Promoting active transportation is an effective way to create a more just and sustainable world. This includes engaging organizations and individuals in the walkability movement, who often receive no financial compensation for their passionate work – a barrier to carrying their voices further.

Eco-Counter wanted to help change that, so in September 2021, we started an honorarium program with the nonprofit America Walks to compensate people who agreed to share their knowledge and expertise in creating safe, accessible places with the public through free webinars.

Less than a year later, we’re proud to say we’ve been able to support an extraordinary group of local advocates working on important issues such as:

• Public support for open streets as a health response to the pandemic.
• Building coalitions of people who don’t drive due to disability, income, or choice to advocate for equitable funding for walking, transit, and accessibility.
• Changing jaywalking laws that don’t improve safety and are often used by police as an excuse to wrongfully arrest young black men.
• Repairing the damage caused by building highways through populated areas.

Watch the webinars

We were pleased to have more than 2,500 people sign up for the webinars.

You can view the recordings and get more information on each topic using the links below:

1. Open Streets – What happened, what did we learn and what’s next for people-first places? – Presented by Clara Cantor, of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways. Watch the webinar
2. Centering the Voices of the Disabled and Nondrivers in Transportation Advocacy – Presented by Anna Zivarts of Disability Rights Washington and Paulo Nunes-Ueno of Front and Centered. Watch the webinar
3. How to Take on Harmful Jaywalking Laws – Presented by Caro Jauregui of California Walks and Michael Kelley of BikeWalkKC. Watch the webinar
4. Road to Nowhere: How to Fight Freeways and Reconnect Communities – Presented by Alex Contreras from The Happy City Coalition, Amy Stelly of Claiborne Avenue Alliance, and Jay Arzu, PhD Candidate, University of Pennsylvania School of Design. Watch the webinar

We’d like to thank America Walks for this wonderful initiative and are already working on planning the next webinars. Stay tuned for more information!