Paige Anderson: Designing bikeable cities for a livable future

One of the most important things you can do when it comes to climate change is talk about it. 

• Paige was inspired to think more critically about our dependence on vehicles when she was in middle and high school. Running cross country helped her realize that she did not need to be dependent on a car for mobility, and she liked that autonomy. In college, Paige started to walk and bike more for transport. Have you considered alternative ways to commute around your community to get to school and work or to go on errands? 

• There is a learning curve when making a switch to mainly biking for transportation. Paige explains that often it just takes getting started and practicing. In her experience, many people get over the learning curve when they realize that biking can be a more joyous way to get around your community. If you are able, what are some positive benefits that biking more could bring to you personally? What are the potential benefits to your community?

• Pittsburgh is not necessarily an easy city to navigate on a bike, especially if trying to avoid some of the roadways with heavier vehicle traffic that can be more dangerous. Some of the residential streets are tight and narrow, and the capacity isn’t always there to add a bike lane, so that means thinking critically and finding creative connections, like noticing where people are already biking and investing in those areas to make them safer, adding traffic calming elements like roundabouts, and adding wayfinding signs. Paige says that sometimes people drive because they might not feel safe or comfortable biking or walking. Do you have a safe and comfortable path to walk or bike along your commute? If not, what are some design changes that would be helpful?

• Drawdown Ecochallenge is a fun and social way to take measurable action on the top solutions to global warming. Take the challenge, and see how a few weeks of action add up to a lifetime of change for you and the planet. If you want to take action on Transportation like Paige is, visit drawdown.ecochallenge.org/challenges/transportation. 

• ChangeX connects people with proven ideas for strengthening communities with the resources needed to start them. Explore countless ways to improve your community and help the world reach drawdown.

• Climate Generation's Green Careers for a Changing Climate Instructional Supplement (for Grades 6-8) contains resources to help young people learn about Green STEM Careers — careers that can help solve the impacts of climate change using STEM skills. Throughout this instructional supplement, students will be using the resource Drawdown to make important connections to solutions that these careers will implement.