News

A recently released guide, Safe Streets, Healthy Families Advocacy Guide, offers Los Angeles neighborhood residents a suite of tools and resources to improve street conditions through advocacy and education.

The City of San José is updating their bike master plan to improve bikeway connections for Santa Clara County residents. Changes in land use and transportation have enabled opportunities in San José to develop a multi-modal transportation network that accommodates a wide range of users of all ages and abilities.

It’s not too late to register for the California Bicycle Coalition’s California Bicycle Summit, taking place from October 15-17 at the Center for Healthy Communities in Los Angeles. The summit is open to active transportation practitioners, advocates, and community residents working to make bicycling an affordable, inclusive, and equitable form of transportation for all.

Last month, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) released a new design guide summarizing best practices to enhance safety at intersections, “Don’t Give Up at the Intersection: Designing All Ages and Abilities Bicycle Crossings.” Since NACTO released its innovative Urban Bikeway Design Guide in 2011, North American cities have expanded protected bikeway networ

UC Berkeley SafeTREC is thrilled to pilot Safety Stories, a new storytelling feature on the California Active Transportation Safety Information Pages (CATSIP) website. Safety Stories provides an avenue for planners, designers, engineers and safe active transportation advocates to share their experiences, lessons learned and best practices for improving active transportation safety among California’s diverse communities.

April 11, 2019 article reposted with permission from The Berkeley Times 

Do you live or ride a bicycle in Oakland? If so, Oakland’s Department of Transportation (OakDOT) currently seeks input from East Bay residents on the latest draft plan of Let’s Bike Oakland.

The Active Transportation Resource Center (ATRC), along with Caltrans, is hosting two trainings next month intended to guide practitioners in the planning and design of bicycle routes along roadways in California. These free, day-long introductory courses are designed for architects, planners, engineers from local, regional and state agencies to “explore the tools used to assess and evaluate the suitability of a transportation route and facilitate its use by all types of cyclists.” Larry Moore, a retired Caltrans engineer, will teach both courses.

In communities throughout California, there is a call to make our streets safer for people of all ages and abilities, no matter how they are traveling, whether that is by car, walking, biking or riding a bus. In 2016, 16 pedestrians died every day in traffic collisions, averaging a pedestrian every 1.5 hours. Bicycle fatalities increased by 8.1% from 136 fatalities in 2015 to 147 fatalities in 2016. How might we rethink this focus and design with safety in mind for all modes of travel?

A new group of California laws took effect January 1, 2019 related to roadway safety for bicycle and pedestrian travel. 

In short, the new laws update rules for motorized scooters, amend guidelines for helmet use, extend hit-and-run law provisions to people using a Class I bikeway, and enable roadway users to accurately reflect their gender identity on state-issued documents.

Stay informed of California’s new traffic safety laws:

A new report by Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition looks at pedestrian safety in the United States by measuring how deadly it is for people walking as a means of transportation.

The California Transportation Commission (CTC) recently posted staff recommendations for funded projects for the Statewide and Small Urban & Rural components of the 2019 Active Transportation Program (ATP).

Caltrans, in partnership with the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at University of California, Berkeley is hosting the 2019 California Transportation Planning Conference, "Partnering for Sustainable Transportation: Navigating California's Changing Landscape" from February 25 - 27, 2019.

From coast to coast, a number of cities have commited to Vision Zero, an approach to road safety that aims to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while working to ensure safety for all. To help city leaders focus commitments and actions on the most significant and proven areas of change to advance safe mobility, the Vision Zero Network has released a new resource, "Core Elements for Vision Zero Communities."

Increasing opportunities for walking and biking has many health benefits. But how can cities and counties support and create streets in our communities that are accessible and safe for all users? What types of improvements and plans are needed for pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders and motorists to get where they need to go safely, comfortably and easily?

Metro (the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority) is currently working on updating their Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), which was last adopted in 2009. To help shape the update of the plan, Metro is seeking public input on their project website, Our Next LA*. 

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently published the Guide for Scalable Risk Assessment Methods for Pedestrians and Bicyclists as a resource for transportation agencies and practitioners for assessing pedestrian and bicyclist risk.