Assistant Professor of Design, UC Davis
Beth Ferguson is an Assistant Professor of Design at UC Davis. She is an ecological designer whose practice blends industrial design with sustainable transportation, solar engineering, climate resiliency, and public engagement.
She is the founder of the Adapting City Lab, whose work includes micromobility systems, sustainable product design, and resiliency planning for a changing climate. She also the director of Sol Design Lab, a design/build studio that specializes in solar charging stations, and was awarded the Austin Green Award in 2017 for the Austin Energy Electric Drive Solar Kiosk. She participated in the Resilient by Design Bay Area Challenge with the interdisciplinary team Public Sediment, which won the Honor Award for Analysis and Planning from the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Best Places Award from the Environmental Design Research Association in 2019. Her interdisciplinary work has been exhibited at the Exploratorium Museum and the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum.
Mobility Hubs for Active Transit and Decarbonization
The climate crisis has created an urgent need to transition out of fossil fuel transportation and into lower carbon options like active mobility (walking and biking), micromobility (electric bikes and scooters), and public transit. New infrastructure and innovation are necessary for our car-centric cities to support low carbon mobility and transit-oriented housing, and to untangle communities from traffic congestion.
According to the “Making COP26 Count” report from C40 Cities Mayors network, “Public transport must double in cities over the next decade to meet the 1.5°C target” and prevent extreme climate change. In spring 2021, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission launched their new Mobility Hubs program in the San Francisco Bay Area, which uses their new design tool playbook to establish pilot sites that bring together forms of mobility other than private vehicles.
Could we make the first and last mile transit problem easier with urban street improvements for pedestrians and bicycles, instead of cars? https://www.adaptingcity.org/
In this session, you will learn:
