ClimatePlan statements following the California Transportation Commission’s approval of six highway expansion projects (Sacramento, Calif - June 27, 2025) The CTC yesterday approved over $600 million in SB 1 funding for highway expansion projects across the state that will increase driving, worsen congestion, and exacerbate the climate crisis. With the backdrop of the federal administration attacking California’s climate authority, this decision by the CTC reinforces status quo highway investment despite urgent calls from climate and equity advocates in the ClimatePlan Network for investment in climate and community-supported solutions. Jeanie Ward-Waller, director of ClimatePlan, said: “Commissioners once again have bowed down to the flawed mythology that adding lanes to highways reduces traffic congestion, this time at a cost of over $600 million. Study after study, and our own experience, tell us that this strategy only brings more cars and more cost for people wasting hours and dollars sitting in traffic. The only relief from this traffic death spiral is to give people more options in the form of public transportation, bike lanes, and pedestrian walkways. We appreciate Commissioners Lugo, Mann, and Eliot asking valid questions about several egregious projects, but are frustrated that the final vote will continue California down the path of wasting more public dollars on boondoggle projects.”

California Transportation Commission is set to spend over $600 million dollars on projects that will worsen traffic and air quality. (Sacramento - June 18, 2025) A broad coalition of groups working in transportation and the environment today announced their opposition to six highway expansion projects slated to be awarded over $600M in state funding by the California Transportation Commission later this month. Awarding funding to these projects, the groups contend, is wasteful spending that will exacerbate long-term traffic congestion and lock Californians into expensive driving commutes at a time when state resources are being cut for public transit and other options for commuters who want to get off the roadways. “By awarding funds to these projects, the CTC is perpetuating the expensive myth that adding highway lanes relieves congestion, when decades of research and our own lived experience tells us that the opposite is true,” said Jeanie Ward-Waller, director of ClimatePlan. “There are better ways to spend our limited transportation dollars that will actually improve our quality of life and reduce climate emissions and harmful pollution in environmental justice communities.”

New Policy Analysis Shows State Transportation Departments are Key to Climate Progress and Consumer Savings An Unprecedented Network Emerges from Behind the Scenes to Keep Momentum Going on Transportation Reform in California Today, the Clean RIDES Network – a new, unprecedented network of more than 100 organizations uniting to support state leaders in advancing clean transportation – released a report analyzing the climate and consumer benefits of key policies the network is advancing in seven states, including California. “Californians know we can’t afford to keep widening freeways that worsen traffic and emissions through vulnerable communities and lock people into long, expensive driving commutes. We are collaborating with other state and national advocates through the Clean RIDES Network to increase state transportation investment in public transit, walking, and bicycling to give Californians safe, healthy and more affordable travel options.” - Jeanie Ward-Waller, Interim Director of ClimatePlan.