But the heavy lifting of truly improving transportation and mobility across a region means committing to investing and deploying comprehensive public transit, sidewalks and even land-use reform, policymakers and other leaders said. “The future is the past,” Javier A. Betancourt, executive director of the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust in Miami-Dade County, said. “I still think we need to get the things we’ve been talking about for 30 years done.” “And yes, incorporate technology and innovations where you can to make those things happen, and make them better,” he said Thursday at CoMotion Miami. “But honestly, I just want to fulfill the promises that we made to the voters 24 years ago when they passed the half-penny sales tax.” Voters approved a “half-penny” tax in 2002 to fund the People’s Transportation Plan and pay for public transit projects, namely, the Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) plan. Betancourt also advocated for rethinking policies around land use, transportation and housing, and how they align with each other. Or, maybe more to the point, having them align. “We continue to work in silos,” he said, underscoring how too often, these sectors do not overlap. “I think we just need to be better at working across industries, across sectors, and across our geography.” Similarly, pedestrian planning should not be imagined separate from transit planning — or, for that matter, from micromobility planning, Andy Boenau, director of transportation for Richmond, Va., said. “Walking is the primary mode of transportation. So I want it to be convenient and easy to walk,” Boenau said at CoMotion, expanding on the city’s development of a Pedestrian Safety Master Plan this year. Transit, he said, will play a huge role in it. “It’s not ‘other.’ It’s not an ‘alternate mode.’ It’s just part of a walking trip,” he said. “That’s