Hi, my name is Leilani, I'm an active transportation activist, and I love to ride my bike! I also love walking and taking in the scenery, and enjoying a good book, podcast, or phone conversation on public transportation.
This dynamic approach to getting around is called Multimodal Transportation, and its a model for land use and movement that incorporates various modes of transportation. Most cities in the US are built around the automobile, making it more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists to move through urban space. The dependence on vehicles also contributes to climate change through excessive use of fossil fuels and heat-generating car-related infrastructure like roadways and parking lots. Progressive cities like Portland are beginning to adopt a model prioritizing Multimodal Transportation to make it easier for a wider variety of people to move through shared public space. Active Transportation relates to human-powered modes, such as walking, cycling, and rolling. As an Active Transportation activist, the most effective way for me to make change is through self-accountability, by embodying these values and utilizing bike-, pedestrian-, and transit-related infrastructure.
A few years ago, before I knew anything about the history of urban design or considered the negative impacts of driving a car, I sold my car in an effort to cut personal costs. This decision unexpectedly altered my personal values and the course of my life forever. I always knew I wanted to work towards something I believed in and to join forces with likeminded people, but I didn't know where to direct my energy. I care about a lot of things---the negative impacts of food manufacturing, animal rights, the houseless crisis, lack of access for medical care, excessive tuition rates for college students---but I didn't know where to direct my energy. A career advisor had me list out everything I was passionate about, and lack of access in transportation was the one that stood out the most. All of the issues touched my life in some way, but this one seemed to intimately impact me and members of my community on a personal basis every single day. She informed me about The Street Trust, and I learned about the successful efforts already being made to address this issue, and when I realized it was actually possible to change my and my community's environment, I became determined to take my activism to the next step by collaborating with this organization.
My area of study as an English major in the humanities has trained me to utilize language as a tool to connect the interrelationships between ideologies, institutions, communities, and the individual. This desire to make connections has been embodied in my work through transportation advocacy, because the fundamental goal of transportation is to facilitate human connection.
The Street Trust began in 1991 as The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA). After a group of volunteers successfully petitioned Trimet to make accommodations for cyclists on buses, streetcars, and MAX lines, the BTA officially formed into a nonprofit community-based organization. The name changed to The Street Trust in 2017 in an effort to promote climate activism and transportation justice across all modes of active transportation---including but not limited to pedestrians, transit-users, ebike cyclists, etc.
UNST goals
The Street Trust approaches their work through an equity-focused lens that prioritizes the needs of historically underserved communities. Transportation is a facet of modern life that impacts all communities, but access to sidewalks, bike lanes, transit stops, etc. varies widely across neighborhoods throughout the city and the state. These inequalities built in to the built environment disproportionately threaten safety and limit access to varying modes of transportation to BIPOC individuals, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA2S+ folks, and more.
Rather than assuming the needs of these priority communities, The Street Trust hosts listening sessions in partnership with other community-based organizations to hear the unique challenges and barriers to access experienced by individuals. Through listening sessions and other data-gathering efforts, such as surveys, tabling events, and conversations had through group bike rides, the Street Trust staff collaborates to develop programming and educational workshops to address these inequalities.
My work at the street trust
Winter term 2023, a PSU Grants Writing course allowed me the opportunity to begin an internship working at The Street Trust. My responsibilities initially included copyediting grant applications. As I combed through the language to find and edit redundancies and to incorporate sentence variety, I began to develop a growing understanding of The Street Trust's wide variety of programs, events, workshops, and research.
After establishing this foundation of understanding, I helped to draft a substantial portion of a proposal for a project relating to e-bikes and equity with a focus on BIPOC and low income communities.
This course allowed me to continue to work and expand my relationship with The Street Trust. My main project this term involves drafting a portion of the Metro grant report. I've been tasked with identifying every educational workshop and community-building event the Street Trust has hosted, compiling them into a document, and utilizing research and feedback to explain to grantors the impact these efforts have had on their respective priority community.