Candidate campaign page: http://www.richardbloom.com/
In 2015, incumbent Assembly Member Richard Bloom was honored with the first ever Streetsblog California Legislator of the Year “Streetsie” Award. As chair of the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Resources and Transportation, Bloom has been and continues to be an important leader at the state level for safer streets. Last year he co-authored AB 902, a new program that provides bicycling education as a diversion for traffic tickets for bicyclists. Bloom is championing a number of proposals to improve active transportation, including bills that would build environmental justice into transportation decision making, and which would provide permanent funding for the State’s Active Transportation Program. Bloom has done an excellent job promoting sustainability for Santa Monica, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Miracle Mile, and Malibu, and we are honored to endorse him for a third term in the California State Assembly.
(See below for Richard Bloom’s full Bike The Vote L.A. questionnaire response)
1. What is your opinion on the state of transportation options in your district? How would you improve street safety and transportation quality for your constituents who depend on walking, biking, or public transit?
Options are improving in AD 50, but are lacking in many other places in LA County. More public transit options, rapid expansion of an interoperable bikeshare system, deployment of bike priority signalization, expansion of safe routes to schools programs and adaptation of street infrastructure to better accommodate bikes and pedestrians is essential.
2. The California Air Resources Board estimates that transportation accounts for 37% of California’s 447 million metric tons of carbon emitted yearly. What actions would your office take to ensure that California creates a more sustainable transportation system?
I’ll continue to champion these issues with bills and budget proposals like the following:
AB 1002 – 2013 – Sustainable Communities fee. Would have created a $6 sustainable communities fee applied at the time of your car registration. All funds would go to promoting communities, planning and infrastructure that promoted pedestrian, alternative transportation and bicycle friendly communities and developments. – the bill was held in Assembly Approps.
AB 1314 – 2013 – Safe CNG Tank Protocols. would have created a statewide safety standard and inspection protocol for CNG fueled vehicles – was held in Asm. Transportation.
AB 1720 – 2014 – Clean Air bus exemptions. exempted clean air busses that were current in production from state gross axle weights as do to all the state and federal regulations would have made them illegal. The exemption was for one year, but was needed another for negotiations to finish with all the parties. – Signed by the Gov.
AB 902 – 2015 – Bicycle Violations Diversion programs. Requires cities and counties to come up for a first time offender bicycle traffic violation diversion program. The goal of the bill is to help education bicyclist on the rules of the road and bicycle safety. – Signed by the Gov.
AB 1098 – 2015 – Transportation Congestion Management. The bill would have created alternatives to Level of service standards as elements of congestion management with more pedestrian, bicycle and public transit friendly elements to promote healthier and cleaner practices. – Held in Asm. Transportation (but may come back in 2017!)
AB 1250 – 2015 – Gross Axle Weights for busses. This bill codifies an agreement with Caltrans, the federal department of transportations and local MTA’s on new standards for bus weights. Due to the increasing clean air and safety requirements busses have gotten to heavy and are damaging streets and roads. This bill in addition to codifying certain agreements also lays out a plan to eventually decrease the weights of the busses and provide some funds to cities for street and road maintenance. – Signed by the Gov.
AB 1964 – 2016 – Green HOV sticker extension – The bill would provide identifiers (Green stickers) issued for partial or transitional zero-emission vehicles on or after January 1, 2018, but before January 1, 2019, would be valid until January 1, 2021. The bill would provide that green stickers issued for those vehicles on or after January 1, 2019, would be valid until January 1 of the 3rd year after the year of issuance. AB 1964 will remove the limit of 85,000 green stickers for those vehicles, and would instead prohibit the Department of Motor Vehicles from issuing identifiers if the sale of new vehicles of that category reaches at least 8.6% of the total new car market share for 2 consecutive years, upon notification by the State Air Resources Board. – Still moving currently in Asm. Approps.
AB 1928 – California Transportation Commission Environmental Justice seats. This bill would require the CTC to create two new seats on the commission that would represent environmental justice community. Advocates feel that the CTC has done little for low income communities and have frequently ignored the needs of these communities in their mission. Bill is currently in Asm. Transportation.
AB 2796 – Active Transportation Program Funding. This bill will create permanent funding for ATP programs for the purpose of funding that benefit low income communities, children, and road safety. ATP programs promote pedestrian, bicycle and public transit programs. – Bill is currently in Asm. Transportation.
Co-author to SB 32 and fought to keep SB 350 intact.
Advocate for in budget process and Cap and trade funds:
Active Transportation Programs
Transit oriented affordable housing projects
Access to Public Transportation (funding of bus passes for local income students through Cap and Trade)
Clean air standards
Infrastructure – with a focus on how do we get people out of their cars
Safe Routes to schools
Local programs support:
Bike Share
The Expo Line and Expansion of the Purple Line
Funding of MTA projects for light rail and busses
Funding of Big Blue Projects
Opposed the recent ousting of the SCAQMD ED.
3. The Active Transportation Program (ATP) serves as the State’s sole dedicated funding source to provide and improve infrastructure for walking, biking, and Safe Routes to School programs. Though Caltrans’ 2015 Strategic Management Plan goal to triple bicycle trips by 2020, the fact remains that current funding levels have not been increased since the ATP was created. Do you support doubling ATP funding?
Yes.
4. Cap & trade funds offer a unique opportunity to prioritize sustainable transportation, particularly in low-income neighborhoods negatively affected by pollution, but are sometimes considered for use in highway expansion projects. Do you support use of cap and trade funds to expand vehicular roadway capacity? How should California use cap and trade funds to minimize transportation-based pollution in low-income neighborhoods, especially those in your district?
Yes. See above.
5. Hit and runs continue to be an immense problem in the Los Angeles region, with over 28,000 hit and run crimes reported in Los Angeles County in 2015 alone. Current California law actually incentivizes hit and run crimes due to the fact that penalties for fleeing the scene of a collision are less than that of a driving under the influence (DUI). Do you support bringing penalties for hit and run crimes in line with penalties for DUIs, and how would you address hit and run crimes more broadly?
Yes.
6. Bike Share systems are being implemented throughout California cities, but use fees and credit requirements often restrict lowincome residents and communities from using them. Do you support providing state funds to remove barriers for bike share as a transit option for low-income users?
Yes.