Wonders

Anna Zivarts has a visual impairment that prevents her from driving. In recent years, she’s been working as a disability and mobility advocate to shed light on U.S. car dependence and how that dependency fails everyone in our culture. Her book, When Driving Is Not An Option, published with Island Press in 2024. In addition to discussing the effects of car dependency, we also talked about the challenges of book touring as a nondriver and her experiences in other communities in the U.S.

Whether you’re leading a road project engagement process or wondering why people are often in your way out on the road, there are a few things to keep in mind to ease tensions. And comics!

I made a map of the Wander and Wonder topics – climate-friendly and slow travel and equitable access to outdoor recreation – to help me imagine what travel in the future might look like. This framework is a work in progress.

Wander & Wonder explores climate-friendly travel and equitable access to outdoor recreation. Transportation is a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and the tourism industry. Additionally, outdoor recreation is not easily accessible to many people, yet time spent outdoors is important for personal health and well-being.