Research Brief: Mobility Safety for California’s Affordable Housing Residents: Co-locating Improvements

A new research brief, Mobility Safety for California’s Affordable Housing Residents: Co-locating Improvements, authored by UC Berkeley SafeTREC's Kyler Blodgett explores how California is rapidly building affordable housing, yet vulnerable road users who will live in these units are often left out of current policies and funding programs that link housing and transportation. This research brief explores the gap in the literature and California’s policy priorities related to residents’ mobility and housing. It then analyzes data for Alameda County, finding that approximately 40% of government-funded affordable developments are within 100 ft of the pedestrian High Injury Network. It concludes with recommendations for municipalities and funding agencies wishing to better connect mobility safety improvements with anticipated affordable housing developments.

The Gap

The California Department of Housing and Community Development two priority issues, over-commuting and housing and transportation affordability, do not address the critical question of whether California cities are co-locating housing developments with mobility safety upgrades to ensure that the new residents at a given site can navigate their neighborhood safely when walking, biking, or using a wheelchair.

Unique active transportation needs for key resident populations

Because of state funding incentives and set-asides, many affordable developments target one of a few resident types: seniors, families (including children), and “Special Needs” residents with mental or cognitive disabilities. Each of these groups has unique mobility safety challenges.

Based on income alone, affordable housing residents are likely to have different travel patterns from their middle and upper income counterparts:

• Low-income households with cars take nearly 15% more walking trips and 33% more cycling trips per week than higher-income households (Ghimire and Bardaka, 2023).

Current Practice

Currently, most housing development projects incorporate mobility safety in one of a few ways:

1. Some projects are required to do an environmental impact report under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which requires a traffic impact study with details on the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists. However, most new 100% affordable housing in California is exempt from the CEQA process. Furthermore, current law is clear that these studies can optionally consider the safety of vulnerable road users, including people using personal assistive mobility devices and unhoused people, but do not have to.
2. Current planning code provides for certain street safety measures like minimum spacing, driveway placement, and curb cuts.
3. The jurisdiction may create a specific plan for the development to abide by, which includes enhanced mobility safety improvements.

Quantitative Case Study: Alameda County

• Nearly 60% of all affordable housing sites in Alameda County (176 of 303 sites) is within 500 feet of a high-injury street and 40% of affordable housing (119 of 303 sites) is within 100 feet of one.
• These percentages are slightly higher for affordable housing dedicated to vulnerable residents, which is worrisome given the unique mobility needs of the populations served.

Figure 1: Number of Affordable Housing Sites by proximity to the HIN (Alameda County)

What can cities and state agencies do to better link mobility safety improvements with anticipated affordable housing development?

Strengthen Mobility Safety-Related Objective Design Standards

Strengthening the mobility safety lens in objective design standards could do two things:

1. It could ensure that housing sites are developed according to mobility safety best practices.
2. If larger cities with staff capacity develop robust safety standards within their Objective Design Standards, these could be adapted by other jurisdictions that might not have the resources to do so themselves.

Emphasize Vulnerable Road User Safety Improvements in AHSC Scoring, in addition to VMT

Increasing the proportion of points related to pedestrian and bicyclist safety would better center mobility safety as a key part of housing project selection, and would formalize an incentive for developers and city partners to build out safe mobility infrastructure.

Connect Complete Streets Mandates with Affordable Housing Siting

In California, a jurisdiction’s Housing Element must now include locations for planned housing for the upcoming eight years. Municipalities could simultaneously prioritize these neighborhoods for complete streets upgrades to support mobility safety for residents.

Read the full research brief.

This research brief was prepared in cooperation with the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS). The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of OTS.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).