The MAS Survey on Livability – Thu. 10/21, 9:50am

Friday Morning’s ‘Bike to the Summit’ – 7:30am

Paul Steely White is the executive director of Transportation Alternatives, a non-profit advocacy group at the center of New York City’s bike-lane and public-space boom. Paul joined Transportation Alternatives in 2004 after seven years as projects director for the New York City based Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (itdp.org).  Founded in 1973, the mission of Transportation Alternatives (transalt.org) is to reclaim New York City streets from the automobile and promote bicycling, walking and public transit as the best transportation alternatives.

Under Paul’s leadership, Transportation Alternatives has released dozens of groundbreaking studies on an array of urban planning issues and pioneered a host of new advocacy strategies such as citizen-led traffic enforcement, crowd-sourced parking studies and the playful (though questionably legal) transformation of car parking spaces to public parks. In the past four years, Transportation Alternatives dues-paying membership has doubled to 8,100, its staff has quadrupled to 20, and its base of subscribers, activists and volunteers has grown to 32,000. In 2010, T.A.’s priorities for New York City streets include a public bicycle share program similar to the popular Velib system in Paris.

Paul holds an MS in Environmental Science from the University of Montana at Missoula, where in addition to his research, he worked to foster bicycle culture and infrastructure. Paul is a frequent source for local and national media outlets, and has shared his advocacy strategies with audiences around the world. When he is not fighting for a less car-centric city, he is playing in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park with his wife Zoe and their baby daughter, Anna Jane White.