Call to Action: Let’s Push Key Regional Bikeways Across the Finish Line! Friday 09/24 @ 9AM.
Call to Action: Let’s Push Key Regional Bikeways Across the Finish Line!
WHAT: The SANDAG Board of Directors will consider a budget amendment to accept state and federal grant funding to complete the Howard, University, and Orange Bikeways, and a section of the Inland Rail Trail. These Bikeways are part of the Regional Bike Plan Early Action Program—a proposed network of 77 miles of high-quality bikeways adopted in 2013.
BikeSD and our partner organizations need you to show the Board you support bike infrastructure! Please call into the meeting urging SANDAG to approve this budget amendment, to continue making progress on a world-class network of bike lanes.
WHEN: Friday, 9/24 @ 9:00 (virtual)
HOW:
- Attend the zoom meeting, here: https://zoom.us/j/92375925148
- Detailed instructions on the agenda, here.
- Click the ‘raise hand’ function when item 13 is called.
RECOMMENDED TALKING POINTS (Choose a few, or make them your own! Comments will likely be limited to 2 minutes.)
- Hi, my name is [NAME] with [ORGANIZATION – optional], calling in SUPPORT of today’s action to fund bikeways on Howard, University, and Orange, and the Inland Rail Trail.
- Thank you to SANDAG staff and Board for working hard to make significant progress on the Regional Bike Plan Early Action Program (EAP).
- It is clear that this funding is urgently needed. Eight years into this program, less than 14 of the 77 proposed miles are open to the public.
- However, the Bike Early Action Program needs change:
- Process Improvements: EAP projects should not take 10 years to complete. We urge you to identify ways to expedite the process of bike project delivery, and keep costs contained.
- Prioritization: Prioritize future investments in bike infrastructure in historically underinvested Communities of Concern, with the least access to safe and sustainable transportation choices.
- Expand the Network: Complete the planned EAP network as soon as possible, and then commit to expanding the network to ensure the City of San Diego’s Climate Action Plan 2035 mode shift target for biking is achieved.
- I SUPPORT this budget amendment because (pick your favorite(s)):
- Vision Zero: Cyclists’ deaths are tragic and avoidable. A safe network of bike lanes is essential to saving lives.
- Transportation Justice: Communities of color and low-income communities have the least access to safe and sustainable mobility options.
- Climate Action: Transportation accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions than any other sector by far. To stop the climate crisis, we must get people out of their fossil fuel cars and into sustainable modes of travel, ASAP.
- Clean Air: San Diego is home to some of the most polluted neighborhoods in the state, largely due to cars and trucks. To secure cleaner air, especially for environmental justice communities, we need safe, protected infrastructure so more people can choose to go by bike.
- Access to Jobs: San Diegans should not have to rely on a car to move around the region and access their daily needs. We need a bike network with better access to the region’s job centers.
- Thank you for prioritizing safe bike lanes.