Denis is a passionate believer in the power of public transit to improve lives. Originally from a small town in Eastern Ontario, he eventually figured out what “urban planning” was and has been obsessed with it ever since. He landed his dream job at TransLink in 2013, and it was there that he came to understand how desperately this region needed an organized group of transit riders. He witnessed multiple instances where powerful opponents of bus lanes and transit funding kept winning in Vancouver, while organized transit riders in other cities like Miami and New York were turning the tide. He quit in 2023 to work on the concept full-time with some of the passionate volunteers listed below.

Aman Chandi is an urbanist and community advocate with strong ties to Surrey and South Vancouver. After growing up in a walkable, transit-oriented neighbourhood in Vancouver, her family moved to Surrey, where she found her movement restricted by cars, as transit was neither frequent nor reliable. She refused to get her driver’s licence for years due to losing her grandfather in a car accident, but after her move to Surrey, she realized she had to learn how to drive to carry on with life. 

For Aman, the cost of driving extends beyond the immediate expense of owning a car, there are serious health and environmental consequences when built environments are centred around automobiles. She believes everyone deserves to live in places with access to diverse and high-quality public transit options, as she sees this as a concrete means to enhance people’s quality of life.

For the past decade, Aman has worked to make cities more caring through her community and professional endeavours. Through this work, she has developed her toolkit of skills and expertise, which includes social planning, community engagement, project management, knowledge mobilization, visual thinking, and facilitation. At her core, she’s a connector and a creative, passionate about shaping cities that truly work for people.

Michelle really got to know the transit system in Metro Vancouver during her 1.5 hour per direction bus-skytrain-bus commute between her hometown Burnaby and UBC. She graduated with a math degree, and then moved to a walkable, central neighbourhood in Ottawa and worked for the federal government for a few years. She returned to the transit-lacking suburbs of Metro Vancouver in 2021, and since then has worked on various political campaigns and advocacy groups (like Movement) that aspire to build equitable, sustainable, and safe cities. She is inspired by the intelligent, hardworking and dedicated volunteers and friends she’s met in pursuing this cause, and truly believes that we can and will make transit way better. There is no shortage of work to do!

After a short-lived journey as a music student, Sam is currently finishing his final year of Urban Studies at the University of British Columbia. He first joined Movement after being frustrated about being stuck on the bus in his very own neighbourhood of Kerrisdale, and is currently strategizing on engaging the community on improving reliability along the 41st Avenue corridor. After graduation, he hopes to be working on transportation planning and lowering barriers to provide accessible public engagement. His favourite restaurant is Pho Mimosa and Pholicious, and he thinks they should be your favourite too (no pressure).