By Scott Shumaker | East Valley Tribune
When former District 6 Council member Kevin Thompson termed out from City Council and was elected to the Arizona Corporation Commission, he left a vacancy not just on council, but on Mesa’s Sustainability and Transportation Committee, which he chaired for seven years.
Mayor John Giles has appointed a new transportation chair and committee that comprises council members who are enthusiastic about multimodal transportation and making Mesa less dependent on cars.
With Mesa updating its Master Transportation Plan this year, the new committee, chaired by first-year District 5 Councilwoman Alicia Goforth, could be poised to bend the city’s transportation priorities toward greater prioritization of bike lanes, sidewalks, shared use paths, street cars and emerging modes of transportation like electric scooters.
The other two members of are Vice Mayor Francisco Heredia, a Valley Metro board member, and Councilwoman Jenn Duff, who in 2021 joined the second class of the Complete Streets Workshop.
