Moving Designers and Chicago activist-citizens filled the Wright auction room for an evening with Rob Forbes, founder of Public Bikes and Adolfo Hernandez, Director of Outreach & Advocacy at Active Transportation Alliance.
Rob and Adolfo exchanged passionate insights into the issues surrounding bike safety and urban mobility.
Dana Arnett, CEO of VSA Partners, sponsored the evening.
James Goggin is the design director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. He shared with us his experiences running a workshop through the Werkplaats Typografie, where he taught in 2009. Before that, he ran his own studio named Practise.
(Due to a short power outage the first few minutes of his presentation were cut out)
Dawn Hancock of Firebelly joined us and shared her experience running a design studio focussed on helping non-profits make a difference. She also heads the Firebelly Foundation, and is starting Firebelly University this fall.
Katherine Darnstadt is the director for the Chicago chapter of Architecture for Humanity, a 100% volunteer organization. With the motto Design like you give a damn, Architecture for Humanity brings architects together with the greater good. Katherine shares two projects in Chicago: Fresh Moves, a mobile fresh food market, and the Street Furniture competition results of 2010 and 2011.
A note from Katherine:
Rick and Lyndon,
I enjoyed talking with your movers and the pointed questions. It’s always a pleasure to know our work is appreciated and resonates with all parallel creatives. I hope you will invite me to the final review and celebration and I will keep checking the website for updates.
Congrats on the 24/7 Creative Community Grant!
Katherine Darnstadt
Jim Freeman is a lawyer who serves Chicago area cyclists, pedestrians, and transit riders who are the victims of injury. As an avid cyclist himself, he shared a wealth of knowledge about how to be safe and responsible as a cyclist. Some of the points he shared were that the traffic side of bike lanes are actually safer to ride on, since it places you farther away from the parked car doors. When riding in a bike lane, there’s a higher chance of being doored than hit from behind from traffic. He also pointed to the importance of headlights (required by Illinois law) to make yourself visible as a cyclist.
Make sure to check out his blog where he shares more insights.
Jason Jenkins is the education specialist for the Active Transportation Alliance. He shared with us the rules of the road, and answered our many questions regarding the exact rights, laws, and practices regarding bicyclists.
Alderman Rey Colón has taken an innovative approach to increase resident participation in some of the planning and local government policy work done in Logan Square. He also has a clear vision of improving the quality of life in the neighborhood. Two relevant points are: wanting to see more efforts to beautify the streets, and increase foot traffic, through cleaner, greener, and safer streets. You can read more about it on his website.
Dr. Joel Press joined us to share his personal experiences as an avid cyclist. He had the rare opportunity to combine his vocational interests with his avocational interests by cycling across the United States to raise funds for the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. He was able to raise $1.7 million, an amazing feat. He related his experience with the reasons why he believes people like to ride bikes:
On our first session of Call to Action, Adolfo Hernandez of the Active Transportation Alliance joined us to share some of the insights he has been exposed to in various cities across the world. He reminded us that big changes can be made with very minimal budgets. Just a few buckets of paint, and some planters are often all it takes to implement a street scape redesign, resulting in a safer environment for not only bikers and pedestrians, but drivers as well.