Fast Forward

Episode 46. Greg Lindsay chats with Natalia Quintero, Transit Tech Lab's Program Director, about bringing in the most innovative and cutting-edge technology startups to remake New York's public transit. The Transit Tech Lab is a public-private initiative between the city's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Partnership for New York City. Natalia Quintero believes in finding innovative software solutions from all over the world, that can be responsive to the public transit needs of all New Yorkers.

Episode 45. Greg Lindsay chats with Yuan Shi, Global Solution Leader for New Mobility at Arcadis, about working with cities to bring about equitable micromobility first/last mile solutions. From Minneapolis to Paris, Yuan Shi believes local governments should learn from past successes and failures to implement micromobility regulations.

Episode 44. Greg Lindsay chats with Tony Pino, Bestmile's head of sales for North America, about ways to optimize fleet management. Tony Pino explains why Bestmile's modular-based fleet orchestration platform can adapt to any driving mode or vehicle brand. Greg and Tony chat about the future of autonomy and how city regulation will come into play.

Episode 43. Greg Lindsay chats with technologist Bianca Wylie, co-founder of Tech Reset Canada, about Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs project in Toronto and the many ethical questions surrounding urban data collection. Bianca Wylie believes we can't rely on data and technology to solve hard mobility infrastructure problems and that there are many trade-offs to data collection. Bianca argues cities should not be putting private companies in charge of local governance issues without consulting the public first.

Episode 42. Greg Lindsay chats with Rachel Weinberger, Senior Fellow for Transportation at the Regional Plan Association in New York, about congestion pricing in the Big Apple. New York is the first city in the US to adopt the policy and Dr. Rachel Weinberger walks us through the plan's implementation, revisiting best practices gathered from urban environments like Singapore, London and Stockholm, and explaining why congestion pricing in New York is a progressive tax which can help both alleviate congestion and fund public transit.

Episode 41. John Rossant chats with David Hartmann, Senior Vice President of Growth Ventures at Covestro, about how plastic is powering mobility innovation. Covestro is developing a whole portfolio of materials, including thermoplastic composites, that are stronger and lighter than metal, to help new and existing players in the transportation industry manufacture the best possible products. John and David chat about revolutionizing battery pack design, fueling the micromobility revolution, sustainability and plastic recycling.

Episode 40. Greg Lindsay chats with Benjamin de la Peña, Chief of Strategy and Innovation at Seattle's Department of Transportation, about how the agency is developing safe and equitable ways to oversee mobility innovation in Seattle. Benjie and his SDOT team are convinced information is the new infrastructure and are finalizing the Transportation Information Infrastructure Plan, an ambitious project to manage the city's transportation network data. Benjie explains how Seattle was able to improve its bus service and better manage mobility data flow to grow public transit ridership.

Episode 39. Greg Lindsay and Tortoise co-founder and president Dmitry Shevelenko, discuss the hows and whys of micro autonomy. Dmitry is convinced that allowing a scooter to park itself is an efficient way to satisfy the consumer preference for convenience and instant access to transportation on short distance trips. Tortoise's remote teleoperations and low-speed autonomy model doesn't require big, polluting vans to pick up the scooters for charging and uses the same tech components you can find in a $100 smartphone; its unique model makes it cheap and energy-efficient. Tortoise's position with regards to cities has been to ask for permission, rather than forgiveness, and have them decide where the service should be operated.

Episode 38. Greg Lindsay chats with Sam Baker, co-founder and COO of Wunder Mobility, about managing shared mobility through B2B software technology. Sam Baker believes it is essential to create the right incentive structures for different markets across the world to use innovative transportation services. Greg and Sam talk about the importance of having multiple technology actors come together to deploy an end service that actually works and can efficiently improve the quality of urban life.

Episode 38. Greg Lindsay chats with Optimus Ride Co-Founders Ryan Chin, CEO and Jenny Larios Berlin, COO. Optimus Ride delivers autonomous shuttle rides in geo-fenced environments and recently launched a new service in the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City. Ryan and Jenny want Optimus Ride to be a "neighbourhood autonomous mobility system", which provides a smooth, almost boring driving experience that is convenient for the community the service operates in.