On June 26th & 27th, more than 30 mobility justice advocates met in Sacramento for the first annual Mobility Justice Advocates Convening. The focus was to better position ourselves to influence state decisionmakers directly at the State Capitol. The convening brought those who have worked directly on the streets who are able to bring experiential knowledge to state-level policy development into the room and into the conversation

The event was a culmination of several years of organizing. It built off our Mobility Justice Labs which CalBike co-leads. In collaboration with People for Mobility Justice, PolicyLink, Public Advocates, and Cal Walks, these convening efforts are central to building powerful new alliances at multiple scales.

The event was a huge success! The participants shared the goal of establishing a mobility justice framework that we can organize around together and separately. A shared framework will solidify the coalition of grassroots mobility justice organizations across the state. This will facilitate a push for mobility justice legislation. The framework will give each group clear actions to target their respective legislators.

Participants gave voice to a variety of shared values that can form the basis for future mobility justice legislation. Some examples include: police brutality and decriminalizing mobility, thinking beyond physical infrastructure regarding ‘safe streets’, anti-displacement policies, intersectional organizing, and programs to increase awareness of active transportation benefits and encourage residents to use non-motorized modes.

To further strengthen CalBike’s mobility justice  policy work, we and our partners will continue to expand the Mobility Justice Labs. We will also develop regional convenings, develop statewide cyber-convenings and skillshares, and develop our Mobility Justice Policy Platform.

Mobility Justice Advocates Set Goals for the Future

CalBike believes alliances like this are the best way to put pressure on decision-makers at every level: state, regional, and local. These partnerships represent a new type of relationship-building that centers on base-building and leading with grassroots voices. The goal is to strengthen the statewide transportation and mobility justice movement, and the first Mobility Justice Advocates Convening showed that the power of the emerging coalition.

Building safe spaces to unite transportation, housing, environmental justice, and other advocates is crucial to bringing about change. Going forward, we plan to share actionable intelligence, monitor state actions, and organize responses to new threats and opportunities, as a coalition.  We hope to eventually shift the narrative on mobility from one focused on vehicles to one that centers on people and justice in our most marginalized communities.

The goals for the Convening were as follows:

1. Make grassroots advocates the leads in defining and implementing mobility justice (MJ) at the state level.
2. Build solidarity network of MJ advocates in California.
3. Connect with state-level elected officials and government officials who wield power in decision making around transportation, infrastructure, etc. in California.
4. Identify shared values and policy change goals among MJ advocates.
5. Plan a future convening to accommodate more participants.

We look forward to co-leading a second annual Convening in 2020. Thank you to all the co-organizers and attendees for making the first Mobility Justice Advocacy Day a success.

Stay tuned for more!