Wise words from VP Harris for bike, transit, and street safety advocates
Transportation advocacy is all about “What Can Be, Unburdened By What Has Been.”
Vice President and presumptive Democratic Party Presidential nominee Kamala Harris has a phrase she frequently uses “What Can Be, Unburdened By What Has Been.” It has been memed, examined, and the Republicans even made a super clip compilation video of her saying it. As transportation advocates, the Vice President’s saying, encapsulates so much of what we are trying to do as a movement.
America’s transportation system’s “what has been” is car-domination. Car domination directly killed nearly 45,000 people in America last year in crashes. It cooks our planet as the single largest source of carbon emissions. And when our communities prioritize cars over people, they are hostile places to walk and be.
As bike, transit, and street safety advocates, our work tries to steer our communities away from that. However, that same car-domination burdens our communities’ ability to imagine and build a better “what can be.” For example, when I talk to merchants about how a new protected bike lane will help them get more customers, it can be hard for some of them to imagine how that is true. Or when we push government agencies to fund transit service to the levels we need, the agencies are chained to the paltry baseline of transit funding so they want to keep any increase in concordance with that “what has been.”
A wonderful thing about our movement is that it is filled with people who are actively imagining and fighting for “What Can Be, Unburdened By What Has Been.” Heck, a huge swath of bike/transit/urbanism social media content creation is just people imagining what can be– with the creators burdened to various levels about what has been. We can imagine (and have seen/experienced!) frequent buses, protected bike lanes, high speed rail networks, and safer streets. As transportation advocates, we know that the future can be better than the present.
That is something special about each transportation advocate. Whether we want a pedestrian plaza or a new transit line– we know that change is possible and that it would be great. But not everyone in our communities’ is similarly unburdened by what has been. Business owners can have a hard time imagining customers getting to them in any way that doesn’t involve parking directly in front of their shop. Politicians can have a hard time seeing that their communities would in fact be thrilled, rather than angry, if they slowed car traffic to make streets safer. And people of all sorts can have trouble imagining that they themselves would get around differently if they had better options.
It is our role as transportation advocates to help unburden others so they can join ourselves in imagining and wanting that better future.
There are four key parts of that:
Do that internal work for ourselves. If you can’t imagine a better future and see a path to victory, you cannot show someone else the way. Cynicism and despair prevent change and so does getting high on hopium. We need to chart realistic paths to our big dreams. In transportation, we deal with lots of material realities (like railway right of ways). Those aren’t our burdens though, they are tools we can work with. Some of “what has been” can help us in our paths forward. Some holds us back. Keep what helps, ditch the rest.
Communicate with others in a way that much of their worldview can fit into the overarching vision you are presenting. For example– I’ve often encountered people thinking along the lines of “drivers here are selfish and nuts. No road change will fix that.” I don’t say no to them. I say “you’re right, drivers are selfish. They don’t care about hitting you or me, but they don’t want to scratch their car. That’s why a concrete barrier here [point to the street] would force them to drive slower. You are totally right that signs or lights won’t work because they are selfish. But they don’t want to hurt themselves which is exactly why we need this concrete protection for folks like you and me.” That, coupled with handing them the petition to sign, works shockingly well.
Make it easy for someone to take meaningful action. Winning change takes doing stuff. Talking about stuff and educating others is fine– if that then translates to taking action. It could be a protest, an event, a “let’s all call our rep with that demand” or whatever. The aim is to convert energy into action. Make it easy for people to do it. Make the petition, organize an event, give out the phone number of the elected official you want to push. Make it easy for people to say “sure” and they will.
Talk with strangers, ideally directly. Our communications era is one where anyone can broadcast a wide message (like I’m doing now!). This means people are flooded with communications addressing them as part of an audience. Cut through that flooded environment, with direct, and personal conversation. Talk with people, not at them. Listen to what they have to say. Throw out the scripts and talk with them as the unique individuals they are.
This might seem like a lot of work, but as a transportation advocate, you don’t need to get someone to change how they think about everything. You just need to get them to the point of being comfortable taking the meaningful action you are asking of them. So, when you are petitioning for that new bus line or bike lane, you don’t need to help someone fully see “What Can Be, Unburdened By What Has Been,” you just need to help unburden them enough on the subject at hand so that they can take action.
And as transportation advocates, each of our victories builds on itself. A bike lane becomes a bike network, improved transit service leads to larger transit rider constituencies. We can win, and we will win– if we put in the right work.
Need help winning transportation changes in your community? I’m here to help! Whether you want a 1-on-1 training session or a group workshop, let’s talk. Email me at Carter@carterlavin.com to set something up. Here’s a bit about what training sessions are like
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