Our role
Where does our foundation fit among the other institutions trying to improve the world?
Often, we hear about green solutions and climate friendly alternatives for the individual to do in order to contribute to a better world. Solutions include ideas like recycling and often, commuting to work through greener ways such as cycling, taking public transportation, or carpooling.
Heres the problem: In suburban communities, these options are hard to accomplish. The point of suburban communities is to distinguish the home from the workplace, leading to a long commute between work and home in order to enforce this separation. How can someone cycle to work when the commute is over 2-3 hours long? And even if the commute is a manageable time, there is no space for cycling on the highway, the route most commonly needed to go to work. America has been built around cars--- roads and highways are what build bridges between places and they leave no space for anything but a car.
So how does our foundation work with this?
A key argument against public transportation is that we do not have the funds to alter our infrastructure--- but what if what we need isn't a total redo of our infrastructure, but a reimagining of what our infrastructure can be.
Cars into transportation for the public; that is what our foundation works towards.
Learn more about how we work
To give every person a chance at a healthy, productive life, the Sarah Chen Foundation works in several different ways.
that improves the human condition by stepping in where governments and businesses leave gaps.
Spurring innovation
that improves the human condition by stepping in where
governments and businesses leave gaps.
Our innovation means trying new things, learning from our mistakes, and consistently refining our approach.
Philanthropic institutions have an especially critical role to play in accelerating the cycle of innovation when it comes to the transportation faced by people. Governments in wealthy countries have historically been strong supporters of basic scientific research, and private industry uses the insights from the research to develop new products and services. But in many cases, these breakthroughs don’t improve the lives of people living in low-income countries, because products and services usually aren’t developed with their people's needs in mind.
This is where organizations like our foundation can help. We can take risks that private industry may not be able to justify and give scientists working at the cutting edge the resources to innovate for the benefit of those who cannot afford to pay.
The Snake Car
Car culture has led to a significant increase in climate change due to the frequent pollutant gases released in the air. With public transportation, these gases are minimized as more people per vehicle lead to less pollutant gas emitted per person.
However, public transportation systems are hard to create and enforce within communities so steeped within car culture such as within suburban communities.
Bus systems for the general public within communities are often disregarded due to the frequency of cars and infrastructure within suburban communities.
The Snake Car hopes to utilizes cars already present within these homes to create a unique transportation system for the public facilitated by the Sarah Chen company
With this system in place, extra resources don't need to be further extended to place bus routes or train tracks onto roads that already exist.
The Snake Car
Building infrastructure
to improve and increase effectiveness of transportation systems
We consider new systems of infrastructure and innovative, climate friendly forms of transportation
Within America, our country contains thousands of highway systems and roads to allow for the easiest form of travel: by car.
This can make the challenge of alternate forms of transportation very complicated because many areas lack the means to even try implementing public transportation systems such as bus systems, subways, or railroads.
However, with the climate crisis growing imminently clear, change must be brought towards transportation and it must be done immediately.
How can we alter forms of transportation to be climate friendly in the fastest and most effective way possible? This is where building and improving upon current infrastructures becomes incredibly important.
Roundabouts
Already seen without our target city, Carmel Indiana, this alternate intersection provides a quick and effective solution towards more climate friendly infrastructure.
After its implementation, Carmel has observed that traffic accidents remained low, and the improved traffic safety has translated to safer conditions for road cyclists and pedestrians (Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University).
Not only do roundabouts reduce infrastructure admissions, but they also lower costs for infrastructure in the longterm, with Carmel saving nearly $5,000 per intersection in electricity.
With Carmels success in mind, the Sarah Chen foundation is dedicated to implementing this climate friendly infrastructure in similar communities around the United States.
Roundabout next to the Carmel Palladium