I serve on a regional board called Southern California Association of Governments. It’s legally responsible for a number of regional planning efforts, including the Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities strategy. We study different regions to find potential solutions to our issues in Southern California.

The Connect So Cal Plan is a document that helps plan out regional transportation and economic needs over the next decade. You can learn more about it here.

No city $$ is sponsoring this study.

I’m here conducting the study with the mayors and Councilmembers from across the So Cal region, including Ontario, Big Bear, Duarte, Rancho Cucamonga and El Centro and SCAG staff. We met with government leaders and stakeholders to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of this system.

The system in New Zealand is very different than CA. I’m learning a lot. They manage their road maintenance without a Gas tax or vehicle license fee. The average commuter pays less and heavy vehicle pay exactly what they use.

Oregon has shifted to this model and Cal Trans has already done a pilot. We need to learn about it.

We'll do a full report out at our regional council meeting in two weeks once we compile what we have learned. And I’ll share more on my perspectives as well.

A change like this would take years in Southern California, but as we Regional planning agency, we have to study and learn in order to plan for the future.

The wildfire issue here is pretty real here as well, just like Southern California. Flags are flying half mast in honor of the 3 Us firefighters who lost their lives here two days ago.

I’m happy to share more on this experience in the days and weeks to come.

Thanks!