Riding a bike can make you feel like a kid again - and if you commute on your bike, or use other forms of alternative transportation to get where you’re going - it can help reduce carbon emissions in our state, too.
How can we make alternative transportation safe and accessible for all Georgians? What do you need to start biking, walking, or rolling to work? How does alternative transportation intersect with issues of equity in Georgia?
You’ll find the answers to these questions and more in this Georgia Climate Digest video conversation between Eriqah Vincent of Drawdown Georgia and John Devine of Go Georgia (formerly Georgia Bikes).
John also shares why he loves biking in Georgia and offers helpful advice for expanding safe and sustainable transportation options like walking, biking, and rolling in your community.
Alternative Transportation Interview and Highlights
Highlights:
Exploring the connection between Go Georgia’s mission and reducing greenhouse gas emissions [3:18 - 4:46]
John discusses the intersection between equity and alternative transportation [10:12 - 11:37]
Steps you can take to help expand alternative transportation options in your community and across the state [18:43 - 21:35]
John shares his favorite things about riding a bike in Georgia [22:29 - 23:53]
A lightly edited transcript follows:
John Devine of Go Georgia Discusses Alternative Transportation
Eriqah Vincent: We are joined today by John Devine from Go Georgia, formerly Georgia Bikes. I'd love for you to tell us a little bit more about yourself and what brought you to the climate-related work you do.
John Devine: I'm the executive director of Go Georgia, very recently Georgia Bikes. We launched our new brand to account for people who walk and roll, in addition to people who ride bikes, throughout Georgia. The tagline that we're using is, “Your voice for active transportation and recreation.” We aim to serve everyone throughout the state who gets around on foot, in a wheelchair, on a scooter, or on a bicycle.
I came to the organization from a background in city planning. I joined what was then Georgia Bikes three years ago after having spent 20 years in the public sector. As a community and regional planner, most of my employment was helping cities and counties grow to be better places.
My job was to help them assemble all those parts, look inward, and then put a blueprint together to help them achieve these things. I was happiest doing that job when I was working on biking and walking plans and on projects like the Firefly Trail that starts here in Athens.
Expanding Alternative Transportation as a Climate Solution
Eriqah: What is the climate-related work that Go Georgia is working on?
John: I would say that almost everything we do at Go Georgia is at least somewhat climate-related, right? When we teach kids about safe cycling, or we teach law enforcement officers how to protect us while we're out on the roadway, we are making communities better across the state for biking and walking.
This is inherently going to reduce emissions from transportation and fight climate change in maybe the most bottom-up way that we know how: by creating a sense in communities that people can walk and bike more, and that they can do so safely.
The other big component of the work that we're doing at Go Georgia is to make our communities better places through infrastructure, planning, policy, and advocacy. We try to be active across all levels of government to make cities and counties in Georgia better places to ride a bike, take a walk, be a wheelchair user, and access your community outside of a car.
Inherently, that has to come full circle back into climate activism because we are simply giving people the tools they need to be less impactful on the climate.
Eriqah: I love that. I live in the suburbs of Atlanta, and I'm a big advocate for Live-Work-Play. I think people get nervous about that kind of verbiage because sometimes it means gentrification, but I'm a big advocate of that type of active community.
Why are you passionate about alternative transportation as a climate solution in Georgia?
John: It occurred to me about a year into my time at my organization that I was basically doing the job that I had always wanted to do from the time that I was still in grad school.
When we first moved to Athens, I found our local advocacy organization, Bike Athens. I ended up joining the board of Bike Athens and got very involved in local advocacy to make this a better community and keep people safe out there.
Part of that is a choice for people like me. Whether through physical ability or access to resources, I have the choice to drive, walk, take the bus, or bike. There are a lot of people who are in a position where they can't afford to have a private automobile, or they have a disability that prohibits them from driving or riding a bike, or they live in an area where biking is not going to make sense for them.
I think it's a challenge for Go Georgia to represent that entire spectrum of people who bike, walk, and roll. We're still trying to find out how that works, and we will be for a while.
So right now we’ve identified biking, walking, and rolling as a means to lowering emissions and fighting climate change. Fantastic. What are the implementation measures?
On our team of four staff at Go Georgia, two of us are certified AICP planners. This means we're very focused on the mechanisms for getting to the end goal.
We're really excited about digging in with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Atlanta Regional Commission, and our partners at the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), to say, “Look, somebody's got to implement these great policy goals.”
The Intersection of Alternative Transportation and Equity
Eriqah: So I talked a little bit about Live-Work-Play, and you've talked about issues around disabilities and people who, for whatever reason, aren't able to own a car, but also the need for alternative versions of transportation for emissions reductions. Can you talk more about how alternative transportation intersects with the issue of equity in Georgia?
John: First, we are working on behalf of people, to get them safely from place to place. If we're not doing that at the root of our daily and long-term work, then we're failing. It's most important for us to do what we can to help level the playing field, to facilitate people being able to get around equitably, fairly, and with as little impact on climate as we can.
One key thing to think about in everything we do is the people who have to be out there. The people who don't have another choice.
If we look at a dangerous roadway, for example, it's not good enough to just say, “I don't think that people are going to be biking there or walking there.” Because they might have to if they don't have other options to get back and forth to work every day.
Also, you mentioned gentrification, which is a big topic because public investment may affect people's ability to stay in their homes, right? As a city or county invests in a neighborhood, it's probably going to increase the value of homes in that neighborhood, which can make it more difficult for people to stay where they are.
If you look at multi-use trails, they often go through neighborhoods. That feels great when you live there, but it may not feel so great when the value of your property increases and you open your property tax bill. I may live in a better neighborhood now, and I may have an easier time getting around, but am I going to be able to live in this neighborhood in the future?
It's not a problem that our little nonprofit in the transportation and recreation sectors can solve, but it is something we need to be aware of in everything we do. We can't just say, “Let somebody else worry about that.“
Eriqah: I think it's important for all of us to do the few things we do really well. If we're doing them collaboratively with all the voices in the room, even the two of us here can make sure that all of those voices are at the table and all those things are being considered.
Folks who live in historically underinvested neighborhoods also want green space and trails and safe spaces for their children to play, just as much as people who might live in higher-income neighborhoods do. So making sure that they have that as well while also being able to stay in their neighborhoods is important.
The Sustainable Transportation Toolkit from Drawdown Georgia
Switching gears a little bit, you authored Drawdown Georgia's Sustainable Transportation Toolkit. Tell us about it and why Georgians should take a look at it.
John: If you're new to the idea of commuting or even going to the grocery store on foot or on bike or other means of sustainable transportation, this is a great place to get started.
For example, the toolkit has advice to help you pick out the right kind of bike for commuting. At first, the best bike is usually the one you already have. Don't spend too much time worrying about what your bike looks like compared to other people's bikes. If it works and it's safe, then it's a great commuter bike to start with because it's going to allow you to try out the idea of commuting by bike without a major investment.
All of this is in the toolkit, as well as lists of different resources for local groups that you might want to connect with.
There is some good data in there, too, about the potential impacts that we as individuals can have collectively on a state level in reducing the emissions from the transportation sector in Georgia. Making these types of changes as an individual might not feel significant, but on a statewide level, those impacts really do add up.
Checking out the toolkit is a great way to learn just about everything you'll want to know to get started with commuting in an active and sustainable way.
Eriqah: Thank you so much. I hope people will check out that sustainable transportation toolkit.
How to Scale Alternative Transportation as a Climate Solution in Georgia
What are some concrete steps that the Georgia climate community can take to help grow alternative transportation at the local level?
John: If there is a local organization in your community doing work in active transportation and recreation, link up with them. GeorgiaBikes.org has a list of local bike/walk organizations throughout the state. If there's one in your community, please contact them and see how you can help.
If there isn’t a local group, then there are opportunities to create that kind of work from the ground up in your community. You can start very small by organizing your neighbors and getting friends together who may be like-minded on the need to advocate for climate solutions through active transportation in your community.
One great way to begin is to conduct a walking audit of your area. Pick an area about a half mile long that gets a lot of traffic on foot or on bike, and look at how safe or unsafe it is to walk or bike through this corridor.
Better yet, ask someone from your city or county transportation department to come with you. It helps to have a local elected official there to be able to take it all in and have a better sense of what's happening in their district.
We love to be able to work with communities and assist them in putting together a connectivity concept that demonstrates how to connect residents with their destinations through “complete streets” infrastructure and multi-use trails.
If that's something that is of interest to your community, you can reach out to planning@georgiabikes.org, and we can try to help you with high-level conceptual planning that can get your community thinking about how it may connect for people to bike, walk, and work.
Otherwise, I think one great thing about climate-related work is that there are a lot of people who support it, right? We hear a lot about skeptics, but there are far more people who understand the challenge and are prepared to meet it in their own way.
When you find those people in your community, start a local “bike to work” day. It doesn't have to be the national Bike to Work Day in May, you could do it in November if you want to. Just get people organized to try something out together.
The Mental Health Benefits of Alternative Transportation
Eriqah: What's your favorite thing about riding a bike in Georgia?
John: I think my favorite thing about riding a bike in Georgia is that it never fails to make me feel like a kid again. I get on my bike and feel the freedom I felt when I rode my bike around my neighborhood at three years old with my older cousins who lived down the street.
When I get on my bike now, I still feel that sense of fun and being more at ease. You get onto your bike and you may feel your blood pressure drop a little bit, or you may feel your stress levels drop a little bit.
I ride my bike around town quite a bit for transportation, and I ride trails on my bike, too. When I get into the woods on a mountain bike trail, that's another feeling apart from the freedom and relaxation.
The mountain bike feeling is a little different. There's a certain element of excitement in it that doesn't come from riding around town.
Eriqah: That's beautiful. I love rollerblading. That's been my main thing since I was really little. I started skating again around my subdivision when we first moved over here and I had the same experience: feeling like a kid, feeling that very healthy exposure to being outside.
So our last question, which we ask all of our interviewees: what's giving you hope around climate solutions in our state?
John: Conversations like this. Alliances that we have with groups like Drawdown Georgia.
Climate work is converging from different origins, industries, and sectors, and to me, that's starting to signify that it's bleeding into the general consciousness more than it has before. It's nice to see this overlap happening through a hub like Drawdown Georgia.
Alternative Transportation Growing Beyond a Niche Community in Georgia
Eriqah: You said something earlier about it all dovetailing together and being less siloed. I think you're absolutely right. And I also think that it's very easy, because of the images that we're inundated with every day, to believe you can't get anything done when it comes to climate in Georgia.
But folks are creative in Georgia. Folks have figured out ways to get things done in ways that aren’t political. I think the work that you all are doing at Go Georgia is a true testament to this ability to find ways to make it happen within the confines of what we can do with what we have.
That speaks to the resilience of the climate community, but also to your point that some folks just enjoy an activity like biking and may not even see it as taking a stance, but they're still contributing to reducing the emissions that cause climate change.
John: Yeah. The demographic of people riding around town or commuting on foot, they're not necessarily doing it because they are a climate advocate. People want to do it for a lot of different reasons. And now that it's not only environmentalists who are riding bikes or walking, I think the avalanche is gaining steam.
Once it gets to that critical mass of having more people do it and being more visible and being more representative of the statewide population, it will start to snowball and become this unstoppable movement of things that just happen regularly. I think it's going to be a regular part of urban and hopefully suburban and rural life in Georgia.
Eriqah: I totally agree. Thank you so much, John, and thank you for the work you are doing at Go Georgia. I think it's so important to have these conversations around all the ways that we are reducing our climate impact. We'll see you all next time.
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