All tagged Sustainable Transportation

Nicole Losch: 16 Years of Building a Better Burlington

Sixteen years ago, Nicole Losch entered the Department of Public Works in Burlington to work a part time position coordinating small bike projects and managing trash haul licenses. This Friday, she finishes her decade and a half career with DPW as a pioneer of Burlington’s walk and bike infrastructure.

Nicole Losch has worked her way up through several positions at Burlington’s DPW to her present-day position of Senior Transportation Planner. Roughly five years into her time with DPW, she took over as Transportation Planner. “That’s really when we started to shift bike and ped planning away from any other transportation,” Nicole remembered. Today, this branch of the DPW is seventeen employees strong and continues to do incredible work for the city of Burlington.

Greenride Bikeshare Gets Everything Right, Except Bikes

When I first heard the University of Vermont was getting electric bikes on its campus at the end of the 2021 school year, I was fired up. I had never ridden one before but what part of the term “electric bike” doesn’t sound cool? It combines two very exciting words into one phrase, kind of like “free food” or “cookie cake”. The bikes would be coming to UVM and the Burlington area through the Greenride Bikeshare program. As a student without a car on campus, this news was exhilarating. Even though I had a bike, the thought of being able to finally ride back up the hill from downtown Burlington to UVM without using every ounce of energy I had was an incredible prospect.

Discovering Sustainable Transportation Abroad

As an American, living in cities that prioritize cars over pedestrians and cyclists is a normal occurrence. During the early spring of 2020, I was studying abroad in Freiburg, Germany, which was one of the first parts of the country designed to promote walking, biking, and transit systems. It didn’t take me long to notice the major transportation differences between there and America.

I never once used an automobile during my time abroad. There was a direct train to Freiburg that took me to the city center. From the station, I was able to jump on a tram which then brought me to my apartment about 15 minutes outside of the city. This experience made me realize how advanced and convenient a transportation system could be.