Bicyclists Join the Voice of San Diego to Share their Perspective
Two years ago a Voice of San Diego reporter, Keegan Kyle, revealed both his disdain for cyclists and his bias as a reporter when he made some not so subtle digs at critical mass and, thus, at cyclists.
Now with all eyes on San Diego as SANDAG scrambles to revamp their 2050 Regional Transportation Plan, the media outlets in San Diego appear to finally be understanding the significant role that the bicycle plays in the transportation sector, including how bicycling will be tremendously useful in solving our air pollution problems and our headaches with automobile based gridlock.
To that end, Voice San Diego has published a good selection of articles and opinion pieces to start a public conversation about the role the bicycle does and can play within our transportation sector:
- Fix San Diego: Bicycling and Bike Lanes : Grant Barrett, engagement editor for the Voice of San Diego, began the conversation on how San Diego ought to be fixed.
- Opinion: Making San Diego More Bike-ish: Grant then asked me about what I thought some first steps to making San Diego more bike friendly could be. I then shared some thoughts on how we could reach for some low hanging fruit.
- Specifically, Here's How Biking is Terrible in San Diego: Henry Rosen, a resident and bike commuter from Pacific Beach, then shared his thoughts on why he thought San Diego was one of the worst cities for bicycling. He listed some specific sections of the city that have long been neglected by San Diego.
- Decoding Secrets in San Diego's Transportation Future: VOSD reporter Adrian Florido wrote an article that delved deeper into SANDAG's supposed proprietary transportation model (built using public funds) that is being used to determine how our transportation sector for the next forty years will be built and funded. I suspect the assumptions made by SANDAG are flawed, but without knowing exactly what variables are used to make the forecast, it is difficult to know whether their assumptions are valid or reliable.
How Much Should SANDAG Spend on Bicycling?
In one of many follow-ups to the article on what the state attorney general’s rejection of SANDAG’s 2050 Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) means, today I will address the region’s transportation budget.
Last month the state attorney general issued a strongly worded letter rejecting SANDAG’s 2050 RTP. One of the first points of criticism was that SANDAG had failed to adequately address the impact that the 2050 RTP would have on the region’s already declining air quality problems. The air quality in San Diego is one of the worst in the country. Yet, the 2050 RTP lists plans to expand existing freeways without making equal or increasing investments to either transit or bicycling facilities. The many hundreds of miles of freeway expansion along with subsequent extensions are all destined to make the air pollution problem even worse. This is especially worrisome given that the state law that plays a significant role in determining future transportation policies requires a “reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and light trucks in [the] region.” Because the state’s transportation sector has contributed toward the declining air quality, an increasingly worse air quality would seriously affect the region’s ability to compete for federal transportation dollars required to build and maintain our transportation system in the future.
For fiscal year 2012 (July 2011 through June 2012), the total budget approved by SANDAG’s Board of Directors was $1.17 billion. Roughly 25% of this revenue is expected to come from federal resources and one that would be cut should San Diego’s air quality decline further, a point that was highlighted in the attorney general’s letter. The federal EPA, according to the state attorney general, is expected to further downgrade San Diego’s Air Basin for failing to meet federal ozone standards. In light of this, SANDAG should be doing everything it can to ensure that valuable transportation dollars do not taken away from us.
Most of the money that gets invested to promote and increase bicycling in the region comes from Transnet. This was a proposition originally passed in 1987 by San Diegan voters that provides a steady source of funding for all modes of transportation. This source of revenue was and is tied to the retail sector as the funds come from a portion of the local sales tax. In 2008, voters in San Diego county voted to extend the Transnet program for an additional 40 years thus providing the region the steady revenue stream that bicycling planners have grown to rely on to make bicycling an equitable mode of transportation.
However, only 2% of Transnet revenue is allocated for bicycle projects in the region. Bicycle infrastructure in San Diego county is thus funded from 2 percent of the total Transnet revenue which in turn is comprised of a one-half of one percent of the sales tax from retail transactions.
Below is a chart showing the explicit expenditures for the coming year. Bicycle projects is barely a sliver.
For the current fiscal year, the amount of money explicitly allocated toward bicycling translates into $4.5 million to be spent for bicyclists in the entire county. From an overall budget perspective, this translates into only 0.4% being allocated toward bicycling. However, some funds for bicycling do come from the Transportation Development Act funds. But in light of the amount of money being spent on continuing to ensure that only automobile travel is promoted, I for one am glad that the attorney general rejected SANDAG’s 2050 RTP and demanded that SANDAG do better.
Rather than a paltry 0.4%, SANDAG should be doing everything it can to spend at least 33% (divided between the automobile and transit sector) of its budget on bicycling. That 33% translates into over $386 million being spent in the region for this year alone. Imagine how quickly San Diego will then be able to meet both its air quality goals and compete on an international level for being a bicycling mecca. I can only hope that the SANDAG Board sees the tremendous value in ensuring that bicycling will become a strong contributor toward our economy and further make strides toward improving our collective health. Most importantly, ensuring that our transportation dollars are spent in an equitable manner will certainly help in allowing SANDAG's existing board to leave behind a legacy we and future San Diegans can all be proud of.
SANDAG Seeks Two Active Transportation Planners
The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) has announced an opening for two Active Transportation Planners. SANDAG is the region's primary public planning, transportation, and research agency. The job description is available at the SANDAG's website. Applications should be received by October 7th. The Active Transportation Planner's specific duties and responsibilities include:
Improving Active Transportation Options for the San Diego Region
Long range plans for the San Diego region include increasing mobility, reducing greenhouse gases, and improving public health by making bicycling and walking viable options for everyday travel. SANDAG has adopted several strategies in order to accomplish this vision – to create more walkable and bicycle-friendly communities consistent with good urban design concepts; to improve access to public transportation resources via bicycling and walking; to design and implement a distinctive regional bicycle system comprised of interconnected bicycle corridors, support facilities, and programs; and to further develop Safe Routes to School program initiatives.
SANDAG’s FY 2012 program budget includes goals and resources to begin implementation of regional bikeway projects and supporting programs from Riding to 2050: San Diego Regional Bicycle Plan (Bike Plan). Although many sections of the regional network have been completed, it is important to move toward an interconnected Class I network and provide additional facilities that bicyclists and pedestrians can use now. To complement the established Class I facilities, the regional network also will consist of on-street facilities that include bike lanes, bike boulevards, cycle tracks, and bike routes to create a comprehensive network that will serve the needs for all types of bicycle riders in the San Diego region.
For more details including how to apply, visit SANDAG's website.
State Attorney General Rejects SANDAG's Regional Transportation Plan for Being too Inadequate
Last Friday, the State’s Attorney General, Kamala Harris, rejected SANDAG’s 2050 Regional Transportation Plan for being far too inadequate in meeting the requirements set in the State’s Senate Bill 375 [pdf link]. This bill was signed into law in 2008 and was heralded as being one of the most important pieces of land use legislation since the California Coastal Act of 1976. SB 375 has been called an anti sprawl bill, but the specifics that relate to implementing effective strategies to promote, encourage and increase the number of bicyclists in the state are also encompassed in this law.
Specifically, the law calls for a “reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and light trucks in a region.” As such, the State’s Air Resources Board was designated as the governing body to set emission reduction targets for the automobile and light truck sector. SB 375 detailed that the California State Legislature had concluded that the state’s transportation sector was primarily responsible for poor air quality. This very transportation sector was responsible for 50 percent of air pollution in California, and 70 percent of its petroleum consumption. As such the law calls for transportation “mode splitting that allocates trips between automobile, transit, carpool, and bicycle and pedestrian trips.” The law specifically requires state transportation agencies to forecast how they intend to increase bicycle and pedestrian modes of travel . To that end, SB 375 determined that all of California’s transportation planning agencies would “prepare and adopt a regional transportation plan directed at achieving a coordinated and balanced regional transportation system" that would meet or exceed goals set in SB 375 to reduce pollution, and green house gas emissions in addition to solving other environmental issues. The law required that all regional transportation plans [would] "be action-oriented and pragmatic, considering both the short-term and long-term future, and shall present clear, concise policy guidance to local and state officials”
The San Diego region was one of the first in the state to prepare the 2050 Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Community Strategy.
Bike San Diego had announced the release of the 2050 Draft RTP back in April of this year. I had noted that in SANDAG’s promotional video, there was a glaring omission of bicycling as a mode of transportation and a method to help solve the problems that SB 375 sought to resolve.
The actual RTP was devastatingly mediocre in its goals when it came to thinking beyond the automobile as a mode of transportation. Despite San Diego having the seventh worst ozone problem and the fifteenth worst particulate pollution problem specifically arising from smog primarily caused by automobile and light truck emissions, the goals of the Bicycle Plan, that was a part of the overall Regional Plan, was disappointingly vague. The goals were listed as follows:
Goal 1: Significantly Increase Levels of Bicycling throughout the San Diego Region
Goal 2: Improve Bicycling Safety
Goal 3: Encourage the Development of Complete Streets
Goal 4: Support Reductions in Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Goal 5: Increase Community Support for Bicycling
In 2007, the American Community Survey showed that only a pitiful 0.6 percent of San Diegans commuted to work by bicycle. This was an increase from 0.48 percent in 2003. SANDAG decided to play with the numbers and reported that the figure didn't include residents who use multiple modes of transportation, because the survey didn't count those who rode to school or to transit. Thus, SANDAG decided to inflate that 0.6 percent by including those missing riders and coming up with a 2.7 percent figure as being the total number of cyclists in the region. Thus, the projections on how many cyclists would exist in 2050 was based on the 2.7 percent figure. SANDAG, through its calculations, forecasted that in 2050, the total number of bicycle mode share in San Diego County would be 7.0 percent. This forecast predicted by SANDAG was included in their 2030 Regional Bicycle Plan (incorporated in the 2050 Regional Transportation Plan), and was "based on increases in cycling on newly built bikeways in San Francisco, California; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle, Washington"
Meanwhile in Portland, in 2008 their bicycle mode share was 8% all accomplished by increasing the number of bicycle specific infrastructure built from just 1 percent of the state's transportation budget. However, Portland's commuter ridership was 18%. Meanwhile in California, Davis currently has a bicycle mode share of 18%.
So in light of where other cities on the West Coast are with their existing bicycle ridership, San Diego’s targets were absolutely disappointing.
In a future article, I will discuss both the Attorney General’s letter in greater detail and offer some strategies that the region can do to increase bicycle modal share in the region. Additionally, I intend to write a follow up article on how SB 375 will come into conflict with Proposition 13, popularly called the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation, or the 1978 California Constitutional Amendment that encouraged the sort of land use practices that exacerbated the problems that SB 375 seeks to address and solve.
Workshops to Attend, News to Inspire and other Titbits from Around the Region
- If you didn't hear about it already, our neighbors up north were busy this weekend. They showed the world that the bicycle was speedier than an airplane. Wolfpack Hustle, an urban cycling group, decided to prove how feasible it was to ride 40 miles from Burbank to Long Beach and beat the airline that was offering $4 plane tickets to harried travelers who couldn't figure out how to ride (a lot of great links on the story), transit or rollerblade around the major thoroughfare that is the 405 that was shutdown for repairs.
- Meanwhile, one of the world's greatest parks faces an unknown fate currently in the hands of San Diego's City Council. In preparation of San Diego's 2015 Centennial Celebration, Mayor Sanders had announced a desire to have the Panama de Plaza return return back to being a pedestrian plaza. In light of this, Qualcomm founder, Irwin Jacobs offered to finance the project which would result in the removal of parking from Panama de Plaza, but build a bypass bridge that would cut through a canyon and one which would remove traffic from entering Panama de Plaza and the creation of a new paid parking lot to be located behind the Organ Pavilion.
- The University Avenue Mobility Study Community Workshop will be held this Thursday (July 21, 2011) at the Teen Challenge Center at 5450 Lea Street. The details are located in the flier below:
Flier In line with the City's General Plan, the purpose of this workshop is ensure that all users of University Avenue have equal options to traverse the corridor in all modes of transportation. I've been on the working group in an advisory capacity along with other bike advocates to ensure that tenets of the Complete Streets Act of 2008 were being adhered to. This included recommendations to narrow the street, ensure that a sidewalk was present along the entire section of the segment in question, and ensuring that provisions for cyclists were made a high priority. The segment of University Avenue in question is eastbound from 54th and University all the way to the border of the city of La Mesa. One of the options that I'm most in favor of will have a five to six foot bike lane along both the north and south sides of University Avenue along the entire University Avenue Corridor between 54th Street and 69th Street. Other options include sharing a bike lane with transit buses and having a combination of sharrows and bike lanes along University Avenue.
- Earlier today, San Diego's Bicycle Coordinator, Jim Lundquist made a presentation at the City Heights Area Planning Committee. He notified the committee that one of the high priority bike projects that will be implemented within the next three months would be the installation of Bike Lanes along 54th Street from Trojan Avenue to Market Street. This would be a major North-South thoroughfare.
- It's a new season and thus it is time to worry about the future of bicycle/pedestrian funding, again. On July 7, John Mica (R-FL), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House, announced his proposal for the next surface transportation re-authorization bill. His proposal eliminates dedicated funding for bicycling and walking, including Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and the Recreational Trails Program. Meanwhile on the Senate side, James Inhofe (R-OK), the lead Republican negotiator on the transportation bill, declared that one of his TOP THREE priorities for the transportation bill is to eliminate 'frivolous spending for bike trails.' The League of American Bicyclists has launched advocacy alert in light of this bad news.
- On a bit more positive note, the Active Transportation Manager at the City Heights Community Development Corporation (CHCDC), Randolph Van Vleck sent us some very encouraging news about a recent City Council meeting. On Monday, June 27, the San Diego City Council passed a resolution to make transit and active transportation a priority in their official comments to SANDAG's Regional Transportation Plan. City Council member, Marti Emerald, in response to the CHCDC's written and verbal testimony, amended the resolution (Item S-402) to specifically include the SR-15 Bike Route to Mission Valley as highly prioritized projects to be completed at an accelerated rate. I'm sure once the projects are completed, City Council will have to fend off much gratitude from the region's cyclists.
- Up north in Escondido, the City of Escondido is developing a Master Plan for the Escondido Creek trail, a fully paved dedicated walkway and bicycle path along the Escondido Creek The open house is on July 20th in the Mitchell Room at the Escondido City Hall. RSVP at 760-839-6328 with Dan Hippert
- Finally, the big news is that the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition finally announced the name of its new Executive Director, Andy Hanshaw. Hanshaw's previous experience of the bicycle community was with organizing the annual Bike the Bay ride.