In today's episode of The Next Mile Podcast, Pouya Dianat is joined by Sam Schwartz, a man who has been in the transportation industry since the late 1960s. He started as a cabby from New York and rose to become the traffic commissioner and the DOT’s Chief Engineer. He popularized the term “gridlock” and changed the way New Yorkers thought about traffic.

Key Points from this Episode:

• How will autonomous vehicles affect communities?
• The poor transit system in the US
• How citizens should take a more active role in this discussion
• Putting greater emphasis on system maintenance than on simple repair issues

Tweetables:

“…in the United States, I never opened with science when I'm trying to sell a plan to some community or state or federal government, it's always the economy. We open on the impact on the economy.” - Sam Schwartz

“The planet is on a collision course. We can't keep using the same amount of energy. We can't keep emitting the same carbon footprint. We can't be so selfish that we only count on what's good for ourselves. We have to start thinking collectively what is good for our planet.” - Sam Schwartz

“We see transit systems spending too much money on basic repair issues when, had they been able and had the money in the first place to maintain the systems, they could have done it for a lot less money. So, the public should take a real interest because when you allow infrastructure to fail, you pay an enormous price in so many ways.” – Sam Schwartz

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Sam Schwartz

Sam Schwartz on Twitter

Street Smart: The Rise of Cities and the Fall of Cars on Amazon

No one at the Wheel on Amazon 

No One at the Wheel: Driverless Cars and the Road of the Future on Goodreads

Street Smart: The Rise of Cities and the Fall of Cars on Barnes & Noble

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