Bill author: Assembly Member Mark Leno (D-13)

RELEVANT LEGISLATION: AB 1358, also known as the "Complete Streets Act"

SUMMARY
The legislation's main purpose is to enact the Complete Streets Act of 2007. The Act requires that all streets be designed to accommodate all users of different transportation modes, including walking, biking, etc.

WHY IT MATTERS
25 million vehicles on our roads travel an estimated 900 million miles each day. For each day, this produces 2,288 tons of smog precursor emissions and 350,000 tons of global warming gas emissions.1

According to the 2001 National Household Transportation Survey, 25% of trips in the U.S. are one mile or less, and 43% of trips in California are two miles or less. This affords an excellent opportunity to promote local commerce and reduce GHG emissions by walking and bicycling.

THE GOALS OF AB 1358 INCLUDE:
• Opening up to new possibilities of travel will have a positive effect on lowering transportation congestion.

• Along with decreased traffic flow, the fostering of alternative travel could lead to reductions of auto-related air pollution, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and bolstered community health.

DRAWBACKS OF AB 1358 INCLUDE:
• Some cities will have a difficult time adjusting their roads and highways to accommodate every user that is enumerated in the bill without circumventing some users. Such users of the roads and highways are defined as motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists, children, individuals with disabilities, seniors, and uses of public transportation.

1 Associated Press / MSNBC, June 20, 2008, "New Calif. cars to sport greenhouse gas labels,"
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25284062 (last accessed on April 24, 2009)