Medium long shot of Dr. Sarah McCullough lecturing at seminar
From Seth Karten, "Feminist Research Institute’s Sarah Rebolloso McCullough Discusses Equity & Justice in Bicycle Research, Planning, & Advocacy," METRANS, February 25, 2019.

FRI’s Sarah Rebolloso McCullough discusses Equity & Justice in Bicycle Research, Planning, & Advocacy

  • by Scott Tadashi Tsuchitani

Dr. Sarah McCullough, associate director of the Feminist Research Institute, was the featured speaker at a seminar sponsored by the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis (ITS-Davis) in partnership with the Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center on February 15.

Seth Karten, Science Writer for ITS-Davis, reported on Dr. McCullough's presentation for METRANS, the website of the Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center.

Per Karten's article, Dr. McCullough recommends several strategies that transportation researchers could implement to improve their work:

  1. Develop a sense of partial perspective. Increased awareness and forthright communication about how our personal, cultural, and professional background influence our interests, the questions we ask, and our methodology can lead to better, more honest research.
  2. Attend to history, context, and power. We, as researchers, should be aware of and consider local history—including real estate discrimination—in the regions where we study transportation. In addition, we should consider “invisible cyclists”—bicyclists traditionally overlooked by advocacy groups, who tend to be non-white, immigrant, and/or poor. Finally, we should be aware of power dynamics, in terms of who is included and excluded from having a voice in policy and planning decisions.
  3. Think intersectionally. We should consider how different aspects of identity—such as gender, ability, religion, nationality, sexuality, class, race—overlap and interact to shape experience.
  4. Representation matters: Pictures of who we show biking implies who should be biking. For example, images of “vehicular cycling”—the practice of riding bikes on the road in a manner that imitates motor vehicles—may be incompatible with how many people, such as children and families, ride.

From Seth Karten, "Feminist Research Institute’s Sarah Rebolloso McCullough Discusses Equity & Justice in Bicycle Research, Planning, & Advocacy," METRANS, February 25, 2019.

A full video recording of Dr. McCullough’s talk, part of ITS-Davis’ weekly seminar series, is available at https://its.ucdavis.edu/seminar/february-15-2019/