Our First Book Club!
After switching gears from a Transit to Trails hike, which was one of our original event plans for 2020, we decided a virtual transportation themed Book Club was a good socially distant remedy in an odd pandemic year. After sending out a survey with some book options, YPT Seattle members met up online a few weeks later and had a great conversation about Dr. Adonia Lugo’s book Bicycle/Race Transportation, Culture, & Resistance. YPTers from not just YPT Seattle, but the YPT Chicago chapter also joined in to discuss the book. After intros and an ice breakers, we started diving into the book with these questions at hand:
What was something that you learned and want to share with the group?
Were there any questions the book made you think of that you might like to discuss?
(Photo taken during our virtual Zoom Book Club event! 10/14/2020. Since we are living in pandemic we had YPTers join in from Cincinati, Chicago, Tacoma, and Seattle!)
This led to us discussing themes of human and social infrastructure including Ciclovia in Bogota, Colombia, Los Angeles, CA, and bike libraries in Chicago and other cities. Attendees cited Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) organizations including Equiticity in Chicago, IL, Girls on Bikes in Newark NJ, Pedalpalooza in Portland, OR, and the Northstar Cycling Club in Seattle,WA. These BIPOC organizations are doing some great work to build human infrastructure vs. physical infrastructure. We also discussed Vision Zero and the equity of transportation programs based on an excerpt in the book about concerns that Vision Zero may be problematic for minority communities related to over policing.
Attendees wanted to know what book we will be reading next. They will have to stay tuned to see what the YPT Seattle leadership team decides to do in 2021. In the meantime, if you are looking for a book to read, here are some books referenced in Adonia’s book that are worth checking out:
In addition, this interview with Adonia is worth checking out as well as this Seattle based project Adonia worked on and mentions in the book: Seattle Bike Justice Project.
