Portland State University’s Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) will host Anna Zivarts on Wednesday, April 30th. Zivarts is an author and advocate for nondrivers whose known for her book, When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency (Island Press, 2024).
Here’s more about Zivarts from event organizers:
One third of people living in the United States do not have a driver’s license. The majority of involuntary nondrivers are disabled, lower income, unhoused, formerly incarcerated, undocumented immigrants, kids, young people, and the elderly. They are also largely invisible due to a mobility system designed almost exclusively for drivers. Zivarts explains how improving our transportation system with nondrivers in mind will create a better quality of life for everyone.
Anna is a low-vision parent, nondriver and author of When Driving Is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency(Island Press, 2024). Anna created the #WeekWithoutDriving challenge and is passionate about bringing the voices of nondrivers to the planning and policy-making tables. Anna sits on the boards of the League of American Bicyclists, the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium and the Washington State Transportation Innovation Council. She also serves as a member of TRB’s Committee on Public Health and Transportation (AME70) and the National Aging and Disability Transportation Center Coordinating Committee.
Zivarts was invited to speak as part of PSU’s annual Ann Niles Transportation Lecture. This series has previously featured YouTuber Ray “CityNerd” Delahanty, reporter Angie Schmitt, urban planner Tamika Butler, for Los Angeles DOT leader Seleta Reynolds, and others. The event will take place at Lincoln Recital Hall on Wednesday, April 30th at 5:30 pm. Tickets are free and you can learn more here.
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Anna Zivarts spoke at our statewide bike/ped conference last fall in the suburban car-centric part of Chapel Hill NC, a very good speaker, highly recommended.
Will she bring up the “elephant in the room” in Portland? Many women do not feel safe walking or riding bikes in Portland especially on our MUP trails. And MAX and public transit can be sketch at times as well. I feel public safety concerns/homelessness are the biggest brake on getting people out of their cars in Portland right now.
My partner and her daughter used to be avid riders around town but mostly gave it up for the very reason you stated. Safety. I don’t know why it always comes up and is always ignored in Portland.
Safety is a commonly raised issue, specifically in relation to motor vehicles. It is sadly ironic that many people find the spaces explicitly closed to motor vehicles to be some of the most dangerous places to be on a bike.
I’m sorry to hear this, Mary. I ride as a female every day, on streets and MUP and, as I often comment on BP articles, the motor vehicle drivers threaten my life every time I leave the house, but I have never been threatened by an unhoused person. Given that motor vehicles kill 40,000 Americans a year, statistics seem to back up my personal experience.
Thanks for covering this. I’m sending this link to several people.
Don’t live in fear. Get on a bike
If that is all it took our bikeshare and transit share would be sky high…or at least have returned to Portland pre-melt down levels. You need to meet people where they are…..
✅ quirky glasses
✅ rightwing dog whistles