Category:Impact Story9 min read
When Tenzin Dolkar, Senior Program Officer at McKnight Foundation, worked as a social worker in Minneapolis, transportation wasn’t an abstract issue—it shaped whether families could hold onto stability or lose it.
She remembers driving a mother and her three children to see a subsidized apartment. It checked every box: safe, affordable, and promise of a better future for her children. But it sat in a suburb with no reliable transit. Without a car, the family had no realistic way to get to work.
They had to walk away.
Experiences like that made something clear. Transportation doesn’t just connect places—it determines what’s possible.
For Dolkar, that realization was not a singular incident. She worked with families who were building their life and economic security, but whose opportunities were structured around bus routes and long commutes. She discovered that access to reliable transit could expand which opportunities were within reach.
“Transportation is about freedom. Transportation is about opportunity,” Dolkar shared.
That belief helped shape a recent trip to the Netherlands, where Midwest transportation leaders came together to experience something rare in the United States: transportation systems designed for people, and designed to make daily life easier, more affordable, and less harmful.
Across the Midwest, people depend on transportation to get to work, school, childcare, and healthcare—often several times a day. When those trips are reliable, life runs on schedule. When they aren’t, everything becomes harder.
The study tour to the Netherlands was built around that reality. It brought together public officials, planners, and civic leaders in states where major transit funding has passed, including Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan, to see what it looks like when transportation systems are dependable, connected, and built around people’s needs. Why? So they could return home inspired to build something better.
One insight stood out immediately: none of this happened by accident.
“Is cycling in the DNA of the Dutch? It’s not. It’s been built over time,” said Neeraj Mehta, Vice President of Programs at the McKnight Foundation. “Which gives me a lot of hope for cities in the United States, in the Midwest.”
That shift—from assuming systems are fixed to understanding they are designed—opened the door to new possibilities.
Film by André Kloer.
In Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Utrecht, leaders didn’t just study infrastructure—they experienced it.
They biked on protected lanes filled with families and older adults. They biked from city centers to rural communities. They rode transit that arrived frequently, left on time, and moved efficiently. They walked through neighborhoods where daily needs were within easy reach.
What stood out wasn’t one feature—it was the way everything worked together.
“To see a couple riding their bikes, hand in hand—you don’t see that back home,” said James E. Tate Jr., Detroit City Council President. “I want to bring that type of joy to the city of Detroit.”
That sense of ease—of moving through the day without stress—came up again and again.
“Cycling here just feels more free. It feels better than riding on streets where the car is the priority,” said Erin Aleman, Executive Director of the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning.
On streets designed for people first, the difference was even more immediate.
“I feel welcome. I feel safe,” said Melanie Piana, Program Director at the Regional Transit Authority of Southeast Michigan, describing a Dutch fietsstraat where bikes and pedestrians set the pace.
And the clarity of design mattered just as much as safety.
“It’s very easy to communicate how people should be moving around the city,” said Christina Peltier, Deputy Director of Complete Streets in the Detroit Department of Public Works.
Together, those experiences added up to something powerful: a system people could rely on.
As the trip unfolded, a deeper connection came into focus. Transportation isn’t separate from other challenges—it’s tied directly to cost of living, housing, and access to opportunity.
When systems fall short, the burden shows up in long commutes, higher expenses, unsafe roads, and fewer options. When they work, they reduce those pressures and open doors.
“We often forget that there’s a cost for transportation,” said Jon Solberg, Assistant Commissioner of Sustainability at the Minnesota Department of Transportation. “We need to think about all these things together instead of singularly.”
In the Netherlands, leaders saw what that integration looks like: communities designed so people don’t need a car to meet everyday needs.
They also saw a consistent focus on inclusion.
“There is no question about ensuring that every resident has access to what they need to be able to have a happy life,” said Maryan Abdinur, Program Officer at the Mortenson Family Foundation. “Whether they need to use a wheelchair, or use public transportation.”
The result is a system that supports daily routines instead of complicating them.
The purpose of the trip wasn’t just to observe—it was to act.
Leaders returned with practical ideas and a clearer sense of what it will take to move forward in the Midwest.
“The Dutch faced the same kinds of problems we do. What’s different is the scale of the goals,” said Jesse Elam, Director of Strategic Planning at the Cook County Department of Transportation and Highways. “We have to set our goals higher.”
At the same time, they saw that progress doesn’t require getting everything right the first time.
“They don’t always make the change correct the first time. They’re adapting as they go,” said Christina Peltier from Detroit.
That balance—ambition paired with iteration—offers a practical path forward.
Back home, many communities are working within systems that make daily travel harder than it needs to be—long commutes with heavy car traffic, the high cost of car ownership, and limited choices.
But the experience in the Netherlands made something tangible: a different kind of system already exists.
One where getting to work is predictable. Where costs don’t overwhelm household budgets. Where streets feel safe and welcoming. Where more people can reach opportunity, every day.
The question now is how to move in that direction.
“What decisions can we make—starting now—that will shape how people live for decades to come?” Dolkar asks.
For the leaders who took part in this experience, that question carries new urgency—and new clarity.
“This wasn’t just a trip. This was transformation,” said James E. Tate Jr., Detroit City Council President.
And increasingly, it’s becoming a shared commitment across the Midwest: to build transportation systems that work for people of all ages and abilities, with reliable transit, safe places to walk and bike, and affordable ways to reach the opportunities that shape everyday life.
This trip was led by Global Philanthropy Partnership with funding and planning support from Transit Center, The Kresge Foundation, and Mortenson Family Foundation, in addition to McKnight Foundation. The trip program design was led by Urban Cycling Institute with support from re:consult. The film was created by André Kloer.
