ModeShift

Nearly two years ago, Salt Lake City received some long-awaited news: it will officially host the 2034 Winter Olympics. That makes Salt Lake one of only two U.S. cities to host the winter games twice. The announcement shifted planners’ focus to logistics—specifically, how the region's transit system will handle a massive global audience. 

In our season finale, Andrei sits down with Nichol Bourdeaux, chief planning and engagement officer at the Utah Transit Authority. Together, they discuss how the 2002 Games laid the groundwork for 2034 and look closely at the city’s current, robust infrastructure. They also  explore lessons learned from the Milano Cortina 2026 Games and what Utah is watching as the U.S prepares for the upcoming World Cup.

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Public transit is a critical service that can drive significant economic growth for cities. But only if it’s effective. About 15 years ago, Daniel Ramot and his co-founder Oren Shoval had an idea that transit could be more than just the big buses and trains of the last century.  That cities could also have dynamically-routed shuttles that would flexibly respond to rider demand and change their routes in real-time. Since then, Via expanded its services to paratransit, school transportation, transit planning, and even conventional buses. It completely redesigns and operates entire public transit systems. 

And now, at the dawn of AI, Daniel sees an unprecedented opportunity to make public transit smarter and more adaptive than ever. In this episode, Daniel charts Via’s journey from a scrappy startup to working with over 800 cities across the world to expand and grow public transit He breaks down the critical role of data in shaping transit systems and reveals how the company is harnessing AI to reshape the future of transportation.

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For decades, the bus system in Greater Manchester, UK failed to deliver reliable service for the region’s residents. The main culprit? A shift towards privatization in the’80s that allowed dozens of companies to operate in the city. As a result, ridership dwindled and services were slashed. In 2021, a UN-backed report described Manchester’s bus system as an "abject failure" and a "masterclass in how not to run an essential public service."

Yet in recent years Greater Manchester has seen a remarkable turnaround. Led by Mayor Andy Burnham, the region retook control of its bus system in 2023 and began rolling out a revamped transit system called the Bee Network. Made up of buses,trams, trains, and shared buses, the Bee Network has reversed the trend of falling ridership and helped connect residents in the midst of widespread growth and development in Greater Manchester.

In this episode, Mayor Burnham – who is currently in the public eye as a possible contender for Prime Minister – joins the show to dig into the history of buses in the city, his long history with political activism, and the remarkable and surprising impacts of the Bee Network.

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Americans want better transit, and they’re making it known at the ballot box. Across the country, voters are approving policies that fund new infrastructure and reinforce existing transit services. In 2024 alone, 51 ballot measures passed nationwide, collectively securing over $25 billion in transit funding.

In today’s episode, we head to the boomtown of Columbus, Ohio to see how City Council President Shannon Hardin and COTA CEO Monica Tellez-Fowler collaborated on a years-long effort to design a transit initiative that truly resonated with voters.

We also head to Nashville, Tennessee to speak with Sabrina Sussman about how lessons learned from a failed past campaign informed a successful transit campaign in 2024. Finally, we explore how both cities are putting these funds to work—from launching new rapid bus lines to laying down hundreds of miles of new sidewalks.

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Across America, millions of families are feeling the effects of an affordability crisis. As the cost of living continues to rise, one-quarter of us have no savings, and over half couldn’t afford a $1,000 emergency. 

As we scramble for solutions, one bold idea is staring us in the face: transit. 

In today’s episode, Adie Tomer, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies land-use and transportation, offers case studies and historical context to show how leaning into transit can put money back in Americans’ pockets and expand opportunities for employment and wage growth. With Adie as our guide, we travel from Florida to London, and from Ohio to an experimental housing project outside of Phoenix, to learn how transit can truly be an engine of prosperity.

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Few technological advances have captured our attention like the rise of autonomous robotaxis. From San Francisco to Austin, Los Angeles to Miami, you can now hail a white Jaguar Waymo driven by…no one. 

Yet for Arielle Fleisher, AVs are about much more than cool technology: she sees them as a means to making streets safer. She also sees them as part of a broader integrated transit strategy that gives people more options.

In this episode, Fleisher, who serves as policy development and research manager at Waymo, unpacks several initiatives that strengthen the bonds between Waymo and public transit, and explains how Waymos can be a boon for public health.

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It’s no secret that America’s streets are dangerous: roughly 40,000 people die on our roads every year. In response, over the past couple of decades, 60 cities have embraced VisionZero — a framework for road safety developed in Sweden — to make roads safer by slowing down cars and expanding curbs and other infrastructure that makes pedestrians and cyclists more visible.

Although VisionZero has a mixed record in America, the tiny, dense city of Hoboken, New Jersey has emerged as proof that VisionZero can save lives and cut down on injuries. 

Much of that success can be attributed to the work of Ravi Bhalla, who served as mayor from 2018 until earlier this year. Bhalla added bumpouts to intersections, crosswalks and slowed speed limits across the city. As a result, Hoboken hasn’t seen a single road death since 2017 and drastically cut serious injuries. 

In this episode, Bhalla explains how a lack of safety was hurting Hoboken, the resistance he confronted in his pursuit of new policies, and their cascading impacts on the community.

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Across America, small and medium-sized cities are growing at a rapid clip. In many of them, transit services have failed to keep up. 

In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, that is not the case. In this episode, we hear from Paul TenHaken, the city’s outspoken and candid mayor. Under TenHaken’s watch, Sioux Falls has overhauled its transit system with remarkable results. 

In partnership with Via, Sioux Falls added more paratransit services, made bus routes more flexible, and boosted its on-demand services; the result is a system that works hand in hand with the city as it grows.

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America is hooked on parking. There are roughly two billion parking spaces in the United States; that’s about eight spots for every single car. All of that parking takes up a lot of space; roughly a third of the land in our cities. 

For Henry Grabar, the acclaimed author of “Paved Paradise,” our fixation is fueled by what he calls the parking trilemma: our quest for a parking space that is convenient, available and free. Yet, for Grabar, this trilemma has eroded the very communities it aims to make accessible. 

In this episode, Grabar digs into the history of parking to explain our unquenchable thirst for it, the cascading impacts of all that parking and case studies that demonstrate we can change the parking status quo.

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Last year, New York City launched one of the most ambitious and dramatic transportation-related plans America has seen in a quarter-century: congestion pricing. The plan charges most vehicles $9 to enter Manhattan south of 61st Street; those funds are being used to overhaul the region’s transit system, and the reduction in traffic has led to both healthier air and smoother travel.

While the plan ran into some very public friction with the federal government, the drama surrounding congestion pricing actually goes back 20 years. In this episode, we hear from one of the architects of the plan, Kathy Wylde, the former CEO of the influential business organization Partnership for NYC. Kathy walks us through the long road to congestion pricing, pushes back on the criticism it has faced, and highlights its remarkable accomplishments.

Listen to ModeShift on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.