California will fail to reach its legally-required GHG reduction targets unless we reduce traffic by about a third. Fortunately, that is very, very possible to do: we just have to make our government actually want to do it.
Something big has happened over the past few decades in Paris & its suburbs: Car use has declined dramatically.
Some key explanations:
—Large reductions in car-centric street space
—Vast investments in noncar transport modes
I investigate @urbaninstitute.bsky.socialwww.urban.org/urban-wire/h...
My conspiracy brain says there's no e-bike rebate because that'll increase the volume of demands for bike infrastructure.
CA really sucks on this stuff which blows my mind because Sacramento has a phenomenal bike trail connecting the burbs along the river.
There is a teeny tiny ebike rebate for low income families that maybe finally is someday rolling out. There isn't more because Sac politicians all have car brain and don't think this is worth funding or else see it as for rich whites only, despite that being demonstrably wrong.
More importantly, there hasn't been a massive coordinated lobbying campaign for ebike rebates with very profitable industries and labor groups and enviros all on side together.
The rebate we have is bc some extra money existed and a member asked for it and so it got into the budget with not much fuss as a favor to that member.
