This blog is for me to post different assignments, observations, thoughts, pictures, and whatever else I come across while taking my Sustainable Urban Mobility course in Delft, The Netherlands in August 2019!

I'm excited for this course to see firsthand successful multimodal transportation infrastructure and sustainable land use in action and to have the opportunity to learn from those who shape and are shaped by it. I'm entering my last year as a student at the University of Florida studying transportation engineering and I'd like to be able to have a role creating and implementing similarly human-focused design here in the US when I move into my career.

I'm looking forward to comparing the daily transportation choices people make in the Netherlands with what I'm familiar with as part of my routine. I've been fortunate to be able to utilize a wide range of transportation options since I've lived in Gainesville, Florida the last few years. Gainesville is a small city but has a somewhat dense core between the downtown and campus areas that supports other options besides driving. As of 2017, it had the 16th-highest share of bicycle commuters in the country with just under a 5% modal share and also has a fairly extensive local bus transit system with many routes that I'm able to take advantage of when travelling between home, classes, and errands. Good by Florida standards is still a ways away from a truly accessible, safe, and useful range of transportation choices for all citizens like is common in the Netherlands, though. Hopefully one day we can move closer to that potential!