It has already been an exciting 2025 legislative session for supporters of bike highways. The Bike Highways Bill, AB 954, introduced by Asm. Steve Bennett (D-Ventura), made its way through the Assembly beating the calendar deadline by just a couple of days. Now, CalBike is urging supporters to write to the Senate Transportation Committee Chair Dave Cortese (D-San Jose) asking him to move the legislation.
The action alert has over 1,250 supporters.
For anyone unfamiliar with the bike highway concept, they are a type of infrastructure that is exactly what they sound like: a high-quality separated bikeway designed for long-distance, commuter-focused cycling.
“There is huge support for the Bike Highways Bill from CalBike members, which tells me there’s a need for safe, connected, protected bikeways that help more people get more places by bike,” explains Jared Sanchez, the policy director for CalBike. “We see this bill as an important first step toward building out our state’s bike infrastructure into a true, regional transportation network.”
Bennet recently accepted amendments that will make the bill more likely to pass a state senate worried about the budget during expected lean years. The original version of the legislation would have created two regional bikeway network pilots, testing the impact of bike highways on transportation mode shift.
The current version doesn’t go as far. Instead of funding a pair of bike highways, it now adds a definition of bike highways to state planning documents, making it possible for government bodies to develop and fund their own programs or for the legislature to take up bike highways again in a future session. CalBike still sees AB 954 as a key step to making bike highways a reality on the ground in California.
