Advocacy 

San Diego County has 18 cities and 76 unincorporated communities. Since 1999, WalkSanDiego has been advocating for safe, vibrant streets and walkable communities. Thanks to our staff and many volunteers, we’ve been able to help neighborhoods across the region advocate for safer walking conditions. With our help, residents have asked cities to install new crosswalks, sidewalks and traffic calming measures such as speed humps and curb extensions. Through our Safe Routes to School work, we help parents advocate for safe walking routes around elementary and middle schools around the region.

If you care about walkable communities and want to know about our ongoing advocacy, join WalkSanDiego or contact us. You can also contact your local decision maker and tell them about the importance of walking and Complete Streets in your community.

Local Priorities

• Adopt Complete Streets and supportive policies in all San Diego regional cities
• Increase awareness of Complete Streets among regional decision makers
• Identify regional priority projects for road diets and traffic calming 
• Fast track pedestrian safety projects with SANDAG’s Active Transportation funding 
• Revise SANDAG’s regional Traffic Impact Study Guidelines to ensure multi-modal goals and performance measures
• Collaborate with San Diego County Bicycle Coalition to increase miles of bike lanes and bike facilities
• Participate with Sustainable San Diego partners to advocate for sustainable, healthy communities
• Institute pedestrian safety training into elementary school curriculum aggregate

State Priorities

WalkSanDiego is proud to work with its statewide partner California Walks and others to advocate for passage of the following bills:

• AB 1532 and SB 1572 to provide for Cap and Trade revenue to be alloacted to public transit, vanpools, walking and bicycling infrastructure, and affordable homes near transit. California's Air Resources Board is developing the Cap and Trade Program to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which could have an enormous positive impact on transportation choices. With transportation accounting for 38% of all State GHG emissions (46% in San Diego County), this nexus needs to be made.
• SB 1156 (Steinberg) and SB 1151 (Steinberg) intended to reinstate some form of redevelopment in California and specifically would allow cities and counties to create a new version of a redevelopment agency called a Sustainable Communities Investment Authority. 
• AB 485 (Ma) to make it easier for local jurisdictions to create Infrastructure Financing Districts.
• AB 441 (Monning) to incorporate health goals into General Plan updates.

Federal Priorities - Revised Transportation Bill

After months of negotiations and calls from thousands of constituents across the country, Congress passed a 27- month federal transportation bill in June 2012. In the words of our advocacy partners Rails to Trails and Transportation for America, it is a 'real step backwards', and 'A stopgap that is the last gasp of a spent 20th century program. It doesn't begin to address the needs of a changing America in the 21st century. 

For active transportation, the bill:

• Reduces funds for walking and biking 30%.
• Merges three core trail and active transportation programs - Transportation Enhancements (TE), Safe Routes to School (SRTS), and the Regional Trails Program (RTP) - into a new pot entitled "Transportation Alternatives" (TA).
• Forces TA projects to compete with other highway and road construction projects for severely limited dollars.
• Half of TA funding is subject to geographic distribution within a state based on population. Of that half, the portion that goes to larger communities (regions of 200,000+) is sub-allocated to metropolitan planning organizations (SANDAG) for project selection. Nationally, about 35 percent of the overall funds will be sub-allocated. This will vary greatly by state. The portion of the geographic funds not sub-allocated is to be awarded through a competitive grant process administered by the state but focused on local needs. 
• More information on the bill's outcomes can be found here. A table comparing the Senate and House versions of the bill to the final can be downloaded here.

Contact Your Leaders

Local and national officials need to be informed on what is important to you. Contact your local leaders and inform them on the importance of bicycling and complete streets in your area.