![\"WalkSanDiego](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/DSC03589.jpg\" "\\"DSC03589\\"")
<\/a>Hear someone mention WalkSanDiego<\/a> and you might envision a group that leads tours of America\u2019s Finest City.<\/p>\nYou\u2019d be wrong. <\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Where can I hike on a trail?\u2019 \u2013 No, that\u2019s not it,\u201d WalkSanDiego\u2019s co-founder, Andy Hamilton, said with a laugh. \u201cThis is about changing the environment to make it safer for walking. Our mission is to make it possible to choose walking as a transportation mode to meet daily needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton, a transportation specialist for the San Diego Air Pollution Control district, created WalkSanDiego in 1998 with Dave Schumacher, who oversees transit planning for SANDAG.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth foundations started discovering you can tell people to get more exercise all you want but if the environment says you won\u2019t there\u2019s a disconnect for people,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cSo Dave and I got together and decided we need a group that just focuses on the environment as a way of stretching out past the capacity of our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n
A grant from The California Endowment jumpstarted the effort, while project funding from CalTrans also contributing to the organization\u2019s $800,000 annual budget. Five full-time staff members manage WalkSanDiego\u2019s ongoing projects in traffic calming, street design and accessibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cSan Diego is in the top three to five in the country in terms of the percent of traffic fatalities that involve pedestrians. The national average is 12 to 13 percent and ours is 20 to 25 percent,\u201d Hamilton said.<\/p>\n
He attributes the high rates to busy roads such as El Cajon Boulevard and University Avenue in the city\u2019s higher density areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpeed is really what kills people. You don\u2019t have time to avoid a collision \u2013 the breaking distance is too long. So if somebody jumps out there or you just don\u2019t see them because you\u2019re not expecting them, you can\u2019t react in time and they can\u2019t react time,\u201d Hamilton said. <\/p>\n
Another issue WalkSanDiego promotes is the need for better street lighting. <\/p>\n
\u201cSan Diego is one of the darkest cities in the country,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big mystery to me why that is. We\u2019ve worked for years to get the city to fund more streetlights. The policies have been changed in places that are higher in crime and near transit stops.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the city allocates $200,000 per year to installing new lighting, the request backlog totals $20 million. Rather than wait for city funding, WalkSanDiego encourages communities to form maintenance assessment districts to finance lighting needs.<\/p>\n
In 2004 WalkSanDiego campaigned for Proposition A, an extension of TransNet, the half-cent transportation tax. The measure passed with a slim margin. It creates $14 billion in revenues each year, of which $280 million is dedicated to traffic calming and smart growth projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cTransNet was really one of our biggest successes,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cThere is a pot of money, $9 million a year to bicycle and pedestrian improvements, and another $9 million for neighborhood safety. So even in a recession there is still money there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both as an outcome of that funding and WalkSanDiego\u2019s walkability audits, Hamilton said he expects to see notable improvements for pedestrians in the Uptown and North Park areas. He cited 30th Street in North Park and Sixth Avenue in Hillcrest as places that need the most improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see lots of pedestrian activity on 30th, several bus lines that run up and down it, and yet it\u2019s not very pedestrian friendly,\u201d said Hamilton, who lives in North Park. \u201cSimilarly, on Sixth Avenue you see people crossing constantly, against traffic, yet traffic is very rarely backed up. We suggest reducing Sixth from four lanes to two. If you need the space for cars, then take some away. Drivers driving the speed limit will set the speed for everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although most of WalkSanDiego\u2019s endeavors gain praise, the organization is not without some controversy. For example, Leo Wilson, chair of Uptown Planners and a Sixth Avenue resident, called the proposal to trim Sixth Avenue to two lanes \u201cunrealistic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult for us as community leaders but we have to balance on one hand that we want pedestrian improvements but on the other hand people are going to use automobiles,\u201d he said. \u201cWe strongly oppose [the lane reduction] in Bankers Hill. That is a major arterial; thousands of people drive it. I consider that a traffic clogging measure, not a traffic calming measure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson said he agrees with WalkSanDiego\u2019s mission but that its ideas can \u201cgo to extremes\u201d at times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they talk about huge lane reductions, the discussion goes from increasing pedestrian amenities to utopianism,\u201d he said. \u201cI think those of us in the community planning process need a balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton acknowledges WalkSanDiego is \u201can extension of local governments,\u201d but does not make policy. Still, District 3 Councilmember Todd Gloria said the organization brings a needed voice to city development.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an advocacy group focused on issues impacting walkability, WalkSanDiego is playing an important role in local planning and growth,\u201d Gloria said. \u201cThe outreach and education performed by organizations like WalkSanDiego can be helpful in connecting community members to local government issues, thereby generating additional public interest and input.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hamilton said Uptown has traditionally been the most receptive to WalkSanDiego\u2019s objectives.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the mid-city people really care about this issue,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you go to Rancho Bernardo people say they want to walk more safely but they\u2019re not really passionate about it. But if you go to Hillcrest, for example, it\u2019s truly a passion. So many people [in Uptown], even though you might not expect it, don\u2019t own cars and they say this is the only place they can live in the city. The vast majority of our members come from mid-city even though we work throughout the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
Annual memberships in WalkSanDiego start at $24, which includes workshops, newsletters and e-mail alerts about pedestrian issues.<\/p>\n
Strength in numbers is important to the organization\u2019s success, Hamilton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helps when we stand up in front of the City Council \u2013 we can either have 300 or 3000 voices there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
WalkSanDiego\u2019s annual gala and Golden Footprint Awards is April 22 at Top of the Park, 525 Spruce St. Alison St. John of KPBS will host the program, which will recognize Mary Sessom, mayor of Lemon Grove, for her work in walkability. Tickets are $65 for members and $75 for non-members. For more information, go to walksandiego.org.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Christy Scannell SDUN Editor Hear someone mention WalkSanDiego and you might envision a group that leads tours of America\u2019s Finest City. You\u2019d be wrong. \u201c\u2018Where can I hike on a trail?\u2019 \u2013 No, that\u2019s not it,\u201d WalkSanDiego\u2019s co-founder, Andy Hamilton, said with a laugh. \u201cThis is about changing the environment to make it safer […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1287,"featured_media":243351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"WalkSanDiego marches toward a pedestrian-friendly city","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243350","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\/1287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}