On Monday, 17 graduate and undergraduate students from UO and other universities will join Nick and me along with 6 transportation professionals from Oregon (Scan Design Fellows) in Copenhagen. We start the 2022 “Planning Cities for People on Bikes” or “Sustainable Bicycle Transportation” study abroad program through Denmark and the Netherlands. We’ll visit some of the most bike-friendly cities in the world and use the cities as our classroom to teach about what life can be like in cities planned differently than U.S. cities. Marc Schlossberg started this class in 2011 and I had the privilege of co-leading the class in 2019. As an avid bicycle commuter and road biker, I was blown away at the infrastructure. But beyond that, I was inspired by the integration of dense land use with functional infrastructure and the quality of life and equity afforded by this transportation system.
This year is particularly exciting because we postponed the course in 2021 due to COVID, and travel has been limited for most of us over the last couple of years.
Marc spent several years curating the content and approach to this class, and I really appreciate the way he encouraged curiosity and exploration. We set up several lectures with local professionals from the public, private, and advocacy realms. We also build in a lot of flexibility and opportunities for self-exploration. We allow a lot of unscheduled time for students to feel what it’s like to live like a local and get around a city without access to a private vehicle. I’m looking forward to accompanying a new group of students on this transformative trip. I am inspired by the questions they ask and the trajectories they take after participating in this course.
My own objectives for this course:
- Individually, take time to explore and get lost in the city
- Individually, allow time for reflection
- Encourage students to bring a sense of curiosity to the class and being too structured or overscheduled
- Inspire students to be problem-solvers
- Encourage reflection and synthesis throughout the trip
- Most of all, inspire happiness and change-making! Get students excited about what can be and encourage them to bring lessons back to the U.S.