Speaker 1: (00:00)
As many of the world's leaders gather in Glasgow, Scotland for the United nations climate change conference, the fight against climate change is taking center stage. Here's president Biden addressing the conference earlier this morning, we're still,
Speaker 2: (00:14)
And at an inflection point in world history, we have the ability to invest in ourselves and build an equitable clean energy future. And in the process create millions of good paying jobs and opportunities around the world.
Speaker 1: (00:28)
Late last week, closer to home the San Diego association of governments, better known as SANDAG announced a bold transportation proposal to reduce the region's greenhouse gas emissions, a step and its fight against climate change. It could have a major impact on how San Diego has traveled day to day year to talk more about the plan and its potential impacts on the region is KPBS Metro reporter Andrew Bowen. Andrew. Welcome.
Speaker 3: (00:54)
Hi Jade. Thanks. Can you tell
Speaker 1: (00:56)
Us about what was proposed last week and how it would impact San Diego?
Speaker 3: (01:01)
Well, on Friday, the SANDAG board discussed several updates to its regional transportation plan. This is the roadmap that the county uses to show state and federal authorities that they've got a plan for how to meet everyone's transportation needs far into the future. We're talking out to 2050 and the state has required SANDAG to significantly reduce both the number of miles that people drive in their automobiles day to day and overall greenhouse gas emissions. This plan was first announced earlier in the year in the spring. Uh, and the updates that they were proposing or discussing on Friday were mostly small tweaks to the plans, or maybe a little bit more detailed to things that they had already discussed earlier. There is an emphasis on traffic safety, uh, trying to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries on our roadways. Uh, there was a plan to, uh, try and incorporate more bathrooms at public transit stops, uh, language on the importance of preserving habitat and open space. And the area that got the most amount of discussion and controversy was some changes to how this whole plan will be funded including this road, user charge that would be imposed on people for every mile that they drive in their cars.
Speaker 1: (02:16)
And there was a great deal of reaction from the announcement of, of a pair of those mild taxes for drivers that you mentioned, how would that work? Well,
Speaker 3: (02:25)
First a bit of background. So for many years, the gas tax has not been paying for all of our transportation infrastructure needs revenues from the gas tax funds have been declining from for decades, really as more people drive, uh, more fuel efficient vehicles, hybrids, and electric vehicles. And so the idea is that by 2030 drivers, uh, according to this plan would pay 4 cents for every mile that they drive on the roads. Uh, 2 cents would go to the states. This is just kind of the sandbags way of assuming, you know, started picking a number of saying, let's say the charges 2 cents for every mile, and we will charge another 2 cents on top of that. And the idea is that this, uh, road charge would actually replace the gas tax or, uh, some adjustment would be made to the gas tax. So people aren't paying twice. It's just kind of a change in the way that we calculate the cost of driving, because right now, uh, electric vehicles are, uh, using the roads. They're, you know, putting stress on the roads, which, you know, ultimately over time causes potholes and deterioration of the infrastructure, but they're not paying any money in gas taxes. So, uh, how do we capture those, uh, you know, uh, the, the cost of that, um, stress on the infrastructure in a way that's kind of fair to everybody,
Speaker 1: (03:42)
What effect will this have on how public transportation works and operates in the region?
Speaker 3: (03:46)
Well, the regional transportation plan that SANDAG is discussing includes a very significant investment in new public transit infrastructure. There are multiple commuter rail lines that will be running across the county. We're talking new lines that are separated from traffic. So either a, you know, a subway system, uh, or an above ground, uh, you know, elevated railway. Uh, and the idea again is to not just charge people for driving for every mile that they drive, but also to make public transit free by 2030. So, uh, you know, the same year that this, uh, road user charge would come into effect, and this really gets at the, uh, strategy of a carrot and stick approach. We've heard a lot of criticism, particularly as Congress is debating the build back better act and the, you know, uh, social spending and climate change funding for, um, you know, reducing our carbon footprint.
Speaker 3: (04:43)
You hear a lot of criticism from climate activists and climate scientists that we rely too much on carrots, uh, or incentives to get people to say, put rooftop solar panels on their roofs or drive electric vehicles. And we don't have enough sticks, you know, ways to sort of like nudge people a little bit further in that direction. So pricing the system, pricing the transportation system so that everyone can see in real dollars and cents that it's in their interest in everybody else's interest to drive a whole lot less and take more sustainable modes of transportation, I think is really at the heart of this strategy of making transit free and also pricing driving more
Speaker 1: (05:21)
San Diego mayor, Todd Gloria announced support for the plan. He has also made equity, a key part of San Diego's actions on climate here. He is speaking about the cities, our climate, our future plan,
Speaker 4: (05:34)
Our response to the climate crisis must take into account the disproportionate impacts on historically underserved communities and appropriately address those existing inequities.
Speaker 1: (05:44)
So how does the SANDAG plan address issues of
Speaker 3: (05:47)
Equity? SANDAG officials have described their plan to me as trying to solve for a couple of different things. Uh, one of them is just meeting the obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, you know, creating a legally compliant transportation plan. But another thing that they're trying to solve for is this issue of social equity. They've done quite a bit of data analysis on access to opportunity and different parts of the county. And, you know, they can get down to the minute essentially how much time it takes for a person to get to work in, say one neighborhood like a national city or a city Heights or a San Marcos compared to another neighborhood, like somebody who lives downtown or in Kearny Mesa or anywhere. And so they're taking all of that data, trying to incorporate it into their long-term transportation planning, and just making real decisions about where they're going to build this rail line or, you know, how much, uh, funding they're going to dedicate to a new high, high speed bus, uh, line, um, that go through different neighborhoods, unsurprisingly, uh, low income people have some of the most difficult commute times. Many of them, uh, perhaps don't have access to a car to get to work. So they're using public transit, which takes a whole lot longer. And so the plan really aims to make improvements to those less, uh, affluent or, uh, areas with less access to opportunity first. And so one example, a real sort of example is the alignment of one of their commuter rail lines that they're planning, uh, puts a station in city Heights instead of north park. So what
Speaker 1: (07:24)
Has to happen for this plan to be
Speaker 3: (07:26)
Implemented a lot? The first thing that has to happen is on December 10th, the SANDAG board of directors has to vote to approve it. Uh, but then, you know, the actual implementation of the plan relies on many different things. First of all, voters would have to approve new tax measures. You know, the state and federal governments would probably have to step up their funding of infrastructure. There are lots of different things that have to happen in order for this plan to become a reality. Um, many of them are, you know, multiple decisions, many, many years into the future. Uh, but you know, the, the next step I would say is just, uh, December 10th, the final vote at the SANDAG board of directors
Speaker 1: (08:06)
Been speaking to KPBS, Metro reporter, Andrew Bowen, Andrew, thank you very much for
Speaker 3: (08:11)
Joining us. My pleasure, Jade.
