I think the presentation turned out really well! We all worked together on the PowerPoint and  brochure to get all the views and interviews incorporated that we could. I learned about just how rapidly the city’s population has grown in recent years, as well as some history around why the infrastructure is set up the way it is. I also learned just how important the willingness to promote change is to actual production of change, and that the lack of this willingness is what has really set the city back from creating a better, safer transportation system. Learning about this topic brought up further questions such as why haven’t people been more focused on alternative transportation options, what the cost is for some options like a trolley system or making a bus stop at The Hancock Center, and how could citizens make sure that our representatives listen to our ideas more in the future? I think that this Wicked Problem has a lot of depths to it that make it truly wicked, and that if people became more involved in the actions of the city council then perhaps there would be more change implementations or thought-provoking ideas discussed. As a student, it’s hard to say that I could be a part of this change, but if many other students like me felt similarly and we could all try to produce change, then perhaps something will actually come of it.

This week, we explored the background of our problem in Austin. I created this visual representation to help make sense of the system we are exploring. I broke down transportation into two parts: the people involved and the parts or things in the system. In many ways, the two intertwine in the such as a driver (obviously a person) and a car (which would be part of the system, but when driven by a person and car interact). There are also representatives that make decisions as to how the infrastructure should be remodeled or how to solve the issues our infrastructure has. these people are a huge part of the transportation system because they make the choices our city is dependent upon. Without their support, the infrastructure would be in shambles and it would probably lead to anarchy. Despite being a generalization of the transportation system, the map appears very intertwined and messy, and that’s due to the fact that the system /is/ very complex and messy. There are many people trying to accomplish many goals, similar and different, which creates a web that indirectly affects everyone around them.