved phase two of an aggressive campaign that has engineers investigating every intersection along 15 major thoroughfares--checking pedestrian counts, traffic volume and speed, street width, and accident records. Residents are consulted before and after plans are drawn up to add raised medians, flashers embedded in the pavement, zebra striping, pedestrian-activated signals, curb bulb-outs, limit lines and every other trick in the traffic calming toolkit. "We've used quantifiable criteria to create strict performance standards and establish thresholds at which different enhancements should be employed," says one of the project consultants. "It's the most scientific approach to pedestrian safety IÍve ever heard of." Critics of the studies that prompted the crosswalk removal trend say the studies are flawed for exactly this reason: They recommend removal at unsignalized intersections in all cases -- without recommending any additional safety enhancements. And without discerning whether removal should depend on traffic volume and speed, pedestrian counts and road width. A thorough investigation of the controversial issue by the Federal Highway Administration is to be published soon.
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Feds put MTC on notice

The Federal Highway Administration gave the Bay Area's Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) a mere 'conditional' certification in August, citing a lack of public involvement and inattention to environmental justice as the two main reasons; the agency must properly address both issues in order to continue receiving federal funds more info: www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/ej2.htm
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MTA boosts ridership

The Los Angeles MTA bus system recorded its highest ridership in six years in July due in part to the success of several new 'rapid bus' lines operating along Wilshire and Whittier Boulevards; the opening of three new Red Line stations also pushed MTA rail ridership to an all time high, as expected now that the $4.7 billion subway is complete (LA Times 8/23).
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Caltrans gives up Tahoe freeway

Caltrans will relinquish 250 acres of land formerly planned for the final leg of US Highway 50 in the form of an eight mile, four-lane freeway with six interchanges bypassing South Lake Tahoe; in exchange for the land, Caltrans will receive funding over the next 25 years for sustainable transportation and environmental projects, such as bicycle lanes and water-quality and drainage improvements in the scenic Tahoe corridor (Sac Bee 7/27).
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LA #1 again in smog

Los Angeles briefly topped Houston to reclaim the crown for nation's smoggiest city in August; LA has recorded more unhealthful air days although officials say Houston still has dirtier air (LA Times 8/10).
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Santa Clara delays tax

A day after opponents convinced Santa Clara County Supervisors to delay plans for a 20 year half cent transportation sales tax proposal until 2002, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) voted to place their own 30 year version of the tax before county voters in November; the measure is designed to provide matching funds for a controversial 18 mile, $4B BART extension from the east bay city of Fremont into downtown San Jose included as part of the Governor's transportation package earlier in the year (SJ Merc 8/9).
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QUOTABLE

In terms of new freeways, new bridges...we're done for all practical purposes. The challenge becomes now operating it."
--Caltrans Director Jeff Morales remarking on the department's shift from road expansion towards congestion management strategies, including public transit and highway operational improvements. As quoted in the Contra Costa Times, 8/21/2000.

There will be no place in the state that is not touched by immigration and these racial and ethnic changes...We will be inventing a new kind of society, and we don't really have any urban states to use as a role model. California of the future may look a lot like Los Angeles today."
--Mark Baldassare, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California in San Francisco, commenting on the latest U.S. Census figures that show California has now officially become majority- minority. As quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle 8/31/2000.
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