A Road Less Traveled

Allison: It sounds really cheesy, but I feel like AmeriCorps changed my bone structure in a way, where service just kind of became part of who I am. I find so much joy in that type of service, and also I get to know the people around me, whether they're friends who volunteer with me, or the people who are on that site. It's just a great way to learn new skills. Like, when would I have ever started drilling holes in trees to create trail maintenance? Never. And these are things that are opportunities to see that this is something I want to do as a job, as well, which is what AmeriCorps is, right? 

Drew: I always reflect on the pledge that we took. You carry this commitment with me this year and beyond. I reflect on that all the time, that it was not just a one-year thing, it really does impact who you are.

Allison: Besides the pledge, are there any City Year or founding stories, or PITWs [Putting Idealism To Work], if that was a thing when you were…

Drew: Oh my gosh, yeah, they still had that. I remember a lot of RFK quotes, and I remember the cheers that we would do as kids were walking into the school, which I'm definitely not gonna try to repeat right now, but they were so fun to just give kids energy.

Allison: I don't remember any of the PITWs, so I'm not gonna shame you for that, but do you remember the Starfish story?

Drew: Yeah, for sure.

Allison: I use that story all the time, because I feel like it's directly relevant to transportation planning. I was training some state employees on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and just how we design for all ages and abilities. And our default is often for the drivers, and what is safer for traffic flow. But I was trying to explain that vulnerable users, we need to protect them the most. And I talked a little bit about how frustrating it can be when you have to fight so hard to go upstream when the policies are very car-first. And the starfish story to me just helps explain that story of I might not be able to change all policies today, but I can try and improve this intersection with that starfish right now, and throw that one back into the ocean, and I'm just gonna keep going as much as I can.

Drew: I recently did a thing where I made an effort to try to get funding for 6 RRFB’s [Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons] at these locations that I've heard about in my part of town. I don't care if I fail, right? I'm gonna make the motion, and I'm gonna try my best to sell it, and I asked for $400,000 for RRFBs throughout the city, including the six locations I wanted, and it failed. But then we had a conversation about it, and they said “We don’t really like the locations Drew came up with, but let's put $400,000 towards RRFBs and traffic calming in the city in 2027.” And I'm like, you know what, that was worth it.

I kind of like working with cities, too, because it feels really personal.  You've worked at all levels. Does one of them stand out as the most rewarding or challenging?

Allison: I really like working on the local level because they are the ones who often have jurisdiction over all the local streets. 

To bring it back to City Year, I don't know if you guys had learning days where you were in the classroom four days a week, and then there was a fifth day that you were learning stuff. It was like a self-education day. We did talk a lot about systemic inequities in education, and that has also stuck with me, because when we do data analysis, like crash analysis, I ask who are you including, who are you not including. Who's disproportionately being affected by this policy, or this data, has also been a core lesson that I've carried through.

Drew: I think that's a great point. It's hard to even say this, but equity was not on my mind at all until I got to City Year. And then you are confronted with these conversations that you've not wrestled with, maybe, as a teenager or college student, at least I hadn't. And now, day to day, it's one of the main things that we think about in terms of policymaking and in terms of transportation access. How is this policy or property tax rebate program able to be executed in an equitable way? I wasn't confronted with even that idea until I was in AmeriCorps.

Allison: I was very lucky that I was placed in a very affordable spot, and we ended up having one of our volunteer days with the Boston Corps, and the Boston Corps was obviously in a much higher cost of living area, but had to manage on the same stipend we recived. And it just blew my mind. I mean, we were still eating the dollar menu at McDonald's when that still existed. But that made me start thinking about, okay, who has access to programs? 

Drew: Yeah, it's a great point. I always like to just throw out real numbers, so we had an $800 stipend monthly, plus the $200 transportation stipend. My rent for one little room in a row house in DC was $800 a month, so everything was going towards rent, and this was the first time in my life where I was signed up for SNAP, and had to go do an application and get food stamps and understand what that process looks like, and how even the the interview requires you to take time off work, you know. So now, when we're looking at policy questions at the City Council level, or even professionally, when we're making policy recommendations, it's really about are we putting unnecessary barriers in place that's making it harder for people to access these resources?

And I think my whole thinking on that stems from that year of AmeriCorps.

And on the City Council, we are responsible for spending taxpayer money, and people are amazed that a traffic light at an intersection is anywhere from $800,000 to a million dollars, and we have hundreds of them in our city, and it's just so expensive, all of these improvements, and I don't think people understand how expensive some of this stuff is.

Allison: Yeah, they are expensive. I have to say that the bike lanes also get pilloried here in San Diego for being quote-unquote very expensive, but it often includes how you're trying to leverage other efforts at the same time, maybe you're improving another intersection at the same time, but often for us, it's including storm drain improvements, because a lot of our neighborhoods here are really, really old, and that can get extremely expensive.

That can be a frustrating part of trying to explain things to the public that this was a $14 million 2-mile bike lane, but that's because it included all of these other improvements. And also that freeway over there cost $500 million.

Drew: We just added our first real bike lane, and the reaction is, “Hey, nobody uses the bike lane,” but guess what, it's also a traffic calming device, because we want you guys to slow down.” We hope that people use the bike lane, but there's so many other benefits.

Allison: Yeah, it's tough. It's Fight the Good Fight, but you just triggered me so hard with the “nobody uses the bike lanes” thing, because to bring it back to the Starfish story, everyone's life matters. A lot of the bike and pedestrian stuff that I like to focus on is really important, because it's not just about mobility or access. It's about making safer infrastructure and trying to save lives.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics did a study a couple of years ago, and basically, just over half of all trips in the United States are under three miles. And we typically consider a biking distance in that range, and a walking distance in about a mile or a quarter mile. And people think, well, that's not true in my city, but you have to think about all the different types of trips that we make. Your longest trip may be your commute, where you go to school, where you work, but also we do a lot of in-community trips. And my challenge to people is try one place and walk, or try to get there a different way than you normally would. So maybe take transit, maybe you walk, maybe you bike. You might be surprised about how feasible it was.

Drew: It's all about just challenging the idea that fatal crashes are inevitable. They are, and I looked this word up, they are evitable. We can reduce fatal crashes, and a lot of times it's just basic physics, right? Speed plus an SUV results in severe crashes when they happen, and especially involving vulnerable road users like bikes and pedestrians, so it starts with just slowing down. It'll reduce the severity of the crash in the worst case scenario that a crash happens. We know that that reduces fatal crashes, and it reduces serious injury crashes when people are going slower. We get a lot of pushback on slowing cars down in our community, because there's a perceived inconvenience, but ultimately, if we can reduce fatal and serious injury crashes, it's very much worth it.

Allison: We will get to Vision Zero one day, Drew.

Drew: We're working on it.