Beyond Streets

Building a safe autonomous vehicle isn’t just about installing sensors and programming software – it’s about building a safety culture, operationalizing safety processes, and communicating safety approaches to the public. It’s a massive undertaking, and even harder to translate into terms that most people can understand, which is why we made it a priority to catch up with Nat Beuse, Chief Safety O...

San Francisco is a hotbed for AV testing and deployment – and the city’s transportation chief had strong opinions to share about it during his keynote at TRB ARTS. Greg Rogers and guest co-host Sophie Jantz had the opportunity interview Jeff Tumlin, Director of Transportation at the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), after his keynote to further explore the questions he likes t...

AV wonks from around the world converged on San Francisco last week for TRB ARTS – the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Automated Road Transportation Symposium (ARTS). This ARTS was one for the books. We were thrilled to partner with TRB ARTS again this year to interview representatives from government, industry, and academia about the state of the AV industry, and what’s next. In this meta-int...

Transportation, climate resilience, and public health are deeply intertwined — and understanding the connection between them is essential for building thriving, livable communities in the 21st Century. At TRB 2023, Greg Rogers sat down with Carlos Cruz-Casas, the Chief Innovation Officer at Miami-Dade County’s Department of Transportation and Public Works. Carlos and Greg covered a wide range of t...

A new record: Avery Ash made Mobility Podcast history with his third appearance on the show! Avery, who was the Head of Global Public Policy and Product Strategy for INRIX (at the time of this recording), appeared alongside Niti Anand, Head of Strategy and Business Development at GM Future Roads, to discuss Safety View, a new collaboration between their companies. Safety View is intended to provid...

Minnesota’s Autonomous Rural Transit Initiative, goMARTI, is a unique community-led partnership to bring autonomous shuttles to Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Greg Rodriguez and Greg Rogers sat down with Tammy Meehan Russell and Justin Johnson at TRB Annual Meeting 2023 to explore how they worked with the Grand Rapids community to introduce an autonomous shuttle service powered by May Mobility. In this...

"What's your transportation story?" became our new favorite question to ask our guests after this interview with Kristin White. Kristin is the COO of ITS America, the former Executive Director of Minnesota DOT's CAVx program, and a passionate advocate for improving mobility outcomes for all. She joined the Gregs Rodriguez and Rogers at the TRB Annual Meeting to discuss how we c...

In this special TRB Week episode we interview Neil Pedersen and Victoria Sheehan, the past and present Executive Directors of the Transportation Research Board. Neil discussed his experience of leading TRB for the past several years amid a period of tremendous technological change, and Victoria shared her goals for continuing to build on TRB’s reputation for authoritative transportation research a...

We're back, just in time for TRB Annual Meeting! Greg, Greg, and Pete reunite after a "gap year" of focusing on work and family to explore what's next in transportation policy and technology. Stay tuned for many more episodes to come after the TRB Annual Meeting, and be sure to say hi if you'll be around Transportation Camp DC or TRB!Follow us on Twitter: @MobilityPodcast...

#077: Laura Chace, President & CEO, ITS AmericaLast month Greg Rogers and Pete Gould sat down with Laura Chace, the new CEO of ITS America, at the ITS America Annual Meeting in Charlotte, NC. We discuss the need to focus on the opportunity to center new technologies around human outcomes, the importance of convening the public and private sector to work together on deploying new innovations, a...

After taking a summer break, we returned to celebrate our fourth anniversary of The Mobility Podcast and discuss the hottest topic in Washington today – the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework (or whatever you'd like to call it). Please note: this episode was recorded in early September before Congress returned and conducted markups, but covers key issues around electrification, transit, and...

We're honored to welcome U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth to the podcast to discuss a bipartisan bill she recently introduced, the All Stations Accessibility Program (ASAP) Act of 2021. The ASAP Act would establish a federal grant program to support legacy transit and commuter rail authorities to upgrade existing stations to meet or exceed accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabili...

Pete Buttigieg appeared before Congress today for an overwhelmingly positive nomination hearing, where he garnered wide bipartisan support. In this episode, Greg Rogers, Greg Rodriguez, and Pete Gould provide a rapid recap and analysis of the hearing, and a discussion of the political appointees who have been announced so far. And for newcomers to the transportation policy world and the podcast, w...

Buckle up! We kicked off this year with an engaging hour-long discussion of transportation policy with Beth Osborne, Director of Transportation for America. We discuss a huge range of topics, including:-How Secretary Pete Buttigieg's USDOT could improve transportation decision-making;-Beth's recommendations for writing an impactful surface transportation reauthorization this year that ac...

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Pennsylvania DOT Secretary Yassmin Gramian has worked to ensure that the state's transportation infrastructure keeps frontline workers moving while connecting people with essentials. Greg, Greg, and Pete caught up with Secretary Gramian at the end of 2020 to discuss how to carry forward all of the year's lessons for equity, the value of active transporta...

President-elect Biden ran on a platform that promised bold action on climate change, including major investments in sustainable transportation. In this episode, Pete and the Gregs Rodriguez and Rogers discuss how the Biden-Harris Administration could take to reduce transportation emissions and explore ideas for improving transportation decision-making. We also discuss the prospects for the FAST Ac...

Henry Greenidge joins Pete Gould and Greg Rogers for an enlightening discussion about how to advance equity in not only transportation policy and planning, but also the technologies and services that will define the future of mobility. We discuss whether transportation network companies (TNCs) have been a net benefit for equity, the intersection between mobility and Black Lives Matter, food access...

#069: Kyle Rowe, SpinA few years ago, Kyle Rowe helped to write the the first dockless bikeshare framework in the U.S. when he was at the Seattle Department of Transportation. As the Global Head of Government Partnerships at Spin, today Kyle works with the public sector on continuing to bring micromobility services to the public. In this episode - originally recorded in May 2020 - Kyle joined Greg...

Dr. Richard Ezike of the Urban Institute joined us for a deep-dive into transportation equity, the impacts of COVID-19 on personal mobility, and how social distancing measures have contributed to greater public participation in local decision-making for some communities. Resources mentioned in this episode:Four Ways to Equitably Manage Public Transit Options in a Crisis https://www.urban.org/urban...

After a short hiatus, we return the first episode with just our co-hosts - Greg Rogers, Greg Rodriguez, and Pete Gould - in over a year. We caught up to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on the transportation sector and why the question is not what will happen after the pandemic is overcome - but what *must* happen to get people back to work safely and reduce the negative externalities of our mobili...

How can big data change the way we plan? Can that data be collected and used without violating privacy and consumer trust? And what is the Bradley Cooper problem? Laura Schewel, Founder and CEO of Streetlight Data, joined SAFE Greg, Stantec Greg, and Shared Mobility Pete to dig into these questions and more at the 2020 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting. Learn more at StreetlightData.com...

This month, NHTSA approved the first-ever exemption of a fully autonomous vehicle from three specific federal motor vehicle safety standards that were clearly unnecessary for a driverless vehicle carrying goods (windshields, mirrors, and rear-facing cameras). David Estrada, Chief Legal and Policy Officer at Nuro, to talk about how the company navigated the exemption process, the future of driverle...

Jason Hanlin and Nathaniel Horadam from The Center for Transportation and the Environment (CTE) joined SAFE Greg and Pete at the 2020 TRB Annual Meeting for a wide-ranging discussion around buses and technology. In this episode we explored:-The rapid growth of bus electrification across the country-Why electric school buses are having their moment-Vehicle-to-grid applications for electric buses-Th...

In our first recording with a live (and sometimes lively) studio audience, Sabrina Sussman from Zipcar at Transportation Camp DC 2020. Sabrina joined us for a discussion of how Zipcar, which is now celebrating its 20th anniversary, is bridging specific gaps in transportation and giving people an option beyond owning a car. Afterwards, we jumped into a great discussion with the audience about USDOT...

What is a bomb cyclone? What is it like to track extreme weather? And how does this all play into transportation infrastructure and resilience? Matthew Cappucci from Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang joined Stantec Greg (Rodriguez) and SAFE Greg (Rogers) in October 2019 to answer these questions and more,Follow Matthew Cappucci on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewCappucciAnd, as alway...