{"id":238017,"date":"2015-10-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/local-groups-take-sandag-to-task\/"},"modified":"2015-10-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T07:00:00","slug":"local-groups-take-sandag-to-task","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/local-groups-take-sandag-to-task\/","title":{"rendered":"Local groups take SANDAG to task"},"content":{"rendered":"

Accuse them of creating \u2018roadblocks\u2019 to hinder climate plans<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Dave Schwab<\/p>\n

Circulate San Diego and the Climate Action Campaign held a joint press conference Downtown on Sept. 23 and accused SANDAG, the region\u2019s transportation planning agency, of erecting planning \u201croadblocks\u201d that could bar the city of San Diego from achieving goals set forth in its Climate Action Plan.<\/p>\n

The city is expected to adopt its Climate Action Plan before the end of the year. That initiative seeks to cut the city\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2035. That be would accomplished, in part, by getting 50 percent of the people who live near high-quality transit stations to walk, bike or take public transportation to work.<\/p>\n

\"CirculateSD<\/a>But SANDAG has shed doubt on the achievability of those climate action goals, based on an analysis of how people are likely to commute in 2035, conducted as part of the agency\u2019s long-term transportation plan that its board is expected to adopt soon.<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s board includes elected officials from across the county. Its draft transportation plan outlines bus, light rail, bike, road and highway projects throughout the region in coming decades.<\/p>\n

Colin Parent, policy council for Circulate San Diego, a nonprofit promoting public and active transportation, called upon SANDAG to do more to help the city reach its goals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city of San Diego is currently in the process of adopting a whole new Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as they relate to the region\u2019s transportation policies,\u201d Parent said. \u201cPublic transit and bicycling are a crucial component of reducing the risk of climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

To accomplish transportation goals in the Climate Action Plan, Parent said the city has two tasks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt needs to develop policies at the local level to make non-motorized transportation easier, cheaper and more safe via creation of more crosswalks and bike lanes,\u201d Parent said. \u201cAnd the city needs to ensure that SANDAG provides enough funding \u2014 and prioritizes \u2014 active public transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parent said SANDAG\u2019s draft long-range transportation plan \u201ccreates barriers to San Diego achieving its climate goals,\u201d noting the city\u2019s climate goals call for 50 percent of commuters to use non-motorized transportation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSANDAG\u2019s own data in their [transportation] plan will result in less than 15 percent of commuters using non-motorized travel,\u201d Parent said. \u201cWe call upon SANDAG to meet the city halfway. The city must use its influence on SANDAG board members to get a reasonable plan that advances the city\u2019s climate goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"climate2\"<\/a>
(l to r) Nicole Capretz of Climate Action Campaign and Colin Parent of Circulate San Diego presided over the Sept. 23 press conference. (Photo by Dave Schwab)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nicole Capretz, spokesperson for the Climate Action Campaign, a watchdog group striving to stop climate change and protect quality of life, said achieving goals set forward in the city\u2019s plan to curb greenhouse emissions from transportation sources is critical to protecting the region\u2019s environment moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot be a world-class city without a world-class transportation system,\u201d Capretz said. \u201cWe can\u2019t be a world-class city without tackling the biggest challenge we\u2019ve ever face in humanity \u2014 climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capretz said the city is \u201con the cusp of passing one of the most ambitious [climate] plans in the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

She accused SANDAG of \u201cthumbing their nose\u201d at the city\u2019s Climate Action Plan by \u201cfailing to pull their weight to help us meet our climate goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capretz called upon the city and SANDAG to collaborate to \u201ctake the necessary action to protect the future of our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toward that end, Capretz urged the mayor and the City Council not to support the \u201cfundamentally flawed\u201d transportation plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call upon the mayor and Council to demand that SANDAG do their fair share to ensure we meet out biking, walking and transit goals, and provide real transportation alternatives for us in San Diego,\u201d Capretz said. \u201cThe mayor and Council should vote no on this regional transportation plan, unless \u2014 or until \u2014 there is more investment and resources put toward building the necessary infrastructure to make people feel safe biking, walking or taking public transportation to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parent said the issue is not about \u201cgetting people out of their vehicles,\u201d but in \u201ccreating a transportation plan that makes them want to do something different, by creating the infrastructure necessary to give people who prefer to bike, walk or take the trolley an opportunity to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Dave Schwab is a local freelance writer. He can be reached at\u00a0<\/em>dschwabie@journalist.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Accuse them of creating \u2018roadblocks\u2019 to hinder climate plans By Dave Schwab Circulate San Diego and the Climate Action Campaign held a joint press conference Downtown on Sept. 23 and accused SANDAG, the region\u2019s transportation planning agency, of erecting planning \u201croadblocks\u201d that could bar the city of San Diego from achieving goals set forth in […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":238018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Local groups take SANDAG to task","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}