Walking the Talk: Climate, Equity and LA-area Transportation and Land Use Decisions

About This Event

At Winter League Day in January 2020, we discussed the moves needed for Data-Driven Climate Action. Our region has adopted these actions as policy goals, but progress has been slow or nonexistent. Join our panel of scholars, planners and advocates as they assess whether our implementation and results match our goals and how to improve.

Confirmed Speakers:

• Michael Schneider, Founder of Streets for All
• Shelly Quan and Yu Hong Hwang, Award-Winning Graduates of UCLA's Institute of Transportation Studies
• Dr. Grace Peng, Director, Natural Resources, League of Women Voters of Los Angeles County

Dr Grace Peng is the Natural Resources chair for the League of Women Voters of Los Angeles County. Previously, she worked as a weather and climate analyst for The Aerospace Corporation, an Air Force-sponsored lab, where her duties included calibrating and validating weather satellite data, data life-cycle planning and data management. She also worked as a weather and climate data specialist for the National Center for Atmospheric Research where her duties included preparing data used in weather and climate models and helping users from government and industry use data effectively to make optimal decisions. She holds a BA in mathematics and a BS in chemistry from UC Berkeley, and a PhD in chemical physics from the U of Colorado, Boulder/the Joint Institute of Laboratory Astrophysics. She never stops learning; she spent the covid pandemic data crunching and earned a Specialized Certificate in Geographic Information Systems from UCSD Extension.

Shelly Quan has worked in public transportation in Los Angeles County for over seven years. Her professional work focuses on state transportation policy and grants. She recently received a Master of Urban and Regional Planning (MURP) degree with a concentration in transportation policy and planning from UCLA. She won the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) Capstone Prize for her research analyzing maps used by California agencies to implement the state’s long-term climate and planning goals. Her research highlights the disconnect between California’s stated priorities and their actual impacts, as demonstrated through housing.

Yu Hong Hwang is currently working as an assistant transportation engineer. He is another recent MURP graduate from UCLA’s ITS interested in the impacts of transportation planning/engineering on the experiences of users in the transportation system. He’s contributed to numerous research reports and policy papers about transportation equity, including the blockbuster, A Century of Fighting Traffic Congestion in Los Angeles. Any report that starts with “Understanding why traffic congestion matters are … not a matter of documenting real, observable conditions, but rather one of revealing shared cultural understandings.” is a must-read. In his free time, he likes to use that transportation system himself to explore hiking trails and dim sum spots.

Michael Schneider is a native Angeleno, it was built into Michael’s brain from birth that the only way to get around Los Angeles is by driving a car. And starting on his 16th birthday, that’s how he got around. Until the financial crisis in 2008. With his day job as a tech entrepreneur getting rocky along with the economy, Michael had to make some lifestyle changes – including getting rid of his expensive BMW lease. After a couple of years of using his Grandfather’s classic car – which was in the shop more than it was usable – Michael started to experiment with getting around town using a bicycle, something that seemed “crazy” and “impossible” to his native LA brain.

For the past nine years, Michael has gone all in, just getting around town on his bicycle – even to and from LAX. And despite the economy recovering and his ability to now afford a car, he thinks it would be crazy to get one. From never being late to look for parking to never having to worry about traffic to eating whatever you want and staying in shape to doing your part to not contribute to climate change – Michael truly believes that more people riding bicycles can save the planet and make our cities a more enjoyable place to live.

Michael founded Streets For All (streetsforall.org) in 2019 to promote freedom of choice around transportation in his hometown and he passionately believes that everyone has the right to get to where they are going safely, regardless of their mode of transportation. Streets For All is building the largest community of people that want to see a change in California and is activating them around events that will make change happen – including making sure the right people get elected to Los Angeles City Hall. He is also Chair of the Transportation and Sustainability Committee for Mid City West Neighborhood Council, is a board member of the Los Angeles Bicycle Advisory Committee, appointed as an alternate by Paul Koretz and representing Council District 5, and sits on Metro’s Sustainability Council.