No matter where we live, we have to get around. Between school, home, work, and recreational places, our lives can be spread out pretty far, especially in Alaska. All that travel results in one of the highest energy use categories in our lives. The tips and resources below will help you find the most efficient way to get around for your situations, and introduce you to some amazing new ideas that are revolutionizing the design of our cities, and the very way we think about transportation.
Take Action: Suggestions for how you can make direct, positive change with your daily habits from the panelists at our Climate Action Plan event series. Watch the event video here.
- Walk, bike, or take the bus – even if it’s just once a week. The more bikes people see, the safer it is for everyone.
- Be a bike, walk, and bus friendly driver. Regular pedestrians and cyclists are better drivers.
- Get involved with local planning efforts and organizations such as Bike Anchorage or the Alaska Electric Vehicle Association
- Find your Community Council
- Support Transit
- “Adopt” a Bus Stop
- Join our Email List
- AnchorRIDES – Help spread the word to people 60+ this program offers rides to Pet Food Bank, Grocery Delivery Program, Vaccination Appointments
- Talk to your employer about supporting a carpool program.
- Join the Public Transit Advisory Board (PTAB) or join the Monthly Meetings – 2nd Thursday of Every Month: 5:30 –7:00PM at Loussac Library
Local Organizations and Resources: Get involved in direct action, learn more about local issues regarding this topic, or find out how you can contribute to better land-use in your area with the following resources.
- How to join a municipal board or commission
- Anchorage Planning Department
- Anchorage Transportation Planning Department
- Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions (AMATS) is the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the Anchorage Bowl and Chugiak-Eagle River areas.
- Anchorage 2040 Land Use Plan
- Adopted Plans (Elements of the Comprehensive Plan)
- CityView Portal and Online E-alerts
- Transit on the Move plan
- Commute with Enterprise
- Public Transit Advisory Board (PTAB)
- Anchorage Citizens Coalition alerts participants about local policy and projects, and encourages public comment. To join the mailing list email: anchoragecitizenscoalition@gmail.com.
Electric Vehicle Information
- Chugach Electric EV Info
- Forth provides information on EVs
- Plugshare Charging Station Map
- Alaska Electric Vehicle Workshop, Report of the ACEP-USARC Workshop, Held June 16–17, 2020
- Alaska Center for Energy and Power – Cold Weather Issues for EVs in Alaska, Feb 2021
- The Valuable Benefits of Owning an Electric Car – ThinkEV, Michael Shuck provides a guide to thinking EV
National Agencies and Resources
- Transportation for America : Driving Down Emissions-Transportation, land use, and climate change
- Smart Growth America – Smart growth is a way to build cities, towns, and neighborhoods that are economically prosperous, socially equitable, and environmentally sustainable.
- Urban Land Institute – The mission of the Urban Land Institute: Shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide.
- Project for Public Spaces – a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and sustaining public places that build communities.
- Drawdown
- Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) is the best umbrella metric to measure vehicle impacts on the environment. Anchorage is still using congestion (Level of Service) as an environmental metric. California uses VMT. The Bay Area’s Metropolital Transportion Commission explains why.
Podcasts
- How to Save the Planet
- 99% Invisible
- Missing the Bus
- Palaces for the People
- Public Works: Rethinking America’s Transportation Infrastructure
- Open During Construction: Conversations about city-building at the intersection of planning and engineering.
- Reinventing Transport
- Streets.MN: Dedicated to expanding the conversation about transportation, urban design, and public space issues in the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota
- The War on Cars: The War on Cars is a podcast about the war between The Car and The City.
Books available at the Anchorage Public Library: Ask your local library if they have these books as well, and many libraries can share books to get them where readers need.
- The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday Design by Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt
- Better Buses, Better Cities: How to Plan, Run, and Win the Fight for Effective Transit by Steven Higashide
- Beyond Mobility: Planning Cities for People and Places by Robert Cervero, Erick Guerra, and Stefan Al
- Bike Lanes are White Lanes: Bicycle Advocacy and Urban Planning by Melody L. Hoffmann
- Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the Economy by Elly Blue
- Building and Dwelling: Ethics for the City by Richard Sennett
- Citymakers: The Culture and Craft of Practical Urbanism by Cassim Shepard
- Designing Disorder: Experiments and Disruptions in the City by Pablo Sendra and Richard Sennett
- From Mobility to Accessibility: Transforming Urban Transportation and Land-Use Planning by Jonathan Levine, Joe Grengs, and Louis A. Merlin.
- The Habit of Turning the World Upside Down by Howard Mansfield
- How Cycling Can Save the World by Peter Walker
- Human Scale Revisited: A New Look at the Classic Case for a Decentralist Future by Kirkpatrick Sale
- This Land is Our Land: The Struggle for a New Commonwealth by Jedediah Purdy
- This Land is Our Land: How We Lost the Right to Roam and How to Take it Back by Ken Ilgunas
- The Language of Cities by Deyan Sudjic
- Law, Engineering, and the American right-of-way: Imagining a More Just Street by David Prytherch
- The Next American City: The Big Promise of Our Midsize Metros by Mick Cornett with Jayson White
- Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life by Eric Klinenberg
- The Past and Future City: How Historic Preservation is Reviving America’s Communities by Stephanie Meeks
- Perfect City: An Urban Fixer’s Global Search for Magic in the Modern Metropolis by Joe Berridge
- The Road Taken: The History and Future of America’s Infrastructure by Henry Petroski
- Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City by Steve Early
- Streetfight: Handbook for an Urban Revolution by Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow
- Transportation for America : Driving Down Emissions – Transportation, land use, and climate change
- Where We Want to Live: Reclaiming Infrastructure for a New Generation of Cities by Ryan Gravel