Advocacy
We advocate for public policies and funding that ensure the safe and dignified movement of every one of us, no matter who we are, nor how we get around. Through strategic collaborations and partnerships, we bring voices together to push and advocate for systemic changes that will create a more just transportation network for our region, and a better quality of life for everyone within it.
Current Advocacy Initiatives
An RTA Next that aligns with community needs & priorities
A proposal for billions in transportation investment will go before Pima County voters in November 2025. If passed RTA Next will extend the region’s half cent sales tax for another twenty years. Let’s ensure it reduces our dependency on private automobiles and increases our transportation options; supports cleaner air quality, and provides resiliency and adaptability amid climate change; reduces crashes and deaths in our streets and makes them truly safer; and so much more. Does the current proposal do that?
Find out more and weigh in
Permanent fare-free transit
In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tucson Mayor & Council eliminated fares for transit it Tucson, making it free for everyone. As federal pandemic-relief funding disappears Tucson has faced the choice of whether to start charging fares again or whether to find new ways of keeping transit free, permanently. Together, as part of the Transit for All Coalition, we’ve successfully advocated and avoided the return of transit fares in Tucson, but the it’s not over yet.
Learn more about transit funding in Tucson + get involved
Land-use code refinements that support biking, walking, and transit
The way our city looks today is a result of hundreds of building codes and land use codes that dictate what gets build and where. We keep a close eye on what codes are coming up for review and revision to ensure that the new version supports multi-modal transportation, whether by reducing parking minimums and setbacks, incentivizing amenities for people on foot and bike, or requiring shade and green stormwater infrastructure.
See what’s currently up for review
Ongoing Initiatives
Complete Streets
… is a way of designing and building our streets to ensure a safe and welcoming experience for all people regardless of their age, ability, income, race, or ethnicity, whether they are walking, biking, driving, or taking public transit.
Place-lifting Policies
Cities across the country are establishing policies that make it easy and straightforward for neighborhoods and districts to transform their own streets into inclusive community spaces. We’re pushing for those policies in Tucson.
Tucson’s First Parklet
Parklets are a cost-effective way to transform on-street parking into a public place for gathering, recreating, and relaxing. It’s essentially a “pocket park” on the street, and while cities all over the U.S. have programs to create parklets, none exist yet in Tucson. We’re working to change that!
Completed Initiatives
Reclaim Las Calles
Through place-lifting activities, youth and their families are reimagining 8th Avenue—a key corridor in the South Tucson community—as a place for people to reclaim, co-create, and inhabit.
South Tucson Shared Streets / Calles Compartidas
Explore a temporary, community-led experiment with creative traffic-calming along 8th Avenue, a residential street in the heart of South Tucson. Do these changes work? Should they become permanent? We ask the experts: the neighborhood.