2020 SD City Council District 7 Candidate Responses

 


Candidate: Monty A. McIntyre

 

1) What are your top 3 priorities for improving the biking experience in District 7 for residents and families?

1. Maintain bike lanes so they are free of potholes, ruts or significant cracks.
2. Coordinate restriping when streets are resurfaced.
3. Support the continuing construction of proposed bike lanes.

 

2) San Diego’s Bicycle Master Plan needs updating and projects need prioritizing in order to create a complete bicycle network. A large number of street resurfacing projects need to be re striped with bicycle infrastructure. How would you propose to fund the full build-out of the bicycle network needed to achieve the Vision Zero goals and meet the Climate Action Plan mode share targets?

We need to make the project approval process more predictable, faster and customer-friendly.
We will need to find new revenue sources to build-out the bicycle network.

 

3) Transportation is the largest source of San Diego’s greenhouse gas emissions (55%). The City’s Climate Action Plan bicycle mode share goals are 6% of commuter trips by 2020 and 18% by 2035, from about 1% today. What steps will you take to make sure these goals are met or exceeded?

We need to creatively look for ways to incentivize people to move to neighborhoods where they can work, work at home, or work at a place close to their home that they can bike to.

 

4) Safe bike lanes often face opposition due to slower road speeds or reduced street parking. How would you work with the community to address concerns without compromising safety or delaying bike infrastructure in the name of consensus?

We need to educate our citizens about the benefits of bike lanes and using bikes for transportation as an alternative to cars. Also, we need to make the project approval process more predictable, faster and customer-friendly, while ensuring all impacted residents have an opportunity to be heard.

 

5) Please share a memorable experience(s) you have of bicycling.

When I was in college, a firefighter friend named Ken, who rode his bike to work every day, suggested that we go on a bike ride from where I lived near Avocado Boulevard in La Mesa to Auga Caliente Hot Springs. Thinking I was in great shape because I exercised and ran regularly, I agreed. I rode my bike a little to get ready, but not regularly like Ken did. I had no idea, however, what I was getting myself into!
One weekend morning we made the ride. We rode from La Mesa up to Julian. There were many times going up the mountain to Julian that I had to stop and rest. I wondered if I would ever make it. I hung in there, Ken was patient with me, and we ultimately made it to Julian. We then rode full speed down Banner Grade to get to Auga Caliente Hot Springs. That was a blast! I don’t think I’ve ever gone so fast on a bike! By the time we made it to Auga Caliente Hot Springs I was exhausted. We enjoyed camping there for the weekend, but we decided to put our bikes in the truck and enjoy the drive home when we returned to San Diego!

 


Candidate: Wendy Wheatcroft (ENDORSED BY BIKESD)

 

1) What are your top 3 priorities for improving the biking experience in District 7 for residents and families?

  • Expanding Vision Zero street, sidewalk, and intersection safety surveys to include and emphasize safety improvements at the network-scale, to create Vision Zero Neighborhoods.
  • Coordinating the City of San Diego, San Diego Unified School District, and MTS to create an enhanced Safe Routes to School vision.
  • Implementing a “Twenty is Plenty” campaign, while improving the built environment with significant traffic calming, to slow and divert traffic from neighborhood streets, and promoting travel-alternatives to cars, which are the number-one danger to bicyclists.

 

2) San Diego’s Bicycle Master Plan needs updating and projects need prioritizing in order to create a complete bicycle network. A large number of street resurfacing projects need to be restriped with bicycle infrastructure. How would you propose to fund the full build-out of the bicycle network needed to achieve the Vision Zero goals and meet the Climate Action Plan mode share targets?

  • Repeal the People’s Ordinance. An approximately $50 million influx to the City general fund would present fresh bonding opportunity to create sustainable, long-term infrastructure for current and future generations.
  • Street infrastructure revenue from increasing the Transient Occupancy Tax should be directed first to improving the material condition of streets that also are identified for new cycling facilities in the Bicycle Master Plan.
  • Future state and federal transit revenue assistance looks likely to come with strings attached related to increasing housing. Master planning neighborhoods must include Complete Streets requirements that ensure a transit station/bicycling infrastructure “hub and spoke” make-up at community scale as a community benefit.

 

3) Transportation is the largest source of San Diego’s greenhouse gas emissions (55%). The City’s Climate Action Plan bicycle mode share goals are 6% of commuter trips by 2020 and 18% by 2035, from about 1% today. What steps will you take to make sure these goals are met or exceeded?

  • Implementing my previously listed top three priorities to unlock the latent demand for active transportation.
  • Lobby to ensure SANDAG’s “5 Big Moves” once and for all includes the full funding and implementation of the SANDAG Regional Bike Plan Early Action Program.
  • Reconstitute and fund the Civic Innovation Lab in the Mayor’s office to identify pedestrian thoroughfare, plaza, and cycling superblock opportunities to promote active transportation.
  • Create and incentivize active transportation, not just through the built environment, but in a civic credit program for reduced fare access to MTS, Balboa Park museums, the San Diego Zoo, and other institutions throughout the city.

 

4) Safe bike lanes often face opposition due to slower road speeds or reduced street parking. How would you work with the community to address concerns without compromising safety or delaying bike infrastructure in the name of consensus?

  • First, reducing roads speeds to improve safety is foundational to better neighborhoods and business districts. I will say so explicitly over and over again. It’s a feature, not a bug of what these projects are trying to do.
  • We must educate the public, not just on outreach as it pertains to what we want to do here, but what has been successful at improving the quality of life in other cities. Education is the most effective tool for changing hearts and minds. Our city needs to meet our Climate Action goals, and part of that relies on making bicycling safer for our residents. The safety of the community comes before the ability to drive to your destination 30-seconds faster.
  • It will be important to present proposed changes that may inconvenience residents and solutions to the above-named objections at that same time, early in the process, and build consensus across all stakeholders.

 

5) Please share a memorable experience(s) you have of bicycling.

I love renting bikes and riding in other cities. Most recently, I took a night time bike tour of Washington, DC, this summer while I was there for a conference. It was incredible to have such a different perspective of all the monuments. I also love a good bike ride on a warm summer night.

A couple of years ago when I took my oldest daughter to San Francisco for her 6th grade trip, we rented bikes one day and rode around the entire city. The end goal was to ride over the Golden Gate Bridge, but by the time we got to the bridge, we were so exhausted from riding all day long that we could not continue. However, we saw more of the city that I had seen in an entire lifetime. Even though she complained most of the way, she still talks about it and how much fun we had. The bridge will be for another trip!

My family loves riding bikes and I know many others do too. I am fully committed to improving bike routes across San Diego.