TUCSON, Ariz. — Mayor Regina Romero said she's putting city dollars towards the future, specifically how future commuters will get around the city.
She said her position, and that of the contractors she's hired, future Tucson needs more options for people getting around on foot.
Transportation took center stage at the Fox Theater.
"Tonight is a public kick off where we start to give people a sense of what the possibilities are," said Gabe Klein, with a subcontracting firm called "City-Fi."
"We put in some of the largest and first bike share systems, we expanded transit rapidly, we revamped city streets to make them more, not only sustainable but safer."
Klein said he'll be part of a group collecting data to get an idea what Tucson wants, needs and can realistically build to improve transportation.
"Tucson is at this inflection point that a lot of cities are at when they hit between 500 and 600-thousand people."
"We need to make sure that we're looking out for 8-year-olds and 80-year-olds, people that are disabled, people that don't speak English, things are changing."
'Move Tucson' is Romero's plan for that change, her plan for the next 20 years of commuting in Tucson.
"We want to be intentional about including pedestrians and cyclists and transit as part of this long term planning," Romero said.
It's a half million dollar investment that Romero said will give the city a better idea how to plan for getting around future Tucson.
"At the end of this process we want to have a well, community informed, equitable, long term, master plan for our mobility in the city of Tucson."
Romero said the agreement with the consultant firms is 15 months. TDOT said it was paid for with state money earmarked for transportation in the City of Tucson.
Klein said they'll start analyzing data in November, a year later they'll have a proposal to present to the city.
