Policy and Advocacy

Circulate Planning & Policy is deeply engaged with public policy to achieve our mission to create excellent mobility choices and vibrant, healthy neighborhoods. Our policy work focuses on promoting public transportation, safe streets, and sustainable growth. Our many deeply researched policy reports are available here, and our policy letters can be viewed here.

We follow a proven advocacy model to make change. Our formula is simple:

1. Identify a problem,
2. Recommend well-researched solutions,
3. Work with the media to remind the public over and over again who is responsible for solving the problem, and
4. Publicly credit decisionmakers who take action and do the right thing.

Public Transit

Circulate Planning & Policy is committed to a well-funded public transit system that is competitive with the automobile. We support new revenues for public transit, and directing existing transportation funding away from highways and to public transportation. We also support dedicating existing right of way to ensure that transit can run efficiently and fast along our already-built highways and surface streets.

We have won campaigns to improve fare payment options, dedicate funding to connect transit to the San Diego International Airport, and to transform empty parking lots into affordable homes.

Safe Streets

Circulate Planning & Policy is a longtime advocate for making our streets safe for walking, bicycling, and other modes.

Much of our walking and bicycling advocacy is focused on Vision Zero, an effort to end all traffic fatalities and serious injuries. Vision Zero is a part of a national movement to advocate for safe engineering of our streets, enforcement of safety laws by the police, and educating the public about traffic safety. For more, visit our Vision Zero page.

We have won campaigns to fix the “Fatal 15” most dangerous intersections in San Diego, to allow placemaking improvements on local streets, and even created a “Vision Zero Superhero” named Captain VZ.

Sustainable Growth

Circulate Planning & Policy believes that our transportation system can only function well with accommodating land uses. We advocate for more development capacity near transit, to achieve the win-win-win goals of creating economic development, making life more affordable, and to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Our advocacy has seen a tremendous set of results. Our campaign for an enhanced housing bonus program is leading to the construction of new affordable homes. We successfully advocated for historic parking reforms at the City of San Diego. We’ve advised on transit oriented development bills in Congress. We successfully persuaded the region’s largest transit agency to actively solicit development partners to transform their empty parking lots into affordable homes.