Like widening ripples in a pool, the work of Deb Hubsmith to create safe, active transportation for children and adults has spread from Marin County to the entire Bay Area, California and the nation. It grew from a startup Safe Routes to School (SR2S) pilot program in Marin to a national Safe Routes to School Partnership that advocated for and landed $1.1 billion in federal funds, with more than 17,000 schools benefiting from the moneys since 2005.
Ironically, Hubsmith’s commitment began with an auto accident in 1996. Her car totaled, she vowed to make bicycling and walking her primary forms of transportation. This was the start of two decades of passionate dedication and tireless efforts to spread the benefits of bicycling and walking and to create new and safer bike/pedestrian routes.
From 1998 to 2005, Hubsmith served as the Marin County Bicycle Coalition’s executive director, building the organization into a force that secured millions of state and federal dollars for bike projects throughout the county. She co-led development of Marin’s SR2S pilot program and helped create a SR2S program across California, the nation’s first statewide program. In 2000, on a trip to Washington, D.C., Hubsmith met Congressman James Oberstar (D-Minn.), then ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The two shared a vision to expand Marin’s successful SR2S program to the whole nation. Subsequently, Hubsmith and a nationwide coalition of bicycle advocates launched a campaign that led to congressional passage of a bill in 2005 dedicating $1.1 billion for SR2S funding in all 50 states.
Hubsmith then founded the Safe Routes to School National Partnership in 2005 and served as its executive director. She built what started as an all-volunteer organization into a powerful coalition of more than 750 partners with a $3 million annual budget and a nationwide staff. She also co-led the California campaign that won $130 million per year for the state’s Active Transportation Program.
Diagnosed with leukemia in 2013 and in worsening health, Hubsmith continued to serve as a board member of the National Partnership and to assist on the Bay Area projects she had begun, including the MTC-funded Regional SR2S program, which contributes $5 million a year to bicycle and pedestrian projects. She also garnered support for the Central Marin Ferry Connection Project, a bicycle/pedestrian bridge over East Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to the Larkspur Ferry Terminal.
Hubsmith’s death in August 2015 at age 46 reverberated around the country. In the words of Sara Zimmerman, program and policy director of the National Partnership, “Anyone who ever met Deb knows she was a dynamo. She was a bundle of passion, enthusiasm and conviction who helped everyone she met understand why getting kids walking and bicycling matters. She inspired all of us to work harder and smarter.”
