Zeroing in on California’s Incomplete Streets

In an excerpt from a CalBike report published in Streetsblog California, the advocacy group reveals that many California districts are ignoring the state’s Complete Streets policy, failing to include walking and biking facilities in new projects as required by Caltrans policy DP-37.

The article documents a project on Beach Boulevard in Orange County, one of the deadliest ‘main streets’ in the state for pedestrians and cyclists. “Over the last decade, there have been 78 vulnerable road users killed on the street, and pedestrians and people biking account for nearly 70 percent of all road user deaths on SR-39.” Yet despite a 2020 study that called for many bike and pedestrian improvements on Beach Boulevard, an 8.5-mile lane rehabilitation project includes no new biking or walking facilities.

Unlike local governments, which may respond to community pressure and fix dangerous infrastructure, especially after someone dies, Caltrans’ response is tepid or in some cases entirely non-responsive to the carnage its streets inflict on the people who use them.

For the authors, “The casual dismissal of well-documented bike and pedestrian needs in the Complete Streets Decision Document for this project emphasizes Caltrans districts’ carelessness about the lives and safety of people biking and walking, and for the agency’s own policies.”