AB1976 - Streets and highways: pedestrian and bicycle facilities.

Amended IN Senate August 21, 2026 Amended IN Senate June 17, 2026 Amended IN Assembly May 21, 2026 Amended IN Assembly April 27, 2026 Amended IN Assembly April 09, 2026 Amended IN Assembly March 19, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 1976 Introduced by Assembly Member Wicks February 13, 2026 An act to amend Section 21080.25 of the Public Resources Code, and to add Sections 992, 993, 994, 1814, 1815, and 1816 to the Streets and Highways Code, relating to streets and highways. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1976, as amended, Wicks. Streets and highways: pedestrian and bicycle facilities. (1) Existing law grants the legislative body of a city certain powers with respect to city streets and highways, including the power to construct and maintain those streets and highways. Existing law grants the board of supervisors of a county general supervision, management, and control of county highways and authorizes the board of supervisors to lay out, construct, improve, and maintain county highways. This bill would prohibit a city or county from holding a community input meeting to reconsider, delay, or prevent implementation of a proposed pedestrian or bicycle safety project after that project has passed 90% design, as specified. After or upon the award of a contract for, or when county or city staff, as applicable, are directed to begin, the construction of a pedestrian or bicycle safety project, the bill would prohibit the city or county from terminating the project unless the city or county makes at least one specified finding at a public meeting. If a city or county establishes a process for residents of the city or county to submit a petition to request the installation of a traffic-calming measure, the bill would prohibit the city or county from requiring the petition to contain the signatures of more than a majority of the total number of persons whose residences are located, in whole or in part, within 1,000 feet of the proposed traffic-calming measure, as specified. To the extent that the bill increases the duties of local officials, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. (2) Existing law, the Pedestrian Mall Law of 1960, authorizes the legislative body of a city or county to establish a pedestrian mall, as defined, and prohibit vehicular traffic on the mall, upon adoption of an ordinance establishing the mall. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA, until January 1, 2040, exempts from its requirements certain transportation-related projects, including, among others, pedestrian and bicycle facilities, as specified. CEQA requires, except as provided, those exempted projects to be carried out by a local agency and meet certain requirements, including certain labor requirements. This bill would exempt from the requirements of CEQA the establishment or expansion of a pedestrian mall and would require those projects to comply with the above-described requirements applicable to those exempted CEQA projects. (3) The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities, including charter cities. (4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YES Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (1) California’s laws and policies underscore the importance of reducing automobile dependence, and increasing walking, bicycling, and transit use, to create more sustainable, healthy, and affordable communities. However, this mode shift is not yet consistently expressed across, and aligned with, state policies. (2) People who are walking or bicycling are killed or seriously injured in California at much higher rates than drivers and passengers of cars based on their percentage of trips and relative miles traveled, and these disproportionate rates are increasing each year. (3) Underserved communities, including low-income communities and communities of color, lack safe streets, bicycle lanes, and sidewalks. In many cases, underserved communities also lack access to private vehicles, are dependent on shared rides or public transit, or simply lack any reliable transportation options. As a result, these communities experience higher rates of traffic fatalities and serious injuries, chronic disease related to air pollution, and the lack of safe physical activity. (4) Timely delivery of improvements for bicycle, pedestrian, federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 12101 et seq.), and transit-priority facilities is essential to achieving state safety, climate, equity, and mobility goals. However, duplicative or overly burdensome procedural requirements can unnecessarily delay projects that are designed primarily to enhance safety and accessibility within the existing public right-of-way. (5) State law governing transportation has evolved incrementally over decades, resulting in a patchwork of procedures, enforcement authorities, liability standards, and eligibility requirements that are often inconsistent, outdated, or misaligned with current safety, climate, and equity objectives. (6) Outdated or unnecessarily rigid procedural requirements can delay or prevent the implementation of safety improvements, multimodal infrastructure, pedestrian-oriented public spaces, and community-based transportation programs that are supported by established engineering practice and public policy. (b) It is therefore the intent of the Legislature to align state law with California’s adopted safety, climate, equity, and mobility goals by modernizing statutes governing enforcement, project delivery, public engagement processes, and establishment and management of pedestrian- and bicycle-priority public spaces. SEC. 2. Section 21080.25 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 21080.25. (a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply: (1) “Affordable housing” means any of the following: (A) Housing that is subject to a recorded covenant, ordinance, or law that restricts rents or sales prices to levels affordable, as defined in Section 50052.5 or 50053 of the Health and Safety Code, to persons and families of moderate, lower, or very low income, as defined in Section 50079.5, 50093, or 50105 of the Health and Safety Code, respectively. (B) Housing that is subject to any form of rent or price control through a public entity’s valid exercise of its police power. (C) Housing that had been occupied by tenants within five years from the date of approval of the development agreement by a primary tenant who was low income and did not leave voluntarily. (2) “Bicycle facilities” includes, but is not limited to, bicycle parking, bicycle sharing facilities, and bikeways as defined in Section 890.4 of the Streets and Highways Code. (3) “High-occupancy vehicle” means a vehicle with three or more occupants. (4) “Highway” means a way or place of whatever nature, publicly maintained and open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel. “Highway” includes a street. (5) “Local agency” means a public transit operator, city, county, city and county, special district, joint powers authority, local or regional transportation agency, or congestion management agency. (6) “Part-time transit lanes” means designated highway shoulders that support the operation of transit vehicles during specified times and are not open to nonpublic transit vehicles at any time. (7) “Pedestrian mall” means a pedestrian mall, as defined in Section 11006 of the Streets and Highways Code. (8) “Project labor agreement” has the same meaning as defined in paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 2500 of the Public Contract Code. (9) “Public transit operator” has the same meaning as “operator” in Section 99210 of the Public Utilities Code, or means a public entity that provides contracted paratransit services. (10) “Skilled and trained workforce” has the same meaning as provided in Chapter 2.9 (commencing with Section 2600) of Part 1 of Division 2 of the Public Contract Code. (11) “Transit lanes” means street design elements that delineate space within the roadbed as exclusive to transit use, either full or part time. (12) “Transit prioritization projects” means any of the following transit project types on highways or in the public right-of-way: (A) Signal and sign changes, such as signal coordination, signal timing modifications, signal modifications, or the installation of traffic signs or new signals. (B) The installation of wayside technology and onboard technology. (C) The installation of ramp meters. (D) The conversion to dedicated transit lanes, including transit queue jump or bypass lanes, shared turning lanes and turn restrictions, the narrowing of lanes to allow for dedicated transit lanes or transit reliability improvements, or the widening of existing transit travel lanes by removing or restricting street parking. (E) Transit stop access and safety improvements, including, but not limited to, the installation of bus shelters, lighting, transit bulbs, and the installation of transit boarding landings and islands. (13) “Transportation demand management program” means a specific program of strategies, incentives, and tools to be implemented, including, with specified annual status reporting obligations, to reduce vehicle trips by providing opportunities for the public to choose sustainable travel options, such as transit, bicycle riding, or walking. A specific program of strategies, incentives, and tools includes, but is not limited to, any of the following: (A) Provision of onsite electric vehicle charging stations in excess of applicable requirements. (B) Provision of dedicated parking for car share or zero-emission vehicles, or both types of vehicles, in excess of applicable requirements. (C) Provision of bicycle parking in excess of applicable requirements. (b) This division does not apply to any of the following projects: (1) Pedestrian and bicycle facilities that improve safety, access, or mobility, including new facilities, within the public right-of-way. (2) Projects that improve customer information and wayfinding for transit riders, bicyclists, or pedestrians within the public right-of-way. (3) Transit prioritization projects. (4) A project for the designation and conversion of general purpose lanes to high-occupancy vehicle lanes or bus-only lanes, or highway shoulders to part-time transit lanes, for use either during peak congestion hours or all day on highways with existing public transit service or where a public transit agency will be implementing public transit service as identified in a short-range transit plan. (5) (A) A public project for the protection, improvement, institution, or increase of microtransit, paratransit, shuttle, bus, ferry, bus rapid transit, or light rail service, including the protection, maintenance, construction, operation, or rehabilitation of stops, stations, terminals, or existing operations facilities, which will be exclusively used by zero-emission, near-zero-emission, low oxide of nitrogen engine, compressed natural gas fuel, fuel cell, or hybrid powertrain vehicles, rail or cable cars, rolling stock, or vessels. The project shall be located entirely within an existing public right-of-way or existing highway right-of-way, whether or not the right-of-way is in use for rail or public mass transit and is wholly within the boundaries of an urbanized area or urban cluster, as designated by the United States Census Bureau. (B) A public project otherwise identified in subparagraph (A) shall not apply to the exemption pursuant to this paragraph after January 1, 2032, if used primarily by near-zero-emission, low oxide of nitrogen engine, compressed natural gas fuel, or hybrid powertrain vehicles. This subparagraph shall not apply to a public project otherwise identified in subparagraph (A) used by articulated buses. (C) A public project for the construction or rehabilitation of a ferry terminal that a lead agency has submitted a notice of preparation for an environmental impact report pursuant to Section 21092 before January 1, 2026, shall not apply to the exemption pursuant to this paragraph. (D) A public project for transit services operated by a transportation network company, as defined in Section 5431 of the Public Utilities Code, shall not apply to the exemption pursuant to this paragraph, unless the services are operated by a microtransit provider contracted by the lead agency that uses a managed fleet of multipassenger vehicles dedicated to that service. (6) (A) A public project for the improvement, institution, or increase of passenger rail service, other than light rail service eligible under paragraph (5), including the maintenance, construction, or rehabilitation of stations, terminals, or existing operations facilities, that will be exclusively used by zero-emission trains or certified Tier 4 or cleaner rolling stock or locomotives, as provided in Section 1033.101 of Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The project shall be located entirely within an existing rail right-of-way or existing highway right-of-way, whether or not the right-of-way is in use for passenger rail transit. (B) A public project otherwise identified in subparagraph (A) shall not be eligible for the exemption pursuant to this paragraph if used by certified Tier 4 or cleaner rolling stock or locomotives that are not zero-emission rolling stock or locomotives and the project is located in an air basin designated as a serious, severe, or extreme nonattainment area for particulate matter and ozone. (7) (A) A public project to construct or maintain infrastructure or facilities to charge, refuel, power, or maintain zero-emission publi [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]