About Us
We are a small consultancy firm based in Portland, Oregon, providing expertise in transportation and land use planning, advocacy and implementation. Our specialties include bicycling, walking, livable communities, Safe Routes to School, recreation, tourism, equity and inclusion. We develop and lead multi day planning workshops, written reports and fact sheets. We give inspiring presentations at conferences, city council meetings, town halls and community meetings. We design and build temporary, or pop-up street improvements and tiny houses, ADU’s and other structures that increase housing inventory and work spaces in urban areas..
About Robert Alan Ping
A self-described ‘bikeaholic’ and a passionate transportation advocate, Robert has focused nearly his entire career on getting people more active, especially children and youth, and especially on bicycles.Robert has become well-known throughout the country for his work in developing Safe Routes to School programs and policies. He helps communities and advocates to improve the built environment and increase safety, social equity, and physical activity through bicycling and walking and has provided technical assistance to states, regions and cities throughout the U.S. Robert was the Technical Assistance Program Manager and acting Executive Director for the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute, providing on-site technical assistance and facilitation for livability initiatives in over 30 communities. Robert also developed a series of 11 award-winning fact sheets with AARP, and presented for the National Association of Realtors, the Pro Walk Pro Bike Pro Place annual national conference, the Oregon and national Safe Routes to School annual conferences and the New Partners for Smart Growth conference, among many others.
Robert also has more than two decades of experience managing non-profit organizations and programs, with experience in Complete Streets, Smart Growth, Social Equity and policy change at the state, regional, and local levels, program development, technical assistance, public speaking and community organizing. From 2003 through 2013, Robert focused on Safe Routes to School, becoming a leading expert in this growing movement to get kids active and improve the built environment. Robert was the Safe Routes to School National Partnership’s first full-time staffer, starting as the State Network Manager and then Director, managing 23 state-wide coalitions and 5 regional government coalitions working on various policy change efforts. He founded the national Active Transportation Diversity Task Force and spearheaded the RWJF-funded “Making Public Schools Diverse and Walkable” framing paper with PolicyLink and Change Lab Solutions. Robert managed the Oregon Bicycle Transportation Alliance’s bicycle education program teaching hundreds of youth safety classes and nearly 40,000 students around Oregon.
Robert was the founding manager of Portland, Oregon’s popular citywide Safe Routes to School program and assisted communities around Oregon under contract for the Oregon Department of Transportation. He was appointed by Congress to the federal Safe Routes to School Task Force in 2005, representing SRTS practitioners.
Previously, Robert was Admin and Communications Director for Transform, the San Francisco Bay Area transportation policy coalition working to increase funding and opportunities for transit, bicycling, walking and Smart Growth with a strong equity focus. Robert began his professional advocacy career at Pedal Power, Trips for Kids and the Bicycle Community Project, all San Francisco Bay Area-based nonprofits that help children and youth in lower-income communities and communities of color to gain exposure to the outdoors and other neighborhoods through Earn-a-Bike, group riding and mentoring programs, and improvements to the built environment.
