Today, Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor ruled that the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) violated state law by failing to fully account for, and take steps to reduce, climate pollution in its environmental review of the region’s long-term transportation plan. The ruling is a major rebuke to regional planners in the San Diego region and a warning shot to other regional planning organizations that just passing a plan and calling it green is no longer enough.

“The court is setting an important example here for regional planning agencies throughout California,” said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California. “We cannot wait another 40 years to adopt sensible transportation and land-use policies. Thanks to California laws requiring public agencies to be open about their plans, we were able to hold SANDAG accountable for its faulty planning practices.”

la.streetsblog, 04.12.12.

yeah! take that, SANDAG!

f— your bs 2050 plan! more of the same business as usual; San Diego would go deeper in transportation hell if this sh-t continued.

check out the much smarter and speedier 50/10 plan: build 50 years of transit projects in the first ten years, then freeway projects later. the proper order.

this picture makes me so mad! repaved road, but restriped the same stupidass way! wtf use is a middle turn lane if there’s nothing to turn into! should have added bike lanes on both sides instead! and widened the sidewalk while you’re at it! middle turn lanes are such a waste of space and these are all over san diego wtfhell let me rewrite the antiquated traffic engineering books and eliminate this bs

Community Advisory Group Meeting #1

Wednesday, December 5, 2012
6:00pm–8:30pm
Santa Fe Room, Balboa Park Club
2144 Pan American Road West, San Diego, 92101

Come out for the first community advisory meeting for the Uptown bike corridor project!

Discuss your vision and goals of bicycling in Uptown, as well as issues and opportunities.

I would definitely go, but I’m not in San Diego, so… any of my followers here in SD, go for me.

This bike corridor is super important because it connects Downtown SD to Uptown (Hillcrest/Mission Hills) through Bankers Hill and Balboa Park. If you bike in any of these areas, or would like to if it was safer and had bike infrastructure, go to this meeting!! (But there will be more in the future, so don’t be too disappointed in yourself if you can’t make it, either)

Meeting agenda:

Read More

mon. 21.05.12. @inn at the park. nice views from the top floor.

Beth, an active transportation planner from SANDAG gave a presentation on the different kinds of cycle infrastructure. a grumpy old couple walked out early because the wife was disgusted. she was shaking her head throughout the entire presentation (until she left). said bicyclists are a pain in the butt! gonna make our streets like europe where they have people cycling everywhere??! can’t find parking! ROFLOL R U SRS first time I ever heard anyone say anything bad about europe re: cycling. The husband, though, was a little kinder and nodded at the slides that showed designs for safer street crossings. They’re in the middle of the above photo, in the purply shirt and the lady in beige facing away.

met a few people. found out i could volunteer to be part of the parking subcommittee where they figure out what to do with the $1-2 million the city’s collected from parking meters.

learned that Bankers Hill is one of the high priority cycle projects (or I re-remembered—it’s #4), overlapping from the City Bike Plan and SANDAG’s Regional Bike Plan. and that I could help give feedback and design for the project.

I guess i’ll stay in SD to at least help get this project implemented?

“As the first regional government in California to develop a land use plan under the State’s strict new climate change laws, SANDAG has a responsibility to set a path toward a sustainable future,” said Tony L. Hale, Chair of the Environmental Caucus of the California Democratic Party. “Instead, SANDAG’s plan calls for more of the same: sprawl, air pollution, and an increase in dangerous greenhouse gas emissions.”

The major issue in the lawsuit is is that while the SANDAG plan does outline a major growth in the region’s transit network, most of the transit planning is in the last years of the project. The early years call for a rapid increase in the area’s highway network through a new high occupancy/toll lane system (HOT Lanes). SANDAG spokespeople claim that because the lanes can be used free by transit, they should be considered transit projects. Not everyone agrees.

la.streetsblog, 21.02.12.

Occupy San Diego will be gathering at 8:45 tomorrow morning, Friday, October 28th, to attend an important SANDAG meeting regarding the 2050 Regional Transport Plan. The group will meet in front of the Wells Fargo building at 401 B St. before heading upstairs to the SANDAG Board Room for the 9am–12pm meeting on the 7th floor.

SANDAG’s $214 billion 2050 Regional Transportation Plan has been criticized as inadequate, even by the State Attorney General. The RTP promotes more freeway lanes and sprawl, before working on much needed public transportation improvements.

In response, the Cleveland National Forest Foundation, though its Transit San Diego campaign, has come up with an alternative plan. The “50–10 Transit Plan” commits funding 50 years’ worth of transit infrastructure into the first 10 years of implementation. Its focus is on an effective integrated light-rail/multimodal solution.

Occupy San Diego, along with other local organizations, will protest against SANDAG’s 2050 RTP and call for an alternative, probably the 50–10 Transit Plan. After the meeting, OccupySD will congregate around the Wells Fargo building for a rally.

Related article: Shortsighted San Diego — Rejecting Transit for Sprawl?, calitics, 24.10.11.

Occupy San Diego, 08.10.11.

Make it to the meeting if you can!

Dear climate activists,

Thanks again for participating in Moving San Diego to a Clean Energy Future.

Please help us this week to convince SANDAG to revise its 40-year Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in San Diego County . 

Background: 
Transportation (cars and light trucks) in San Diego County produces a whopping 46% of overall GHG emissions, a “good” transportation plan is crucial to reducing emissions. SANDAG is scheduled to approve its $214 Billion plan at their meeting this Friday. However, the plan is fundamentally flawed. Rather than achieving GHG reduction goals, it will instead promote further sprawl and more freeway lanes, perpetuating poor land use and traffic congestion. SANDAG has ignored thousands of public comments and a letter from the Attorney General’s office that calls on SANDAG to revise the plan. San Diego is the first county to produce a plan under the new state GHG reduction requirements. We can’t let a weak plan that doesn’t do its part to stabilize the world’s climate serve as the example. Together we can: make sure SANDAG knows we’re tracking their actions; support the attorney general’s efforts to bring the San Diego County RTP into compliance; and ratchet up the debate for future RTP updates.

How you can help:

• Join us this Friday. We want to fill the room at SANDAG’s Board Meeting to let them know their work is not done. You may sign up to talk (up to 3 min), or, if you don’t want to speak you may fill out a card to indicate you oppose the RTP. We will have some signs for folks to hold but please bring your own if you can. See talking points and quotes from the Attorney General’s letter here: word or pdf (make sure to customize your statement). 
  The meeting is Friday, Oct 28^th, 9 am-12 pm at SANDAG’s offices near City Hall (SANDAG Board Room, 401 B Street , 7^th Floor). Please arrive by 8:45 AM to fill out the cards, get a sign, etc., and let us know if you can be there. Fortunately the item is towards the front of the agenda.
• Email SANDAG Today. Let them know you are not happy with the RTP and that they must do more to reduce GHGs. See talking points, a sample email, and quotes from the Attorney General’s letter here: word or pdf  (make sure to customize your email). Emails must be received at SANDAG by Wednesday, October 26^th at noon in order to be incorporated into materials for the meeting. Please *email addresses here–> email <–this link* SANDAG Chair Jerome Stocks, Executive Director Gary Gallegos, and your own SANDAG representative (your mayor if you live in an incorporated city, or your county supervisor). You may also phone. Please cc us (mdisenhouse@cox.net) so we have a record. 

Let us know if you have questions & thanks for all you are doing to combat climate change!

Sent SANDAG an email. (the least I could do since I have class Friday morning / can’t make the meeting). Please send them one, too.

Dear SANDAG,

As a concerned citizen who would like to keep living in San Diego, I find the 2050 RTP inadequate and wish for you revise it.

Alternative transit and street safety must be the first priority. The region cannot continue down unsustainable spiral of sprawl. Please make real changes for our future instead of a veiled business-as-usual plan. I also urge you to seriously consider the 50-10 Transit Plan drawn up by your earnest and hardworking opponents/critics.

You know even more than I do that San Diego is a growing region and needs proper infrastructure to allow it to grow. However, the 2050 RTP does not even halfway meet what is needed for future growth and demands for better public infrastructure. San Diegans, and Americans more broadly, deserve more. 

For decades, SANDAG has favored funding more roads and freeway widening to serve sprawl development as the City has grown. Despite a transit emphasis promoted by stakeholders throughout the drafting of the Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (2050 RTP/SCS), SANDAG leaders are poised to approve this sprawl-first model of ‘sustainability’ that will set a precedent for the nation and commit the region to 40 more years of the same misguided planning principles. For most of us, that’s a lifetime. We have a chance to seize this opportunity to achieve sustainability goals, but the current Plan will only serve to promote further sprawl and greenhouse gas emissions, perpetuating poor land use and traffic congestion.

Although the very goal of SB 375 is to reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) and by extension emissions, San Diego’s 2050 RTP/SCS would actually increase VMT in the region by 50 percent over the next 40 years. By 2050 it will only achieve a 9 percent GHG reduction per capita — if it even reaches the levels mandated by SB 375 at all.

The state attorney general has even sharply criticized the RTP.

The failure of SANDAG to contemplate a plan that will achieve a meaningful shift in realistic sustainability planning runs contrary to the results of multiple public polls and community outcry for an effective integrated light rail/multimodal solution. In response, the Cleveland National Forest Foundation (CNFF), through its Transit San Diego campaign, has submitted an alternate planning model for SANDAG’s consideration. This “50-10 Transit Plan“ commits funding 50 years’ worth of transit infrastructure into the first 10 years of implementation. CNFF has also submitted multiple comment letters promoting transit first and opposing SANDAG’s sprawl-development-friendly plan throughout the planning process.

Prioritizing transit as in the CNFF proposal would finally address the fundamental transportation challenges instead of just doubling down on more cars for another generation. We know that SANDAG’s choices will be felt throughout the region and across the country. Indeed, we’ve already seen the chair of SANDAG lobbying for the rollback of EPA standards in order to accelerate highways throughout Southern California. Before this accelerates further, we have a chance to demand responsible transportation development this Friday — but we need all the help we can get.

calitics, 24.10.11.

Occupy San Diego will definitely be helping out. Come out and join the fight for a better future!—and not a compromised one that has been proven to be unsustainable. 

Occupy San Diego will be marching early in the morning from Civic Center to very closeby SANDAG offices in the Wells Fargo building at 401 B St., suite 800, to attend the 9am Board of Directors meeting and protest against the 2050 Final Regional Transport Plan.

Here is the alternative San Diego transit plan to have 50 years of transportation changes done in 10 years: The 50-10 Transit Plan.