During Impact Week (April 9–13, 2018), whose theme is Purpose + Profit, UCLA Anderson is highlighting stories of mission-driven careers, companies and projects that fulfill unmet needs in sectors from entertainment to real estate. On April 16, Anderson presents the annual Energy Innovation Conference, which focuses on companies striving for energy resiliency through new technologies, robust policy and inventive business models.
UCLA Anderson Inspirational 100 alumnus Gil Penalosa (’84) believes in government’s ability and authority to build and maintain urban infrastructures that can enhance a city’s livability. But he also believes that, in most cities, the efforts and policies are mismanaged. Take public transportation and traffic congestion mitigation. “No private-sector company is going to solve the mobility problem,” Penalosa says. “Not one city in the world solves the problem through the private sector — public transit has to be run by governments. But the public sector should do more steering and less rowing. You can outsource the rowing.”
Founder and chair of the board of the Toronto-based nonprofit 8 80 Cities and chair of the board of World Urban Parks, Penalosa works internationally as a consultant and strategic advisor to both public and private institutions looking to create vibrant urban systems. Penalosa has one catch phrase he considers the real key to making cities livable: healthy mobility. When people can safely navigate their communities on foot, bicycle or wheelchair, he says, a chain reaction of mental and physical health benefits follows. This raises the quality of life for every citizen, including the most vulnerable — the very young, the very old and the very poor.
Penalosa is counted among the Top 10 Most Influential Hispanic Canadians and was named one of Planetizen’s 100 Most Influential Urbanists of 2017. In the 1990s he was parks commissioner in Bogotà, Colombia, where he transformed the parks system and the world-renowned Ciclovía open streets initiative, in which 1.7 million people — and zero cars — participate every Sunday. This inspired L.A.’s own CicLAvia, co-founded by fellow Anderson alumnus Aaron Paley(’85).
A metropolis such as Los Angeles faces urban challenges on a grand scale, from air quality to childhood obesity to safe public spaces. Penalosa, who admires Mayor Eric Garcetti’s support of open streets initiatives and public transit, believes City Hall could use business-minded staffers with effective marketing strategies. “Every project the city’s doing needs managerial expertise.” But, he says, “Walking and cycling are not associated with prosperity. Anderson students could open government’s mind.” Penalosa thinks L.A. is positioned to set a prime example of how to solve urban problems — provided the city looks to the rest of the world for best practices.
If “healthy mobility” is Penalosa’s refrain, it’s uttered in good company with his many other maxims and credos, which he had occasion to share with a UCLA audience organized by UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, as part of statewide transportation nonprofit CALACT’s spring conference and expo:
- “Become guardians of the gentle majority.” Promote and accommodate multigenerational participation in public spaces. Apply business-minded planning and management, which then guides maintenance.
- “Change is not unanimous. Copenhagen didn’t transform overnight, either. Change is hard!” And be prepared: Impending change can bring out the CAVE people — Citizens Against Virtually Everything.
- “Integrate, don’t segregate.” The most vulnerable populations should determine how streets are shared and used.
- “Focus on happiness, and where it comes from.” Keep pace with population growth by changing our approach to it. Cities can’t rely on the same housing or job solutions of the last 40 years. Increase density with community in mind, not the isolated individual.
- “If our best and brightest people are going to just focus on how to make money, we’re doomed. Jobs will go to those with fourth-tier qualifications.”
- “The U.S. has never been so wealthy. But the happiness index isn’t on the rise. We need to change our measurements of success.” Income and finances indicate only personal success; they do not measure the long-term health of whole societies.
- “The general interest must prevail over the particular. When you say ‘no’ to more parks, you might be saying ‘yes’ to something else, like more traffic or more depression.”
- “Public spaces are great equalizers. What’s a good community? One where I want to sleep at home, but live outside.”
Read more about Gil Penalosa and healthy mobility on the UCLA ITS blog.
Such measures most often enhance the effectiveness of "hard" measures within urban transport (e.g. new tram lines, new roads or bike lanes). In comparison to "hard" measures, mobility management measures do not necessarily require large financial investments and may have a high benefit-cost ratio.
Posted by: Pankaj Rattan | 04/12/2018 at 11:29 PM