BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: ab 2147
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: M. perez
VERSION: 5/3/10
Analysis by: Jennifer Gress FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 22, 2010
SUBJECT:
Safe Routes to School Program (SR2S)
DESCRIPTION:
This bill adds "benefit to disadvantaged communities" and "use
of a public participation process" to the list of factors that
the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) must
consider when evaluating grant proposals for the state SRTS
program.
ANALYSIS:
In 1999, AB 1475 (Soto), Chapter 663, established the state Safe
Routes to School program, the first in the nation, for the
construction of bicycle and pedestrian safety and traffic
calming projects that improve safety and promote walking and
bicycling to school.
In 2005, the federal transportation bill, the Safe, Accountable,
Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for
Users (SAFETEA-LU), established a federal Safe Routes to School
program.
The state and federal programs are both administered by Caltrans
but, because the two programs are subject to different
requirements under state and federal laws, they are administered
as separate programs. This bill makes changes only to the state
program.
In administering the state program, Caltrans determines how much
will be made available to each of Caltrans' 12 districts in
proportion to the number of students enrolled in Kingergarten
through the 12th grade with no district receiving less than
AB 2147 (M. PEREZ) Page 2
$500,000 per funding cycle. State law permits "local
governmental agencies" to submit applications, though Caltrans
restricts applicants to cities and counties. Cities and
counties must work collaboratively with other local partners,
including school officials and community stakeholders, to
develop project proposals. The Caltrans district office ranks
each proposal it receives and forwards the top ranked proposals
to Caltrans headquarters for final approval.
Proposals are rated on the following factors:
Demonstrated needs of the applicant.
Potential of the proposal to reduce child injuries and
fatalities.
Potential of the proposal to increase walking and bicycling
among students.
Identification of safety hazards.
Identification of current and potential walking and bicycling
routes to school.
Consultation and support for projects by school-based
associations, local traffic engineers, local elected
officials, law enforcement agencies, school officials, and
other relevant community stakeholders.
This bill adds to the list of factors that Caltrans must use to
rank project proposals "use of a public participation process"
and "benefit to a disadvantaged community."
The bill defines "disadvantaged community" as a community with
an annual median household income that is less than 80 percent
of the statewide annual median household income.
The bill also articulates the conditions that the public
participation process must meet, which include:
Involving the public, schools, parents, teachers, local
agencies, the business community, key profesionals, and
others.
Identifying community priorities and gathers community
input to guide the development of projects.
Securing support for the project by relevant community
stakeholders.
COMMENTS:
AB 2147 (M. PEREZ) Page 3
1.Purpose . According to the author, the intent of the bill
is to ensure equitable access to SR2S funds. The bill
achieves this by making changes to the criteria used to
evaluate project proposals. Specifically, the bill
requires Caltrans to give priority to proposals that
benefit low-income, disadvantaged communities. The bill
also gives community residents a stronger role in the
development of SR2S project proposals by giving extra
points to applicants who work with parents and community
residents to develop and prioritize projects.
While SR2S has been a popular and effective program, its
guidelines do not currently target resources to
disadvantaged communities. As a result, schools that
serve low-income students are often unable to enjoy the
benefits of this program.
The author states that disadvantaged communities,
particularly those in unincorporated and rural areas,
frequently lack basic infrastructure. Sidewalks, storm
drains, stoplights, and other similar infrastructure may
be missing or in disrepair. Walking and biking in these
communities can be unsafe and thousands of child
pedestrians are hit in California each year as a result.
Today less than 15 percent of children walk or bicycle to
school and 20 percent are considered overweight or obese.
When children are unable to walk or bicycle to school, the
chances of becoming obese and developing associated health
problems increase. The author asserts that expanding
opportunities for physical activity is a critical
component of the solution and ensuring that children can
safely walk and bicycle to school is one way to accomplish
this.
Furthermore, the SR2S program does not currently have a
clearly established local engagement process.
Disadvantaged communities in many parts of the state often
do not have a mechanism to voice their concerns or to have
their needs met. Existing public processes are not used
effectively to gather community input on proposed projects
and ensure that community priorities and school
AB 2147 (M. PEREZ) Page 4
transportation concerns are reflected in proposals. The
bill helps to remedy this by including public
participation as one of the factors by which project
proposals shall be evaluated.
2.Too early to tell . Children living in low-income
neighborhoods experience higher rates of pedestrian injury and
obesity than children who live in higher-income areas. Given
the documented success of the SR2S program in increasing
walking and bicycling to school, this bill may be an important
step towards ensuring that low-income schools and communities
are able to access and benefit from SR2S grant funding. It is
not clear, however, the extent to which low-income communities
are unable to access SR2S funds or what specific barriers they
face in developing and implementing successful projects under
California's SR2S program.
To address these issues, in February of this year, Governor
Schwarzenegger directed Caltrans to take specific actions to
increase support for low-income schools and communities that
participate in the SR2S program. These actions included:
Determining the socioeconomic status (SES) of current
and past SR2S program participants and determining the
appropriate level of participation among these school and
communities.
Completing a review of funding practices in other
programs that have been effective in securing high
participation levels from low-SES schools and communities.
This analysis is due July 1 of this year. The governor also
directed Caltrans to revise its funding priorities and
criteria, based on its findings, in order to increase
participation in SR2S among low-SES, disadvantaged schools and
communities, which Caltrans has committed to do.
Without the benefit of that analysis now, it is difficult to
assess the implications of the changes proposed by this bill
versus other policy options. For example, rather than giving
priority to projects that serve low-income communities, which
could have the effect of granting funding to less efficacious
projects, a different approach might be to establish a
set-aside for low-income schools or to distribute funds in
proportion to the number of low-income students in a district.
AB 2147 (M. PEREZ) Page 5
Absent a better understanding of how low-income communities
fare under the current program, it is simply unclear how best
to revise it to improve the outcomes for low-income
communities.
1.Definition of "disadvantaged community. " Because the focus
on the SR2S program is increasing walking and bicycling to
school, the author or committee may wish to consider an
amendment to focus on low-income schools rather than
disadvantaged communities. What constitutes a community's
boundaries can sometimes be unclear and thus include
households or even whole neighborhoods that a target school
does not serve. The Safe Routes to School National
Partnership is advocating that the federal transportation bill
include a requirement that state departments of transportation
analyze the extent to which low-income schools are applying
for and being granted SR2S funds. In its policy framework,
the Safe Routes to School National Partnership defines a
low-income school as one in which 65 percent or more of
students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Nationwide, this
would cover approximately 25 percent of all schools. To
better support the development of projects that will affect
low-income youth walking and bicycling to school, the author
or committee may wish to consider an amendment that would
replace "disadvantaged community" with "low-income school" and
define the latter as a school in which 65 percent or more of
students qualify for the federal free or reduced lunch
program.
2.Eligibility of school districts to apply . State and federal
laws enacting their respective SR2S programs permit schools
districts to apply for funds. Caltrans, however, does not
permit school districts to apply for funds under the state
program. One concern raised by the sponsors is that the
process for proposing SR2S projects occurs in some communities
through a top-down process driven by an engineer situated
within a government agency. Allowing school districts to
apply may help to broaden interest and participation in the
SR2S program and strengthen the position of schools that would
like to propose projects. The original intent of the SR2S
program was to provide funding for projects that encourage
kids to walk and bicycle to school and to enable kids who are
already walking and bicycling to do so more safely. The
groups that are involved in implementing these kinds of
programs are often school districts and community groups. As
a result, those groups are well-positioned to understand which
AB 2147 (M. PEREZ) Page 6
projects will provide the greatest benefit. For this reason,
the author or committee may wish to consider an amendment to
clarify that school districts are eligible to apply for funds
under the state SR2S program.
3.SR2S program statistics . To date, the SR2S program has
completed eight cycles, beginning in 2000-2001, with
approximately $24.25 million made available each year.
Through the current fiscal year, Caltrans has received 3,820
applications and awarded 815 projects statewide at a total
cost of over $ 244 million. The projects awarded throughout
the state, in all 12 Caltrans districts and in both urban and
rural areas, have funded five basic types of infrastructure
improvements: sidewalk installation and upgrading, traffic
calming and speed reduction measures, traffic signal
installation, pedestrian and bicycle crossing improvements,
and construction of bicycle paths and other bicycle
facilities. Requests for funding have exceeded available
resources in each year the program has been administered,
funding an average of 21.3 percent of projects that applied
for funding over the past eight cycles.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 58-16
Appr: 12-2
Trans: 11-1
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
June 16, 2010)
SUPPORT: California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
(co-sponsor)
PolicyLink (co-sponsor)
Binacional Center for the Development of the
Oaxacan Indigenous Communities Center
California Food Policy Advocates
California Pan-Ethnic Health Network
California State PTA
Central Valley Partnership for
Citizenship
Ceres Partnership for Healthy Children
Community Prevention of Alcohol & Drug
Related Problems
East Yard Communities
Fresno Metro Ministry
AB 2147 (M. PEREZ) Page 7
Organizacion en California de Lideres
Campesinas, Inc.
Poder Popular of the Coachella Valley
Prevention Institute
San Joaquin Valley Latino
Environmental Advancement Project
Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food
and Activity Environments
The City Project
TransForm
Urban Habitat
OPPOSED: None received.