The United States is a diverse nation: however, the people responsible for creating our country’s transportation infrastructure have nearly always been White men. How can we confront this history of inequitable transportation and ensure that everyone in America is able to access transit systems and bike lanes?

As a way to reclaim space on streets traditionally dominated by cars, cyclists of cohesive identities are coming together to ride as one. Many of these groups are grassroots organizations, connecting through word of mouth and social media. Cycling groups allow individuals to build bonds with friends, neighbors, and strangers as they ride together and show that streets don’t only belong to cars.

In this webinar, transit professionals will discuss how our transportation systems are inherently inequitable and what steps we can take to change this reality. Leading the conversation will be Veronica Davis as she introduces her new book, Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities. Veronica co-founded Black Women Bike, an organization and movement which builds a community and interest in biking among black women through education, advocacy, and recreation.

Panel

Veronica Davis,  Director of Transportation & Drainage Operations for Houston, Texas
Olatunji Oboi Reed, Chairman & CEO, Equiticity Ventures
Michel Courval, Sales Representative, iGo Electric

Moderator Tamika Butler is a doctoral student in Urban Planning at UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs.

For more information, check out this article: Black rides matter: Diverse cycling groups show that biking is for everyone.

Transportation planning has often had destructive consequences for underserved communities. Veronica Davis wants to shed light on those inequalities. In her new book, Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities, Veronica lays out her vision to bring about a new era of transportation planning.

During this webinar, Veronica will explain why centering people in transportation decisions requires a great shift in how transit planners and engineers are trained, how they community, the types of data they collect, and how they work as professional teams. She’ll define what “equity” means for a transportation project and how it can create something safer, better, and more useful for all people.

Veronica will conclude with a call to action to transit planners and engineers to reconnect with and help shape communities based on principles of justice and equity.

How do you change a system that was never designed to be equitable? Join us on Monday, October 16 at 12:00 pm EDT with Veronica O. Davis for a virtual talk on her book, Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities.

In Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities, transportation expert Veronica O. Davis shines a light on the inequitable and often destructive practice of transportation planning and engineering. She calls for new thinking and more diverse leadership to create transportation networks that connect people to jobs, education, opportunities, and to each other.

In June 2023, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, declared “in each of America’s most influential cities and states, policymakers developed a strategic plan to make transportation accessible for all and they executed it. We must expand transportation options across our state to ensure all Marylanders can get from where they live to where opportunity lies no matter their background, zip code, or income.”

How are accessible transportation plans created and successfully executed? They start by serving people over cars and disrupting the status quo of the transportation industry. They look at the past injustice that transit projects created while elevating current practices to do the hard work involved in making safer and more useful systems. Veronica Davis, author of Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities, and Lynn Peterson, author of Roadways for People: Rethinking Transportation Planning and Engineering, will share their decades of collective transportation experience in this webinar. Learn about the speakers’ proposed solutions for more equitable and people-centered transit systems.

Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities shines a light on the inequitable and often destructive practices of transportation planning and engineering. Davis' book calls for new thinking and more diverse leadership to create transportation networks that connect people to jobs, education, opportunities, and to each other. Join 2023 WTS International's Rosa Parks Diversity Award recipient Veronica O. Davis, PE as she discusses her career and newest publication.

$35 | WTS Members
$95 | Non-members
$15 | Students

These sessions are eligible for CM credits from APA.