Prior to your time here at Cal, how did you get around? How did the people around you get around?

This answer changes from person to person—or does it? In reality, with roughly 77% of the country driving to work, there’s a good chance that your answer involves a car in some form. Car dependency is a facet of life here in America, and it has been this way for decades.

That being said, things are changing. The younger generations have been overall using transit more than prior generations, along with delaying getting their driver’s license. Add in climate change and the impact the personal vehicle has had on accelerating it, we need solutions now. That being said, what should the solutions be? How should we go about picking the means that best fits the problem?

It is my hope that through this course and the discussions we will have in class, you will gain the ability to critically look at transit solutions and push for change. We will largely do this by looking at a different transit system every week and analyzing it under three different facets.

More details are in the syllabus, linked above under course website! Both the readings and topic order are subject to change.

02/04/25 update: The course is now full! That being said, if you're still interested, please enroll yourself onto the waitlist! People will definitely drop, so you're super likely to get in! The university add course deadline without a fee is February 7th at 11:59 PM, so you still have time! ~~~ Enrollment is first-come, first-served, no application process necessary! If the class is full, put yourself on the waitlist; DeCals generally have a fair amount of attrition, so you're likely to end up enrolled. Go into the Enrollment Center in CalCentral and look up class #20841 to enroll yourself. I look forward to seeing you in class on February 6th!