This is a picture of me back in 2010 after I completed another commuter century – where I rode my bike to work and home more than 100 times. It expresses for me the joy of living without a car and having the health and privilege to be able to choose this means of commuting.

Would you be willing to give up your car for the sake of the climate if you knew that doing so would help us meet our emission reduction goals? That question brings up a lot of questions about your belief in our future. Will we be able to innovate ourselves out of the climate crisis and therefore individual transportation will still be viable? Or will we be seeing a reckoning with the natural limits of our biosphere that necessitates a reimagining of our transportation infrastructure?   

I believe that our biosphere is already telling us that billions of cars, even electric cars, is not a sustainable transportation system. I understand that not everyone agrees with that view of the future. So we have to focus on common interests that will drive choices towards our sustainable transportation future. How about the fact that not owning a car is a huge financial boon? And that we spend untold millions of dollars on transportation infrastructure to support cars here in Nevada? Or that shared transportation infrastructure is a more equitable solution for our community? Can these common interests in our own economic wellbeing, our spending priorities, and equity drive behaviors across our beliefs about what the future holds?