The average LA commuter spends five days a year stuck in traffic; pedestrian deaths are the highest they’ve been in 40 years in the U.S.; and the transportation sector is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in America. They’re all products of a system that has prioritized automobiles over people for decades. 

But ‘car free’ or ‘car light’ approaches to urban planning are taking hold in cities and neighborhoods around the world. From Amsterdam to Barcelona to Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates, officials are getting serious about redesigning their communities for car-free living. 

The concept sounds a bit radical. But it doesn’t mean getting rid of cars altogether. It’s about reimagining communities to shift the balance in favor of new transit options. 

In this episode, Andrei and Tiffany explore what transportation in the U.S. would look like if most of us didn't have to reach for our car keys every day.

Guests:

• Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the urban design program at Georgia Tech
• Cornelia Dinca, founder of Sustainable Amsterdam
• Peter Norton, associate professor of history at the University of Virginia
• Shyam Kannan, Mid-Atlantic transit lead at HDR
• Transit expert Jerome Horne

We’ve been sold on the idea that a car is the ultimate freedom. But that’s only true for people who can afford it. A system that relies on owning a personal car is not a system that provides freedom to everyone – it’s a system that disproportionately penalizes people of color, people with limited income, or people with disabilities.

So how do we build an affordable, reliable transit system that works for everyone?

In this episode, Andrei and Tiffany dig into the many ways we can incorporate equity into our transportation planning. They’ll cover a wide range of angles: land use, housing, transit choice, and anti-displacement. 

Guests:

• Charles Brown, founder and CEO of Equitable Cities
• Shyam Kannan, Mid-Atlantic transit lead at HDR
• Chad Ballentine, VP of demand response and innovative mobility at Capital Metro
• Transit expert Jerome Horne

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

Rapid deployment of new technologies have given consumers more mobility options – but have also caused conflicts with regulators and local planners. 

But that paradigm is shifting. Conflict is turning into collaboration. TransitTech companies are now working more closely with cities and transit agencies in order to make better use of new mobility models.

Collaboration is at the core of TransitTech. The TransitTech sector alone could represent $450 billion in investment opportunities to improve or overhaul public transportation systems. Under this emerging framework, what are the technology areas that offer the most promise?

In this episode, Andrei and Tiffany unpack how TransitTech is reshaping the way transportation agencies plan and adapt – and what it means for riders and the future of mobility in America.

Guests:

• Angela Wynes, transit manager for High Point, North Carolina 
• Shyam Kannan, Mid-Atlantic transit lead at HDR
• Gabe Klein, partner at Cityfi.
• Aaron Bielenberg, partner at McKinsey & Company

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

Rural transit needs help. According to analysis from the National Transit Database, 87 percent of the least-productive bus networks are located in rural counties with populations lower than 50,000 residents. 

These “transit deserts” in rural areas have major social, economic, and health consequences. How can technology and better planning solve the problem?

In this episode, Andrei and Tiffany explore the rural transit divide. Across the country, small towns and cities are coming up with new solutions to old mobility problems – making rural transit smarter, more accessible, and more affordable.

Guests: 

• Valdosta, Georgia Mayor Scott Matheson
• Scott Bogren, executive director at Community Transportation for America
• Caroline Rodriguez, executive director of High Valley Transit

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

Breaking our car dependence and reinvigorating our public transit system is not straightforward. It is a complicated and politically controversial process.

But a new generation of political leaders is working to reform how we invest in mobility options at the federal, state, and local levels. 

In this episode, Andrei and Tiffany explore the longstanding obstacles to improving the quality of our transit systems — and how bold leaders are pushing the envelope to improve mobility for Americans.

Guests:

• Boston Mayor Michelle Wu
• Massachusetts Congressman Jake Auchincloss
• Yonah Freemark, research director at the Urban Institute’s Land Use Lab
• Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America

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

America’s transit system is struggling. How do we fix it?

A D minus. That’s what the American Society of Civil Engineers gives US transit infrastructure for a grade. There’s a $176 billion repair backlog across the country; nearly half of the population doesn't have access to any transit; and only 5% of US workers use a train or bus to get to work.

Ridership on transit was already declining even before Covid hit. Today, it's still not anywhere close to where it was before the pandemic. Meanwhile, Americans spend more and more on transportation.

In our first episode of ModeShift, co-hosts Andrei Greenawalt and Tiffany Chu talk with experts about the state of transit – exploring the history of transit’s decline, and the economic and environmental impact of car dependency.

Guests:

• Transit expert Jerome Horne
• Peter Norton, associate professor of history at the University of Virginia.
• Beth Osborne, director of Transportation for America

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

The modern American economy was built for cars. Outside of major cities, most of us depend heavily on cars to get everywhere. Not having access to one can put a person at a serious disadvantage.

So what will it take to change the way we move around? Can we develop a new transportation framework that cuts dependence on personal cars and creates more options for everyone?

Join hosts Andrei Greenawalt and Tiffany Chu as they dig into the forces that are holding our transit system back — and the forces that could unleash it.

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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.

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

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.

When people talk about economic opportunity, they usually focus on jobs, education, or housing.

But there’s another factor that shapes all of those things: how people move.

In season two of ModeShift, host Andrei Greenawalt explores how cities across the U.S. are rethinking transportation — not just as a way to get around, but as a driver of economic growth, safety, and access.

From congestion pricing and integrated transit systems to new technologies like AI, this season looks at the ideas reshaping how cities move — and what that means for opportunity.

Episodes are dropping soon. Subscribe to Modeshift anywhere you get your podcasts.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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