Have you ever wondered why cities in the USA are far less bicycle-friendly than, for example, Copenhagen in Denmark? 🚲
Is the USA not offering enough funding for sustainable transportation?
Is American individualism helping the car to prevail as the primary mode of transportation?
Or are people simply too lazy to hop on a bike?
Instead of heading straight into problem-solving mode, it is important to understand the historical decisions that created the current built environment. Are we asking the right questions? For instance, Denmark is much more centralized—culturally, politically, and economically—than the USA.
When citizens became eco-conscious, how much did that centralization allow Denmark to collaboratively invest much more in bicycle-friendly cities? In the USA, history has shaped cities differently, and competing policy goals still hinder progress in many domains.
One of the core aspects of this course, offered by Eric Plosky and Carson Poe, is learning how to ask the right questions about sustainability. The methodology they use to discuss transportation can be applied equally well to other sectors, so you don’t have to be a “transportation person” to benefit from the course. But you might become one!
✍ (Re)Learn to be curious about the world around you and sign up for this course by August 29th!
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