CalBike Insider: Kudos for the Appointment of Dr. Adonia Lugo to the CTC

CalBike is delighted that Governor Newsom appointed Dr. Adonia Lugo to fill a vacancy on the California Transportation Commission. Dr. Lugo is a welcome and highly-qualified addition to the commission.

CalBike advocates for a more inclusive CTC

CalBike was a member of a coalition that sent a list of candidates for the CTC vacancy, including Dr. Lugo. Her qualifications are best summed up by the group’s letter:

“Cultural anthropologist Adonia E. Lugo, Ph.D. is the chair of the Urban Sustainability Department at Antioch University Los Angeles. She was born and raised in traditional and unceded Acjachemen territory and now lives and works in traditional and unceded Tongva territory. Professor Lugo began investigating sustainable mobility, race, and space during her graduate studies at UC Irvine when she co-created CicLAvia and the organization today known as People for Mobility Justice in Los Angeles. In addition to her role at Antioch LA, Professor Lugo is an urban anthropologist with Pueblo Planning, a core organizer of The Untokening, and a co-founder of the Mobility Justice Research Network.” 

Dr. Lugo still needs confirmation before she takes her seat on the CTC and CalBike will be pushing for the senate to approve her.

Long overdue change at the CTC

The CTC describes itself like this on its website: “The Commission is responsible for programming and allocating funds for the construction of highway, passenger rail, transit and active transportation improvements throughout California.” Unfortunately, for too long the commission has focused much of its energy and resources on the highway portion of its mandate and neglected passenger rail, transit, and active transportation. 

Thanks to advocacy from CalBike and other NGOs, plus help from allies in Sacramento, California has begun to elevate active transportation as a way to decarbonize and humanize our communities. However, change at the agency level tends to move slowly and the climate crisis is barreling toward us with increasing speed, so CalBike will continue to push for more and faster changes. We are encouraged by the elevation of Toks Omishaken to Transportation Secretary and, if the governor chooses an equally enlightened choice to replace him at the head of Caltrans, California will be moving in the right direction.