Cohen advocates pushing Caltrans to relinquish oversight of bike facilities on urban streets
TransForm Executive Director Stuart Cohen urged the Assembly to push Caltrans to move forward on one of SSTI’s most immediately-achievable steps: relinquishing oversight of bike facilities on urban streets and endorsing the National Association of City Transportation Officials Urban Street Design Guide. ”When Caltrans first put in place this requirement that cities and states follow its Highway Design Manual’s guidance on bicycle design, it made sense,” he said. “There wasn’t good practice on rearranging intersections and how to design bike lanes. We needed a standard statewide approach.”
But since then, “We have been bypassed by the rest of the country where cities and states have allowed much more innovation and experimentation, and now it’s known how to design good bike facilities,” said Cohen.
“The legislature doesn’t need to mandate this; Caltrans can do it on their own,” he added. “But if they don’t, I think the legislature should do something that forces their hand.”