Reflecting after a Black History Month unlike any other 2020 was a pivotal year because of the pandemic, the abysmal federal governmental response, and the amplified call for racial justice following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the state. Racism has a long history in the United States and one of the…
Looking toward a better 2021. With such a difficult year behind us, it feels impossible to make resolutions fearing they may jinx an already chaotic 2021, or perhaps delay the desired ‘return to normalcy.’ Personally it may feel impossible to make resolutions with so much still in flux. However, this past year has been a…
While glimmers of hope about an impending vaccine glimmer in the future, the coronavirus still rages on. The toll the pandemic has taken on people’s lives and health will be difficult to measure for a long time coming, but there is no question that our livelihoods and norms have changed. One hopeful outcome has been…
In a year of turmoil, changes, and unrest, the world’s cities have not stopped making necessary improvements and working towards more sustainable solutions for their residents. From throughout the world, the Sustainable Transport Award (STA) Committee received an unprecedented 30 applications from cities making walking, cycling, and safety a priority. Applications for the STA have…
September marks six months since New York City imposed it’s PAUSE restrictions which encouraged people to stay indoors as much as possible and forced many offices, stores, and restaurants to close. Six months later, New York City, like the rest of the world, is transformed. Still the question remains: can the pandemic be used as…
Everett, Massachusetts, is a city directly bordering Boston. It has an ethnically diverse population of 40,000 people––one-third of whom were born outside of the United States. The population has a large age range––with almost equal amounts of people of each age, meaning seniors and families predominate. The per capita income for the city is just…
Ms Pranjali Deshpande is an Architect and Urban planner. She works on sustainable mobility projects with various government agencies. She is currently working as an independent professional with the World Bank and French Development Agency. She worked with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy over a decade on street design, Bus Rapid Transit, Parking…
Pranjal started working with the ITDP India Programme in 2016 and is involved in various urban development projects like Complete Streets, Cycle Sharing systems, Parking management, and Transit-Oriented Development. An Architect-Urban Designer from Mumbai, Pranjal completed his Master’s in Urban Design from C.E.P.T. University, Ahmedabad, in 2016 and his undergraduate degree in architecture from National…
How did you first become interested in the sustainable urban transport field? Before joining politics, I was the leader and founder of a civic organization that gained immense popularity – especially among Albanian youth – for its novel and peaceful protest methods. Our goal was to raise awareness of important issues that hindered the quality…