Ben Kaufman is a District 2 resident whose passion for sustainable transportation emerged with the purchase of his first pair of Rollerblades in the late 1980s, and he has been walking, skating, pedaling, and riding public transit ever since. Ben’s day job is as a planner, organizer, and active transportation advocate at the national non-profit Rails-to-Trails Conservancy where he works on trail projects throughout the Western US. Prior to his tenure at Transport Oakland, Ben helped to co-found the San Francisco Transit Riders, a public transit advocacy organization across the Bay. Ben holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA and a Bachelor of Arts from Skidmore College in upstate New York. In his free time, he can be found backpacking, bike camping, gardening, and wandering the whimsical streets of the East Bay.