STAR has signed on to a statewide transportation letter to the state Senate and Assembly, opposing the currently introduced transportation bills (SB 1 and AB 1) unless they are amended to provide more funding for transit, walking, and bicycling. SB 1 passed the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, and is going to the Environmental Quality Committee on February 22. AB 1 has not been scheduled for a committee hearing yet, but soon will be.

The letter asks for an amendment to “Dramatically increase sustainable funding for operating public transit and reducing fares, to provide high quality, efficient transit service especially for low-income individuals and families.” Four other points include social and economic justice, greenhouse gas reduction, composition of the California Transportation Commission (which makes the decisions on transportation projects that get funded), and CEQA.

Though the bill drafts do move the needle slightly towards transit, walking and bicycling, they largely continue the failed model of allocating most of our transportation investments toward supporting privately owned motor vehicles. STAR strongly believes that only a reorientation towards transit, walking and bicycling will achieve livable communities and a reduction of climate harm. In the Sacramento region and with SacRT, transit operations is underfunded, and we continue to spend far, far more on motor vehicles than on people who walk and bicycle.

The letter to the Assembly Transportation Committee can be viewed here, though this version is from just before STAR signed on.

• transportation funding