Why Membership Matters: Radically Changing our City Through SANDAG

This morning, the SANDAG Transportation Committee unanimously voted to recommend $200 million for implementing the Early Action Program. We at BikeSD advocated for the passage of this plan, and representatives from our organization attended this meeting to voice support for Scenario 1, which fast tracks $200 million to create complete networks for all road users. The full SANDAG board will vote on the plan in a week and we hope to report good news about the path forward after that vote.

But what does this mean for now? It means BikeSD stays engaged. Our role has been both articulating the need for bicycle infrastructure and highlighting deficiencies in the city and the kind of facilities needed to overcome them. We’ve done a lot of work on this – all volunteer. The Early Action Plan is very progressive in terms of making our city more bicycle friendly: connecting neighborhoods and connecting people through the construction of a thicker urban fabric. Too many of our urban corridors, neighborhood streets, and public spaces are characterized by willful neglect. The Early Action Plan will make our city more livable – radically.

BikeSD is not funded by SANDAG or the city. Among advocacy organizations, that allows us to work with others while maintaining the healthy tension and productive spirit that an independent advocacy organization provides. We represent everyday bicycle riders and anyone interested in cultivating changes in our city felt at the scale of the human: the bicycle rider, the pedestrian, the children playing outside, the folks reading on a bench, the elderly person in the crosswalk, or the small business opening its doors. When we speak through the voices of a larger membership, our advocacy grows stronger. The city is changing through BikeSD’s work and through the work of a network of great people and organizations. The bicycle is the vehicle for large-scale change for everybody. We need your membership to tilt the scale away from the status quo and toward a San Diego we deserve.

Join us.