Zeenah Iskander

I feel that here in Los Angeles, there is a huge traffic problem. I live in Downtown. Many movies are filmed here and tons of festivals are held here, as well. All sorts of other events like Wondercon or the Anime Expo take place here, too. Often, I'll find that streets are blocked. I think it is a bit of a problem here in Los Angeles, as it makes it hard for people to get to work, school, or wherever they need to go. It also makes people frustrated because it can take up a large part of their day. It affects my community and I, as the traffic upholds any tasks we may need to carry out. With focusing on traffic, I essentially hope to tackle the social and environmental aspects of sustainability. Social sustainability is focused on topics such as social equity, health equity, social support, human rights, and all around human adaptation. Environmental sustainability is responsible interaction with the environment. This is done to ensure that natural resources are not depleted. It paves ways for long-term environmental quality, and it allows people to be able to utilize resources and be safe environmentally. This can include renewable resources, preservation, access to clean sources, etcetera. These aspects of sustainability relate to my topic, in that my chime will emphasize different methods of transportation, thus reducing traffic. And with it, air pollution. It creates social sustainability, in the sense that the people will not be dissatisfied and held back from carrying out the tasks of their day. There will be less road rage, too.
To reiterate, through my chime, I hope to make traffic reduced, catering to the social and environmental pillars of sustainability. The nice thing about my chime is that it'll be directed to all individuals capable of making changes, with regards to the particular topic I have chosen. The people who drive are teens and adults; the latter have the greater ability to put an end to traffic. As a teen, I am attempting to spread awareness of the issue to inspire change: different methods of transportation, to adults and teens. I hope to not only reduce traffic, but make the people of Los Angeles a little happier. We have many people coming to Los Angeles for opportunities, and with the arrival of these new people, we now have a population of 39.4 million people in California and more traffic by default. Thus, I hope to inspire a change amongst people that is positive with my chime. 
I intend to achieve this reaction by making my chime stand out with many bright colors, so that it captivates the eye. The wood holding the materials itself will be painted green. This is to symbolize the green light. In other words, since my project attempts to reduce traffic, there won't be waiting in the same street in frustration because of it. Everyone will be able to go and get to wherever they need to go. Now, as for what materials my chime will have, are a broken heart made out of paper, green toy tires to represent bikes, chimes, and a book’s torn pages. You'll find that each of the objects' colors are that of a street light’s. They each have symbolic colors and purposes. The broken heart, for example, will be painted red. There will only be black on it to indicate that it is broken. The heart is red in relation to a red light, because I wanted to use an object that would symbolize a lack of social sustainability because of traffic. That is, when a street light turns red, one is upset because they have to stop. With traffic, you're doing so a lot more often. Thus, the individual stuck in traffic has a “broken heart”. This raises awareness to the lack of social sustainability that the people are facing in L.A. through traffic. Thus, emphasis is brought about by placing the heart in the center of the chime. It indicates the importance of the issue. The green, toy tires to represent bikes are green like a green light. This symbol is one of the major symbols of my chime. As mentioned earlier, the objects represent streetlights, and green means go. I wanted to make this symbol relatively straightforward, since the primary point of my chime is to emphasize different methods of transportation; in this case, bikes. If people rode on bikes over cars, it would be like constantly being on green lights: traffic would be reduced. And, on top of that, air pollution will be reduced, too. The green light is everybody’s favorite light, and so, I have associated the color to mean happiness as well, in that the social and environmental aspects of sustainability are being met by “going green”: riding bikes. I will be hanging chimes across the tires to indicate this happiness, along with painting the toy tires green. The chimes indicate “bell-chime” laughter, which symbolizes happiness. If there is no traffic, there will be no a reason to be upset by it. Therefore, the chimes and the tires are on the left and right sides of the heart. This indicates the solution to the problem, as well as its results. Lastly, I will be using a book’s torn pages that I will paint yellow. The yellow, torn pages are most symbolic, and likely going to be least directly understood because of such. The torn, yellow pages will be used because people use reading to pass the time. The pages are torn to illustrate how while one may be intrigued by a book and want to read it to the end, they may not get enough time to do so because life gets in the way. Similarly, when one wants to get to one place, the yellow light goes off, telling the driver that they can get to where they want to go, but they're going to have to slow down a bit. Obstacles, if you will. It essentially is having to be patient because obstacles will be thrown your way, despite how much you may desire to get to one place, whether that be driving to a friend's party or reaching the end of an amazing novel. By emphasizing that bikes be used, people will have less of these “obstacles” and more time to do what they need. These bits of paper will be scattered about the chime to indicate room for recreation.
To reiterate, with my chime I hope to inspire primarily adults who drive to use different forms of transportation over cars. In doing so, a positive change will be sprung about in that social and environmental aspects of sustainability will be improved. Traffic will cease to exist, people can get to where they need to go on time, air pollution will be reduced, and everybody will be all around happier by the lack of traffic. My chime will spread an awareness to adults in regards to how important the issue of traffic is in Los Angeles, and more importantly work use this awareness to fix the problem.