Accord­ing to Kevin Clax­ton of Cal­Bike, 2022 was a ban­ner year for bike and pedes­tri­an advo­ca­cy in Cal­i­for­nia. Among the biggest suc­cess­es:

• The largest-ever invest­ment in active trans­porta­tion projects
• Major leg­isla­tive wins for bike and pedes­tri­an safe­ty
• Many bike advo­cates won elec­tion to the state leg­is­la­ture
• Devel­op­ment of a statewide elec­tric bike rebate pro­gram slat­ed to begin in 2023

Clax­ton points out that despite the good news, the state could do more to pro­mote safe streets. “Cities and towns under­stand that safe streets for all modes are essen­tial for cre­at­ing liv­able, sus­tain­able com­mu­ni­ties. It’s time for the state to under­stand that too, and devote more mon­ey to bike­ways and less to free­ways,” Clax­ton writes.

The source arti­cle links to a leg­isla­tive recap of bike-relat­ed leg­is­la­tion, and explains the effect of some bills passed this year. Most notably, “The Free­dom to Walk Act pre­vents police from issu­ing jay­walk­ing tick­ets unless the per­son was endan­ger­ing them­selves or oth­ers. That will elim­i­nate unnec­es­sary and often biased tick­et­ing that impacts dis­ad­van­taged com­mu­ni­ties the most.”