One day, my son and daughter will take to their bicycles and ride from south of downtown San Antonio where we make our home to Government Canyon on the far Northwest corner of Bexar County. Away from streets and safe from automobiles, the path they follow will run along our creek ways and linear parks.

One day, businessmen and women and working people from across our city will walk along well-maintained sidewalks to their nearby light rail station where they can board a train to their work place.

One day, the choice of driving to and fro across San Antonio will become as odd and out of place as walking is today.

Why dream of this San Antonio future? Because our way of life today is costing us time, money and our health. Too many families struggling to get ahead spend more on transportation than on housing. Too many young and old have accepted asthma attacks as part of their routine. Too many children die in automobile accidents learning to ride a bike or walking to school.

We have choices to make. Do we want to continue our dependency on cars and foreign oil; or do we want transportation choices in Bexar County? Do we want our infrastructure investments to focus only on reacting to traffic congestion; or do we want to strengthen the core of our city to attract and accommodate more people?

I have filed legislation with the help of other members of the Bexar County delegation that will strengthen our local leaders' ability to propose and finance transit solutions, such as light rail, bus rapid transit, pedestrian and bike ways. We have pulled together unlike anytime before to offer our concerns and suggestions.

There is still more work to be done, but in the end our common purpose is to give our local leaders new potential revenue streams to fund choices in transportation. Those choices will not be made by our local leaders alone. We believe no dirt should be broken, no fee should be levied without a positive vote of the people.

We all share the pain of this recession, but we must also seize the opportunities it presents. Today there is a growing national, state and local commitment to a more sustainable lifestyle and the technologies to support that lifestyle. I believe in our community's ability to pull together, take a cold objective look at this challenge and come up with shared solutions that allow us to not just grow, but grow into a safer and healthier San Antonio for our children.