Fast Forward

Imagine 7 super bowls in your city, every day, for sixteen days. That's what LA is poised to deal with when the Olympics arrive in 2028. How is the World Cup helping them prepare? On this special miniseries episode of the Fast Forward podcast, host Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with experts, advocates, and researchers Alissa Walker, Eli Lipmen, and Juan Matute to discuss everything that's gone righ...

What if our urban planning started not with a metro stop or apartment, but with a neighborhood as the unit of analysis? On this episode, guest host and CoMotion co-founder Tim Gribaudi sits down with Vanessa Velasco, Habitat Chief Secretary of Bogota, to talk about her efforts to address Bogota's affordable housing through acquisition, home improvement, and rental housing programs. The ambitious p...

On this episode of Fast Forward, host Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with Trucks VC co-founder Reilly Brennan, for a conversation about where capital is going in mobility after the frothy days of the SPAC-heavy 2010s.

Take a look back at some of the most interesting conversations at CoMotion MIAMI 2026 on this special episode of Fast Forward, hosted this time by Javier Bettancourt of Mobility Matters!

A sneak peek of what's to come next week at CoMotion Miami 2026, plus a few standout moments from last year's panels.

For more than a century, conventional urban planning has prioritized the efficient movement of passengers from the core to the periphery. But what if this system ignores the transportation needs of most people? In this episode, host Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with Melissa Bruntlett, author of "Women Changing Cities: Global Stories of Urban Transformation", a book that showcases how female leader...

On this episode, host Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with Abhilasha Bhola, Director of the Auto Supply Chain Campaign at Public Citizen, to discuss their newest report, which identifies the leaders (and losers) in the race for transparency and sustainability in the electric vehicle supply chain.

Since opening to foreign investment and trade, China has seen an ensuing urbanization that would make industrial economies of the 19th century blush: Beijing alone went from 20,000 cars to about 6 million in 40 years. Along the way, hundreds of miles of high speed rail, thousands of layers of digital infrastructure, and countless new housing units came with that urbanization - but what has China l...

Chinese giants like BYD have surged in the share of previously impenetrable markets like the EU and the Gulf, prompting concern by policymakers and excitement by consumers looking to save on their next car. How did we get here? Where does the industry go from here? To answer that, host Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with Automobility's Bill Russo, former auto executive and expert in the automotive i...

In this episode of CoMotion’s Fast Forward podcast, Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with Laura Krull, Senior Policy Manager at Lyft Urban Solutions, to discuss the rapidly changing world of electrified bikeshare. Bikeshare is suddenly becoming half mobility service, half distributed battery network - how should planners, policymakers, and riders be thinking about the change?

In municipal elections across the country recently, incumbent mayors faced recall challenges. Not so in Boston, where Mayor Michelle Wu ran unopposed in a race that affirmed her positive, proactive approach to governing. In this episode, Nick sits down with Shin-Pei Tsay, the chief research and data officer and executive director at the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics (MONUM); Shin-pei has l...

In cities across the United States, you can now order a self-driving robotaxi with the push of a button. Not so in Europe, where challenges to scaling and piloting keep the technology in an ever-nascent state. What needs to change for the technology to truly take off there, and what'll be different there than in car-hungry America? Those are the questions our guest today, Pierfrancesco Maran, answ...

What might a city look like if it was designed for cognitive comfort, rather than efficiency or productivity? That's the question asked by Josephine Yilan Liu, a 'cognitive urbanist' and founder of Transformative Cities, a framework and consulting practice that turns scientific insight into design tools—practical enough to guide small decisions, deep enough to reframe how we think about urban life...

In the latest episode of CoMotion's Fast Forward podcast, host Nick Perloff-Giles sat down with Joshua Schank to discuss his forthcoming book 'New Tricks for Old Bureaucracies,' which examines his time as Director of LA Metro's Office of Extraordinary Innovation, including insights into how to break logjams, build consensus, and get agencies moving.  ———————————— At this inflection point in the Am...

Belgium leads the EU in EV adoption, and isn't resting on its laurels - it already has 3x the number of EV chargers per capita than the average peer country, and is planning a massive buildout. How exactly did they make it happen, and what opportunities exist for those outside of the country to get involved? To learn more, Nick Perloff-Giles sat down with Piet Demunter, CEO of Flanders Investment...

In this episode, Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with Dr. Noel Hacegaba, COO of the Port of Long Beach, and Heather Tomley, Managing Director of Planning and Environmental Affairs for the Port of Long Beach, to discuss how a system as complicated as one of America's largest ports has managed to effectively stop most port-related pollution, and how it plans to go even further. ———————————— At this inf...

In this episode of Fast Forward, Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with Founder & Chief Curator of CoMotion John Rossant to discuss CoMotion's newest venture - a conference in Riyadh, focused on the intersection of east and west, mobility and technology, and policy and application. Listen for a preview of what the conference is preparing to offer. ———————————— Saudi Arabia and Riyadh are at the crossro...

In this episode, Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with Steve Adler, former mayor and city councilmember of Austin, TX. They discuss the work required to bridge across interest groups, passing legislation with long time horizons, and how to build consensus for large-scale transit projects.

With the recent signing of Shohei Otani, traffic to Dodger Stadium, LA's premiere sports venue, is up more than 12% - all without fixed transit infrastructure to handle the surge. In this episode, Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with David Grannis of Zero-Emissions Transit and Michael Manley of Gondola manufacturer Leitner-Poma to discuss their project that solves the stadium's congestion by going in...

Why is it often easier to pay for a cup of coffee than it is to pay for a ride on transit? In this episode, Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with Ben Lebedin from US Bank & Elavon to discuss the opportunities presented by open-loop payments, the benefits of the service to both consumers and transit agencies, and the treasure trove of data that it presents.

In this episode, Nick Perloff-Giles is joined by Matthew Daus, Partner at Windels-Marx and former Commissioner of the New York City TLC. They discuss the political headwinds facing congestion pricing, the challenges and successes of modernizing taxi service in the city, and what insurance markets might yield in policy to come.

More than 70% of CO2 emissions are being generated in cities and these cities often lack access to the financing tools necessary to bring sustainable solutions to life. In this episode, CoMotion’s John Rossant chats with Mauricio Rodas, Former Mayor of Quito, Ecuador, and Lisa Sachs, Director, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment to discuss the rising demand for sustainable mobility and trans...

Across the country, transit agencies face a dilemma: how to provide reliable, safe, and equitable service for individuals who rely on ADA paratransit, while keeping costs low? In this episode, CoMotion's Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with Dmitriy Vanchugov, Head of Partnerships at Uber Transit, alongside Spare Labs Co-Founder & CEO Kristoffer Vik Hansen, Stephanie Doughty (MV Transportation), and D...

In this episode, Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with Lewis Lehe, Assistant Professor in the Transportation Systems group of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department at UIUC, to discuss congestion pricing's consequences, two months later. Has the toll worked in reducing congestion downtown? How might we measure that? And beyond simply reducing congestion, are there other benefits to this po...

In this episode, Nick Perloff-Giles sits down with Leigh-Ann Buchanan, Founder & CEO of the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority, a 501c(3) non-profit that connects the most innovative startups in Miami's private markets with the most pressing needs in the public sector. They discuss how MDIA is disrupting slow procurements, and how public sector involvement can 'de-risk' innovation. Plus, a sneak peek...