Departing Bike Coalition Executive Director Made the Community a Priority
Kathy Keehan—one of the most effective bicycle advocates in the history of San Diego—will be stepping down today from her role as the Executive Director of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition (SDCBC) which she held for over a decade.
Whether directly or indirectly, whether knowingly or unknowingly, bicyclists’ quality of life throughout the region has been and will continue to be improved as a result of Kathy’s work. For instance, Kathy’s latest major achievement was working closely with SANDAG to secure $2.6 billion in bicycle and pedestrian funding over the next 40 years! That’s $50 million per year for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and programs!
It’s true that Kathy didn’t make this happen on her own. Help was provided by SANDAG staff, the Transportation Committee, the SANDAG”s Board of Directors, certain elected officials, the bicycle community, and the many multitudes of bicycle commuters whose ridership which made it evident that bicycling is a legitimate commute mode. But anyone who knows Kathy knows that she’s a whip-smart, charismatic leader, a skilled negotiator, a great listener, and a convincing communicator with an impressive wit and a sense of humor to match. There’s no doubt that Kathy played a huge role in securing the RTP money for infrastructure that we cyclists deserve. She was at every SANDAG Transportation Committee and Board of Directors meeting standing up for cyclists to ensure that we got the funding we needed.
Every day in San Diego there’s a planning-related meeting that takes place where decisions that affect our lives as cyclists are being made. Kathy was the person who showed up to every single meeting she possibly could to offer a voice for cyclists, to ensure that we continued to be a part of that conversation, and to dissuade choices that would marginalize us and/or put our lives in unnecessary risk.
While Kathy offered a credible, fact-based, and reasonable voice to elected officials, planners, and other decision-makers, she never lost touch with the bicycle community that she committed to serve. In fact, the community was a priority for Kathy. When I first met Kathy nearly 4 ½ years ago at the Velodrome Swap Meet, her response to a flier I handed her for a transnational group ride to Tijuana that I had started was “This sounds amazing. I want to be a part of this.”
(Kathy never lost touch with community. Pictured here (far right) at a San Diego Bike Meeting in 2007, Kathy spoke about our rights to the road).
Since that time, Kathy and I have collaborated on a number of projects while communicating an average of twice a week. Kathy was there when I invited her to the San Diego Bike Meeting in 2007 (photo above). She was there for a memorial for my friend who died after colliding with a truck at Park and University. She was there for a bike commute brunch at City College I helped organize, a planning meeting in North Park, Uptown, the Urban Core, and really, anywhere. Kathy was always there willing and ready to work with the bicycle community. Her dynamic style allowed her to communicate with an open mind to anyone about bicycling.
Kathy always had a positive attitude, her judgment was impeccable and trusted, and she was outspoken. Kathy was often the first or one of the first few people to speak up at large group meetings or presentations to initiate a conversation.
A number of accomplishments that Kathy had a hand in, include:
-Infrastructure improvements including the Bayshore Bikeway, San Diego River, Lake Hodges Bridge to the SR-56 bike path, Sorrento Valley Road reservation for bicycle and pedestrians only, bicycle lanes and sharrows in Oceanside and San Diego.
-Increasing the Coalition’s operating budget from $8,000 to $150,000.
-The Education component reached thousands of people in the last five years, and will reach thousands more through with the new Health Matters Bike To Work campaign she secured from SANDAG.
I wish Kathy the best on her new job with the Air Pollution Control District. If I was the Air Pollution Control District I’d try to hire her, too. Her new job starts Friday, but, according to Kathy, she’ll still be able to help answer questions, help train the new Executive Director, and be a resource until the new person gets settled in. In terms of bicycle advocacy, this definitely won’t be the last of Kathy. As she mentioned, she’ll still be riding, be active in the community, and once the new Executive Directors gets settled in, she may run for a Board of Director position with the SDCBC down the road. When I asked her whether she’d consider running for political office, she responded:
Doesn’t everyone consider running for political office? I’ve spent a lot of time on the ‘public speaker’ side of the table and have often been envious of the people on the elected official side who actually get to make the decisions. But I don’t have any plans at the moment to run.
Whether she runs for office or not, Kathy has already made our lives as cyclists better in one way or another.
Thank you, Kathy!