California Bill Aims To Codify Protections for Pedestrians and Cyclists

A bill proposed by California State Senator Anthony Portantino (D-Glendale) “would require cities and counties to give the safety and bicycle riders and pedestrians the attention it deserves,” reports Melanie Curry. “His bill, S.B. 932, would require cities and counties to map out the places where bike riders and pedestrians experience high rates of injury in their General Plans. But not just map: they would also be required to take action to reduce traffic fatalities, specifically emphasizing safety for people using ‘human-powered’ transportation.”

The bill calls for cities and counties to begin work on these improvements within two years of General Plan amendments, with a 20-year timeline to complete their fatality-reduction plans. Under the new legislation, cities could face lawsuits from people injured in crashes. “While an argument can be made that any city or county that fails to provide safe infrastructure for bicycle riders and pedestrians are already at risk of being sued when people are injured because of it, writing this ‘private right of action’ into the bill had several committee members squirming.”

Portantino says “the point is to force cities and counties to update their plans, to incorporate safety for sustainable transportation, to give them resources to follow through, and then hold them accountable if they don’t do so.”

The article mentions another bill that also passed the Senate Governance and Finance committee: S.B. 917, the ‘Seamless Transit’ bill, “force Bay Area transit agencies to collaborate on a transit system that makes sense from a rider’s perspective.”