Recently appointed by the city of San Diego to lead its 13-member Mobility Board, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition\u2019s Andy Hanshaw discussed his role, the status of the region\u2019s transportation network and progress being made in weaning people from their solo vehicles while achieving ambitious climate action plan (CAP) goals in a Q&A with Beach & Bay Press.
\nBBP:\u00a0How does the newly created Mobility Board differ from its predecessor, the Bicycle Advisory Board?
\nHanshaw:\u00a0It\u2019s broader in representation and more than just bicycling. It includes transit advocates and community members. There\u2019s a disability rights advocate. It\u2019s a broader range with members from every district, as well as four members appointed by the mayor. It looks at everyone from pedestrians to bicyclists, while looking at everything from parking issues to transit connections.
\nBBP:\u00a0What exactly is your role on the Mobility Board?
\nHanshaw:\u00a0It\u2019s guiding our agendas. There really are experts all around the table. Really, the goal is to help the city streamline the process of implementing mobility options. We want to be a body that holds the city to getting where they need to go.
\nBBP:\u00a0What is the Mobility Board\u2019s purpose?
\nHanshaw:\u00a0To serve as an advisory board for policy relating to the city\u2019s transportation network, analyzing things in a holistic way to ensure people have safe and easy access and choice of transportation modes as they move around the city. Its goal is also to help the city meet its climate action plan.
\n(The city\u2019s CAP calls for eliminating half of all greenhouse gas emissions and for all electricity used in the city to be from renewable sources by 2035.)
\nBBP:\u00a0What role will the Mobility Board have in the new Mobility Action Plan the city is working on?
\nHanshaw:\u00a0This Mobility Board will have input on the draft outline of that plan, which the city is going to come back to us with in August. The plan is how the city sets itself up in the Transportation Department with the staff, resources and the plan to implement measures to achieve the CAP. We look forward to being a voice for that plan.
\nBBP:\u00a0How does mobility fit into the larger scheme of transportation within the region?\u00a0
\nHanshaw:\u00a0Looking at the bigger picture, the city has to comply with state law requiring greenhouse gases to be reduced. The track we were on, the previous plan, was not reaching that goal. We need to take a good step back to really evaluate how we create a world-class transit network. I\u2019ve been really pleased to hear the city is committed to creating a bike lane network and a regional bike plan. It\u2019s about having safe choices. We have to think big.
\nBBP:\u00a0What needs to be done to make biking safer and encourage more people to go that route?\u00a0
\nHanshaw:\u00a0In simplest terms, it\u2019s really providing choices for people to move around your region, besides just driving [cars]. It\u2019s really about creating safe, connected networks, which relates to transit for bicycling. It\u2019s building out, as soon as we can, a regional bike network.\u00a0
\nBBP:\u00a0What else needs to be done to improve the city\u2019s transportation system?
\nHanshaw:\u00a0We have to think quickly because climate change is real. We need to take the steps necessary to comply with state and local greenhouse gas reductions. The bike master plan needs to be one of the guiding documents of the Mobility Action Plan. Vision Zero also needs to be a part of this new Mobility Action Plan.
\n(Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all.)
\nBBP:\u00a0Is there anything else that can be done to wean people from their cars?
\nHanshaw:\u00a0We need to create behavior change to help people get out of cars, like creating shuttles and a bike network. We need to give people safe mobility choices.\u00a0You put a safe choice out there, and people will use it. It\u2019s not there yet.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently appointed by the city of San Diego to lead its 13-member Mobility Board, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition\u2019s Andy Hanshaw discussed his role, the status of the region\u2019s transportation network and progress being made in weaning people from their solo vehicles while achieving ambitious climate action plan (CAP) goals in a Q&A with Beach […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":276674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Biking advocate Andy Hanshaw named to city's new Mobility Board","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12360,11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-duplicate","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276676","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=276676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}