California has Ambitious climate goals: By 2045, the country hopes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85%, natural gas consumption by 94%, and air pollution by 71%. this largest source of greenhouse gas emissions California’s transportation sector, in which passenger vehicles account for the largest share.
Curbing pollution from passenger vehicles will not be easy. If the country invests in the wrong infrastructure, these goals may become impossible. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal would be a major shift in the wrong direction.
The state is facing a huge budget shortfall, needing to cover a deficit of approximately $45 billion. The governor proposes to do this through deep cuts and reallocations, including transfers Active transportation program provides approximately $600 millionencouraging cycling and walking towards future motorway plans.
Why are we cutting the state’s most climate-friendly transportation program and spending that money on highway projects that will make climate change and traffic congestion worse?
State governments spend approximately $33 billion annually on transportation, more than ever before. More than half of that ($18 billion) went to the California Department of Transportation, which is spending billions to widen highways—a short-term strategy that we know from experience will only exacerbating traffic congestion Crowding and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Nonetheless, according to A recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Councilthe bulk of the state’s transportation spending remains on projects that increase greenhouse gas emissions, particularly highway widening.
In addition to routinely approving new highway widening projects, the California Transportation Commission is responsible for implementing the state’s most climate-friendly transportation initiative— active transportation plan. It funds projects such as bike lanes and pedestrian safety improvements. A Report The program said last year that it “remains oversubscribed and is becoming increasingly competitive with each cycle.” In other words, cities desperately need resources to make streets safer and more bike-friendly and pedestrian-friendly — and help people Leave the car at home for some trips – but local driving alternatives increasingly have to compete with each other for the country’s resources.
These climate-friendly, life-saving, politically popular Projects should not be fighting for scraps of the transportation budget.
We will fail to meet our climate goals Only by converting gasoline-powered cars to electric vehicles; us also A large number of daily journeys in our cities must be converted to public transport, cycling or walking – this is what active transport schemes help to achieve. We must also do this to build safer streets. In Los Angeles, a pedestrian is injured every five hours and a pedestrian is killed every two days, One of the highest rates in the country.
Instead, we continue to fund highway expansion unabated. In February, the Transportation Committee approved a hundreds of millions of dollars to expand Highway 15. Objections of some committee members. This month, the committee officially recognized The controversial expansion of Interstate 80 between Davis and Sacramento would also cost hundreds of millions of dollars — the equivalent of all Fund active transportation plans through 2023.
The Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee, led by climate advocate and chairman Sen. Scott Weiner, is likely to reject proposed cuts to active transportation. If so, it’s critical that Los Angeles-area Councilman Jesse Gabriel, who chairs the Assembly Budget Committee, also come on board. Both the Senate and Assembly would need to overturn the governor’s proposal.
Earlier this month, the same week Newsom visits VaticanFrancis explain: “Climate change is a road to death right now.” In California, we seem hell-bent on making sure our roads have as much car capacity as possible before we hit the wall of climate change.
Michael Schneider is the founder of the company everyone’s street.
