February 21, 20147 Comments on Bicycle tax legislation introduced in California
California State Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) yesterday introduced a bill that would authorize local governments to impose, as a special tax, a point of sale tax on new bicycles.
February 19, 20143 Comments on San Jose District 1 candidate for safe streets
First a bit of trivial trivia: I briefly majored in Political Science in college, and I’m still fascinated with the drama of politics.
The current San Jose District 1 Supervisor, Pete Constant, terms out after this year. Of the several people running to replace him in this mostly suburban district, one has distinguished herself with an understanding of transportation issues affecting her district and the city of San Jose.
February 12, 20141 Comment on California legislator proposes new rules for vehicular cell phone use
California Assembly member Jim Frazier (D-Antioch) yesterday introduced a bill to increase education on cell phone use and stiffen penalties for those who are caught using a cell phone while driving.
AB 1646 would make these changes to California Vehicle Code:
AB 1646 follows on the heels of AB 1555, also introduced by Frazier. Under existing law, prosecuting drivers who cause “great bodily injury” while the motorist uses a cell phone can be difficult to prosecute, with violators often receiving a $20 citation and not much more. AB 1555 changes the California penal code to explicitly make driving with an electronic device prosecutable as the crime of vehicular manslaughter.
According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, cellphone use while driving is now the leading cause of “driver distraction” crashes in California and has been shown to be as dangerous as drunk driving. The California Police Chief Association and the Peace Officers Research Association of California support AB 1555 as efforts to improve highway safety.
Frazier introduced a bill in 2013 to eliminate the hands-free device exception available for drivers under California law. AB 313 died in committee last May.
February 3, 20141 Comment on Anthony Weiner rides a bicycle
Anthony Weiner is the New York politican who is perhaps best known for the infamous sexting scandal that led to his resignation from the U.S. House of Representative in 2011.
Before he resigned, Weiner further embroiled himself in controversy when he told then-mayor Michael Bloomerg that he would “have a bunch of ribbon-cuttings tearing out your **** bike lanes” when he became mayor of New York City after Bloomberg’s term ended. Weiner lost the mayor’s race to Bill De Blasio last year.
Then last week, Weiner posted this photo of himself riding a bike to his Facebook page with the caption: “The President is right. Lots of ways to make the tax code more fair. How about increasing the credit for employers who make it easier for workers to bike to work?”
January 3, 20145 Comments on 7 MIND BLOWING BIKE PREDICTIONS FOR 2014 THAT WILL ROCK YOUR WORLD
Made you look! That headline is partly a joke, partly an experiment, and partly a commentary on this trend of stupidly hyperbolic click bait.
It started with a joke and experiment by Calgary Herald reporter and bike blogger Tom Babin, who tweeted two different headlines for the same story on winter cycling in Calgary. The below tweets are reverse chronology, i.e. read from bottom to top:
Then, Bike Hugger’s D.L. Byron snarked on the overuse of hype for “viral” marketing.
But now, on to the predictions. Bike writer Elly Blue posts her predictions to her “Everyday Rider” at Bicycling Magazine. She believes “the Velo Revolution is happening, and it’s a going to be a real game changer in the US over the next 12 months.”
I’m particularly interested in her fourth prediction because of a major election coming up this year for California’s third largest city: “Bike advocates will be elected.” San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed terms out this year, and six people have filed to run in this June’s election. Two candidates — Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese and San Jose Council Member Sam Liccardo — are aggressively courting the bike vote with plenty of glad-handing at diverse bike events.
Pierluigi Oliverio and Rose Herrera have also made appearances at several bike events and voted in favor of bike projects over the past three years. Retired police officer Pete Constant, the only GOP candidate, rides a bike, but he’s historically been critical of bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements for San Jose and has repeatedly nixed traffic calming projects in the district he represents. Madison Nguyen is an unknown to me when it comes to cycling. Former council member Forrest Williams, who also says he plans to run, has been supportive of downtown San Jose bike projects.
Measure B — the pension reform measure backed by the current mayor and council and passed by city voters in 2012 — is a bugbear for those on the current council running for mayor. The police union in particular denounced Oliviero, Liccardo, Herrera and Constant for their support for pension reform. The police union even forced Constant to resign from the union.
Oliviero, Cortese and Liccardo would do the most for cycling in San Jose. With San Jose’s city manager form of government, power belongs to whoever in city government can take it. Cortese and Oliviero are both perhaps a little too nice and easy-going to get their way. Liccardo is friendly and good at consensus building, but he’s also the type of guy who focuses on a task and works to achieve it. I also suspect Liccardo has his eyes on higher office in the near future.
Other 2014 elections
Governor Jerry Brown is eligible to run for his fourth term as California governor. If he runs, Brown right now is expected to easily retake the office, though anything can happen between now and November.
The real action takes place in the legislature. We’ll have elections in all 80 state assembly districts and half of our state senate districts. We’ll also have elections for our 53 U.S. House of Representative seats. I’m sure Dave Snyder and his team at the California Bicycle Coalition are working up voter guides for these elections. Candidates for all of these elections will be selected on June 3, so go register to vote already!
What elections are happening in your part of the world? Are any viable candidates known for their bike advocacy?
December 12, 20131 Comment on Bikes on platform of Florida gubernatorial candidate
