Following on Gov. Brown’s veto of the same bill last year, Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles) has introduced AB-8 to “authorize a law enforcement agency to issue a Yellow Alert if a person has been killed or has suffered serious bodily injury due to a hit-and-run incident.” We’d like to see the Governor get serious about street safety, and signing this bill would be a start. (See Calbike’s Sacramento wrap-up for more on safety bills vetoed by Brown.)
Tag Archives: Jerry Brown
Jerry Brown: No Friend to Vulnerable Road Users
Governor Jerry Brown has again proven his administration to be no friend to bike riders. He’s just vetoed four bills that would have increased accountability for those who perpetrate hits-and-run. And he’s stricken a bill that would provide added protection to “vulnerable road users” like bicycle riders (Mark Levine’s A.B. 2398). Recall that not long ago, Brown vetoed safe passing bills not once but twice (before signing the third – a victory we can only chalk up to the California Bicycle Coalition’s persistence). Is this a governor who really cares about road safety? Continue reading
AB 417: Short Cut to Safer Streets for Cyclists?
Active transportation enthusiasts may recall that a lawsuit filed in San Francisco in 2005 put the brakes (so to speak) on making bike-friendly improvements in that city. It was a five-year pause as SF conducted a full environmental review of the anticipated environmental impacts posed by treatments identified in its Bicycle Plan. For bike advocates, that was a costly lesson in our quest for safer streets. A bill before the Governor, AB 417, would exempt bike plans totally from environmental review under CEQA and it awaits the governor’s signature. Let’s take a look. Continue reading
Driverless Cars: Tomorrow’s Promise?
While we await Governor Brown’s third veto of California’s safe-passing law AB 1371, we want to revisit an earlier piece of transportation-related legislation to which the good Governor did give his nod: SB 1298, the Google-friendly legislation that gave the green light (so to speak) to ‘driverless car’ operation in California. It was supported overwhelmingly in Sacramento (37-0 in the Senate and 74-2 in the Assembly) and was signed almost exactly one year ago by the Governor. What could it mean for cyclists? Continue reading
New Legislation From Sacramento (and a Veto)
Governor Brown shamefully vetoed for the second time a bill designed to facilitate safe passing of bicycle traffic in California. SB 1464 would have required drivers to give bicyclists at least 3 feet of space when passing from behind. That’s right: safe passing room is veto-worthy to Governor Brown. Even though the bill was backed by the California Bicycle Coalition and advocates across the state, and ultimately watered down to make it palatable to the CHP and Auto Club, our wonderful governor with a stroke of the pen keeps cyclists in danger. Read on about the bills the Governor did sign. Continue reading
Your Governor Vetoed SB 910
Not your dad's Jerry Brown!
This afternoon, your Governor, Edmund G. Brown, vetoed the most significant statewide cyclists safety legislation ever sent to any governor’s desk. The bill, SB 910, has been hailed by advocates across the state and championed in champion fashion by the California Bicycle Coalition (read the CBC letter). So unwavering and hard-fought was @CalBike‘s campaign that Brown’s veto can only come as a crushing blow to all cyclists who call for protection under the law. Not least, many hundreds of personal stories of intimidation and harm flowed to Sacramento from our two-wheeled comrades to no evident effect. Continue reading