Advancing active and sustainable transportation starts with taking personal action and making changes in our individual daily behavior. 

How can I take personal action?

Half of our daily trips are less than 3-miles, a distance easily covered by bicycle, and many of our trips are shorter, making them ideal for walking. Each time you take a trip, ask yourself, could I walk?, bike? or take transit? Changing a single vehicle trip a week to an active and sustainable mode of transportation has a positive impact on the planet, your community, and your health. Sharing your experiences with your community and public officials and advocating to address barriers is the fastest way to realize our goals of a healthy and equitable Santa Barbara County.

How is MOVE advancing active and sustainable transportation?

MOVE works with community members, city staff, public officials and policy advocates to advance our mission. We provide training to individuals to help them understand transportation policy and funding, how motor-vehicle-centered design affects our transportation choices and how to advance equitable design. We work with city staff and public officials to ensure community voices are heard as expensive infrastructure projects move forward and provide design oversight to ensure new facilities meet best practices and the needs of our community, not only today but well into the future.   

What are MOVE’s advocacy goals?

MOVE believes that every street should be safe for every user, that every community every hour should be connected by public transit and that major infrastructure projects that create equitable transportation options should be advanced throughout the county. We are working with public works staff, engineers and planners at the city, county and state level to ensure that every repaving project, every pedestrian improvement, every maintenance project and every new piece of infrastructure provides equitable access for every mode of travel. We are leading the way to advance a county-wide transit system that connects every community with a goal of hourly service. And, we are actively advocating for the completion of major infrastructure projects that will serve hundreds of thousands of residents throughout the county including the Santa Maria Levee Trail, the Santa Ynez River Trail, the H Street & Ocean Avenue Corridors in Lompoc, the Hollister Avenue redesign in Goleta, equitable access for sustainable and active transportation on State Street in Santa Barbara and the Rincon Trail to Carpinteria, among others.

How can I get involved?

The most important step to becoming a sustainable transportation advocate is to change your own behavior. This begins by making a conscious choice to have a lower environmental impact every time you travel. When you face barriers, take the time to learn why those barriers exist and advocate among your friends, family and neighborhoods and at the city and county level for better policies, funding and design. We are here to help and provide free trainings in speaking at public meetings, advancing equitable design, and learning safe bicycling, walking and driving skills. We host monthly advocacy meetings, provide a monthly newsletter with action items, and are always looking for advocacy champions in communities and in every school across the county.