Abstract:  In today’s urban core, transit is the structural genome, which consistently underperforms in underrepresented communities.
Current research presents data based on municipal infrastructures when discussing transit and marginalized communities. This approach does not change the narrative of how a community takes ownership of its space.
Using Chocolate Spokes Bike Studio as a case study, our research focuses on how communities directly engage transit options by establishing fabrication centers that develop micro-mobility designs to push infrastructures to evolve.
Working with civic partners Chocolate Spokes creates human-powered transit devices that explores the possibilities of local transit habits and introduces multiple design strategies of connective mobility. The approach empowers communities to rethink everyday patterns and establish a sustainable model that facilitates value. The result allows stakeholders to preserve their historical moorings, generate employment opportunities, and reduce transit dependency.
For underrepresented communities, the future of transit should work to create independence that is equitable. A system that allows reinvestment to meet needs through ideation and creation. A system that will enable its constituents to take ownership.

Bio: Gregory’s research and experience as an entrepreneur have manipulated the lens through which he views the built environment and how we move within it. For the last ten years, I have been working at the level of micro-mobility, specifically human-powered vehicles and community, establishing a neighborhood bike shop/community space. The human-powered vehicle is a small but integral detail in discussing infrastructure, energy consumption, and quality of life. The human-powered vehicle scale creates space for communities to come together through familiar but equitable environments.