As we discuss big solutions to climate change, don’t forget people-friendly streets

The day after Andrea Learned, a transportation and urban design consultant based in Seattle, flew down to San Francisco for the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS), cyclist Russell Franklin was struck and killed by a car while trying to navigate around an illegally parked truck on a street near event. It was the same day, and on the same street, that a group of local activists with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition had organized a protest calling for better bike infrastructure as a sustainability measure. “Protected lanes are climate action,” their signs read, and the death of Franklin demonstrated the human consequence of failing to take that action. That was the first day of the GCAS. Throughout the rest of the event, Learned and other active transportation leaders looked out for more discussion of walking and biking, how cities could better support it, and the benefits of doing so. “What cycling advocates and bike share companies are doing supports cities for climate ,” Learned says. “What if we had more safe streets people on the Global Climate Action Summit Stage?” It would make sense: Research has found that if, globally, cycling rates can rise from their current level of […]

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