IDEASS Presentations at Green Drinks Last Week

Last Tuesday on April 1, two teams of students from the Impact Designs: Engineering & Sustainability through Student Service (IDEASS) program spoke at Green Drinks Santa Cruz at Cafe Mare in downtown Santa Cruz. Both projects were related to sustainable transportation--one focused on electric vehicle charging stations and the other (our project) on bicycle transit planning and education. 

Green Drinks Santa Cruz is an informal networking event where environmentally-minded people meet over drinks, and it meets at different local restaurants each month on the first Tuesday. There was a great turnout for the April meeting, and after enjoying some drinks and happy hour appetizers, the Electric Vehicle Charging Station Team presented first. Team members Jessica, Dannah, and Amrita shared some of their initial findings from data collection at charging stations in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. They continue to work on the project as the school year progresses, and they were able to get some useful feedback on directions to go and trends to analyze from the community members who attended the presentation.

Their EV project is described on their UCSC Project Clearinghouse page:

"Our overarching sustainability goal for the transportation sector is more electric vehicles on the road that will ultimately reduce GHG and particle emissions and will put a more sustainable fuel source into widespread use. To achieve that goal we are working with Monterey Bay Electric Vehicle Alliance, a local non-profit organization, to analyze data from EV charging stations in Santa Cruz County and Monterey County. ... 

"This project primarily involves two components. The first component is data analysis, which involves retrieving information from EV charging station owners. Once the data has been retrieved, our team will look for trends and analyze the data for any significant correlations. The second component of our project will involve data visualization via GIS [geographic information systems] mapping, reports, and graphs for ease of public viewing."

After the EV Charging Team presented and the audience asked questions and provided feedback, it was our turn to present about our Bicycle Transit Planning project. You can view our presentation on Google Drive here and read more about our project on our webpage here.

Aly and I spoke about the various aspects of our project, including our bike commuting workshops for the community and local businesses, our survey analysis from these workshops, our educational efforts at community events on and off-campus, and our work to get an automated bicycle counter installed at the Arana Gulch Multi-use Trail. 

The audience had a lot to say regarding their perspectives and frustrations with the current bicycle infrastructure in Santa Cruz and the U.S. in general. Suggestions included installing safer roadway features than just a stripe of paint on the ground for a bike lane, working to educate drivers more on rights of bicyclists, working to educate bicyclists more on rules of the road, and more. It was helpful to have our project mentors, Tiffany Wise-West from the City of Santa Cruz Climate Action Program and Amelia Conlen, Director of People Power of Santa Cruz County, in the audience to answer questions and provide some support in addition to the answers we could provide. 

After our presentation, folks mingled in the restaurant and made connections, discussing topics further. Aly and I spoke with "Cosmic Joe" who among other pursuits leads the star-gazing workshops through the UC Santa Cruz Recreation Department. He was really supportive of our work, and it was nice to speak one on one with a community member who was learning about our project for the first time. It was also nice to realize how much of a hot topic bicycling is for our community--the amount of comments and frustrations expressed with the current state of bicycling was awesome evidence that our work is really necessary and valued.

We're grateful to have had the opportunity to present at Green Drinks, and we look forward to future opportunities to engage with the community. We hope to see you at the UCSC Community & Arts Festival this Saturday at Abbot Square downtown (10 - 3 PM) and next Saturday at the Earth Day Celebration at San Lorenzo Park (11 - 4 PM). Thanks for reading!

Thanks to Hannah Hodgson for the photographs and for organizing Green Drinks Santa Cruz!