Cycling infrastructure is about more than just moving people safely and efficiently; it’s about making our streets feel human again. When we design for people cycling, we inadvertently build a city that is safer, healthier, and more inclusive for everyone.
Skye Duncan is the Executive Director of the Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI), a leading global urban design initiative focused on transforming streets around the world and developing international best-practice street design guidance for use in a wide variety of street typologies. Skye and her team developed the award-winning Global Street Design Guide (GSDG), and Designing Streets for Kids, currently endorsed by over 130 international cities and organizations. GDCI provides ongoing technical assistance and capacity building to cities around the world on shaping safe, healthy, inclusive, and sustainable street designs and mobility options. Skye is an urban designer with over 20 years of experience in architecture, urban design, planning, and transportation, and has been recognized as one of TUMI’s Remarkable Women in Transportation. Prior to GDCI, she spent over seven years working as a Senior Urban Designer at the New York City Department of City Planning in their Office of the Chief Urban Designer, worked as an International Urban Design Consultant, and was an Associate Adjunct Professor at Columbia University in New York City for almost a decade. She graduated as a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia in the Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design program and has a Bachelor of Architecture with Honors from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.
