How does transportation affect climate change? What can cities and residents do to promote sustainable transportation? This FIG uses Eugene as a laboratory to examine how transportation affects climate change and what to do about it. Considers the politics and equity implications of shifting to greener ways to travel. We will explore the city by bicycle, bus, and foot through fun activities and field trips throughout the term. We’ll examine recent investments in bus rapid transit and bicycle infrastructure in the city of Eugene to connect it to the concepts we discuss in courses.
Students explore the intersection of topics by taking the following course package:
UGST 109 First-Year Experience Seminar - 1-credit
PPPM 205 Introduction to City Planning - CoreEd or major satisfying course, 4-credits
Introduction to City Planning introduces students to the field of city planning an academic discipline that synthesizes a diverse set of fields, thinks about how the world should ideally be, then figures out how to move in that direction. The course will cover a range of focal areas in the field of planning including: physical and land use planning, public health, housing, community development, social equity, environmental planning and transportation planning. The purpose of the course is to give students a general context of what planning is, the topics it deals with, and to convey that the way cities are designed and function is lively and ever
changing. Ultimately, the purpose of this course is to inspire students to see that the field of city planning is a mechanism to make the world a better place.
ENVS 203 Introduction to Environmental Studies: Humanities - CoreEd or major satisfying course, 4-credits
In this course we will learn about what the Humanities are, as an interdisciplinary field, and how Humanities methods and research contribute to environmental thought and action. The class involves reading and research but also creativity and innovation. It is a lab in which we will think together about the possible futures of our stressed planet and how to harness imagination in the service of sustainability.