Comotion Podcast

Episode 31. Greg Lindsay chats with Don Burnette, co-founder and CEO at Kodiak Robotics. Don Burnette believes trucking will be the first commercially viable application of autonomous vehicle technology and that autonomous trucks can drive much more safety and efficiency to the system. Kodiak Robotics seeks to revolutionize freight transportation with a single network, connected autonomous trucking fleet.

Episode 30. Greg Lindsay chats with Dr. Henrik Haenecke, member of the Management Board for Berlin's public transport operator, BVG. Dr. Haenecke tells us all about how Jelbi, Berlin's groundbreaking all-in-one app Mobility as a Service platform came about and how it works. BVG took an incremental approach to implementing this ambitious experiment. The public transportation operator needed to convince private sector mobility providers to join forces and integrate by offering to share customer data, and reconcile with transit weary Berliners through an audacious marketing campaign.

Episode 29. Greg Lindsay chats with MetaProp Venture Advisor Elie Finegold about the intersection of multi-modal transportation and real-estate development. Elie is a New Yorker living car-free in Dallas, and has seen the e-scooter boom dramatically increase the number of Dallasites walking in the street. From delivery services to the advent of autonomy, Greg and Elie examine how the mobility revolution will impact the value of real-estate in the near future.

Episode 28. Greg Lindsay chats with Curbed's Urbanism Editor Alissa Walker about changing behavior and moving beyond cars. Greg and Alissa take a deep dive into the Los Angeles mobility scene, from walkable urbanism, micromobility options and dedicated bus lanes to congestion pricing and SB 50.

Episode 27. This conversation between Greg Lindsay and futurist Scott Smith was recorded on location in Masdar City, UAE. Scott and Greg chat about the famous closed-loop zero-carbon city, which Scott refers to as "a fragment of the Gulf future's 1.0 dream", and about building the next vision of the future. Scott, Founder and Managing Director of Amsterdam-based consulting group Changeist, talks about how mobility cultures differ from city to city, and highlights the need to think about sustainable transportation as part of a much more complex system.

Episdode 26. Greg Lindsay chats with David Zipper, fellow in the Urban and Regional Policy Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, about integrating public and private modes of transportation into Mobility-as-a-Service platforms, without letting companies create mobility "walled gardens", or having privacy advocates turn against city-run multi-modal networks.

Episode 25. Greg Lindsay chats with Devin de Vries, co-founder & CEO of WhereIsMyTransport, about improving visibility and accessibility for informally run transportation networks, which cities have traditionally had very little insight into. WhereIsMyTransport is a startup which provides an integrative mobility platform for governments to centralize information from both formal and informal transportation networks. Rather than disrupting informal transport services, WhereIsMyTransport wants to incrementally improve their businesses, making them easier for everyone to use.

Episode 24. Greg Lindsay chats with Martin McMullan, Director of the Connected Journey program at the New Zealand Transportation Agency, about the the nuts-and-bolts of Mobility-as-a-Service and public sector innovation. Martin explains how he and his team implemented their own MaaS app in Auckland, NZ, by building a business case off of user feedback, and providing the underpinning digital infrastructure for an integrated service open to both public and private operators, which allows for an unbiased, fair and egalitarian transit system.

Episode 23. John Rossant sits down with Nixon Peabody real estate attorneys Justin Thompson and Garth Bostic to discuss ways in which the fast-changing urban mobility landscape will affect real-estate development in the three decades to come. John, Justin and Garth chat about parking requirements and the need for flexible, “future-proof” design, how regulatory environments and geographic considerations will affect the advent of autonomous vehicles, the impact congestion pricing and urban air mobility will have on land use, and the importance of acting as an intermediary between private actors and city officials to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Episode 22. Greg Lindsay chats with Paul Comfort, Vice President of Buisness Development and Chief Transit Evangelist at Trapeze Group, which provides the enterprise software that runs public transportation systems all over the world, among other products. The former transit head also hosts a mobility podcast of his own, “Transit Unplugged” where he interviews transportation leaders. Greg and Paul talk about redesigning routes for high frequency service, providing ease of use and ease of access, and gamification and loyalty reward programs, as key ways of increasing public transport ridership. Paul shares his experience as a public transit leader, and talks about his new book, 'Full Throttle', which he describes as a self-help book for transportation professionals.

Episode 21. Greg Lindsay chats with Swoop's CEO, Amir Ghorbani, and Ruben Schultz, Co-Founder, about mobility as an experience. Swoop is a shared mobility startup focused on large sized vehicles for groups. Greg, Amir and Ruben discuss the evolution of the shared vehicle market.

Episode 20. CoMotion Founder and Chief Curator John Rossant sits down with Paul Glenney, CEO of Hubject Inc. Hubject is an interoperability platform focused on simplifying EV charging. Hubject works with Charge Port Operators (CPOs) and e-mobility service providers in 26 countries, and has more than 300 business-to-business partners. Hubject operates as a hub, enabling partners to communicate with each other and do business together. John and Paul chat about public charging and ways to accelerate EV adoption in the US and across the world.

Episode 19. Greg Lindsay chats with Eduardo Javier Muñoz, CEO of EVShare, about ways to reinvent our mobility ecosystem. EVShare operates a combination of home solar renewables, feeding into electric vehicles and using blockchain as a way of awarding credits and paying out people’s use of mobility. The foundation creates fleets that enable people to move around using less vehicles, in a cheaper and more energy-efficient way. Eduardo views blockchain technology as a “digitalized democratization” of mobility, which allows for a transparent government structure, where people can decide how their money is invested.

Episode 18. John Rossant chats with Alexandra Dublanche, Vice President of the Paris Region, to discuss how the region is strengthening its public transportation network beyond the dense core of the city. The Paris Region is experimenting with innovative and sustainable new modes of transportation, such as flying water cars on the Seine or shared autonomous vehicles. John and Alexandra compare different cultural mindsets regarding public transportation, and how those can evolve.

Episode 16. Stephen Baker and RJ Scaringe, CEO of Rivian, an electric car startup, sat down at LA CoMotion to discuss how the consumption model for cars will evolve over the next decades. RJ calls Rivian the “Patagonia” of electric cars - a comfortable vehicle encouraging customers to go out and explore the world. The car’s smart battery can learn from its user and adjust to his preferred charging mode in real-time. RJ Scaringe believes that as we move away from an exclusive consumption ownership model for cars, we will adopt more use-case specific modes of consumption.

Episode 16. Greg Lindsay and Nat Parker, CEO of moovel North America, address the dire after effects “competing empires” of MaaS platforms could have on congestion and discuss moovel’s long term vision for building an open, avant-garde mobility operating system for cities. moovel and BMW are combining their transportation offerings in an effort to build a mobility powerhouse that works as an open network, where competing service providers can offer their solutions as well. Nat Parker makes a case for compensating companies like moovel on measured outcomes of reducing congestion.

Episode 15. John Rossant sits down with Joshua Schank, Chief Innovation Officer for LA Metro, to talk about LA county’s collective decision to retrofit a car-centric region for public transit. John and Josh discuss how LA’s infrastructure shift compares to older cities in the rest of the world, and why this tremendous undertaking will allow LA to emerge as one of the key global hubs in the mobility revolution. LA Metro’s Office of Extraordinary Innovation collaborates with the private sector and is testing out microtransit projects in selected parts of the city to see which ones work the best. For Joshua Schank, fixing mobility in LA does not solely rely on acquiring new technologies - he believes regulatory policy, such as implementing dedicated bus lanes or charging people who drive in their cars, is what will truly drive the mobility revolution.

Episode 14. John Rossant and Nik Karalis, CEO of Woods Bagot, chat about the implications of the mobility revolution on the built environment. At LA CoMotion, Woods Bagot, the global architectural and design consultancy, will present their fascinating research on the repurposing of parking places in the city of Los Angeles, exploring how a shift in planning could provide dwellings for more than 3 million people. Woods Bagot’s 3D data visualization tool will adjust itself live to different density scenarios for the districts of Inglewood, Downtown and East LA. Angelinos will be invited to share their impressions on the level of change in the built environment that feels comfortable to them, and to own the development process of their city.

Episode 12. John Rossant and Thierry Mallet, Chairman and CEO of Transdev, chat about emerging new mobility options for the cities of tomorrow. These cities will be polycentric and need to be redesigned for humans, not cars - all our basic needs will be fulfilled through micromobilty. John and Thierry discuss the need for local governments to regulate mobility, while remaining open to innovation. Thierry Mallet expands upon some of the integration lessons Transdev has learned in developing their global mobility app in the French city of Mulhouse, or on applying autonomous systems to public transit, such as with thei autonomous lab in Rouen.

Episode 13. How can we frame the conversation around urban mobility in the Southern California region and encourage people to opt for safer, more enjoyable streets at a human scale? Greg Lindsay chats with SCAG Planning & Programs Director Kome Ajise and Meghan Sahli-Wells, Vice Mayor of Culver City. The Southern California Association of Governments is a regional planning agency whose role is to make sure there is alignment in planning across jurisdictions, and that the region’s ambitious sustainability goals get implemented. SCAG’s Go Human program demonstrates how protected bike lanes or safer crosswalks can bring people back to basic forms of human mobility. Greg, Meghan and Kome discuss Culver city’s recent agreements with Bird and Lime and how these first and last mile solutions can encourage people to use public transit.