Ep 118: Andrew Salzberg, Loeb Fellow at Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Today's guest is Andrew Salzberg, Loeb Fellow at Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

I was excited for this one, because transportation is such a key lever in decarbonization and one that we haven't yet spent enough time talking about here on the pod. We cover a lot in this episode, including an overview of the transportation ecosystem, where we are today, where we need to go and what are some of the barriers that have been holding us back. We also talk about the arc of Andrew's career and his time at Uber. I enjoyed this one a lot and I hope you do as well.

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at [email protected], where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Andrew’s early passion in transit and transportation.
• His background in civil engineering and urban planning.
• His experience working in China on urban development.
• Andrew’s time at Uber.
• His perspective on where the U.S. is with respect to climate change.
• How transportation behavior is hampering progress on emissions.
• The role of ride share companies and the impact of autonomous vehicles.
• His impetus for leaving Uber.
• The importance of localizing action to improve transportation.
• The big transportation levers that should be pulled to address climate change.
• The challenges around local regulations and NIMBYism and the need to overcome it.
• Lyft’s recent announcement to go 100% EV by 2030.
• How the government needs to lead the decarbonization of transportation.

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Loeb Fellow Profile: https://loebfellowship.gsd.harvard.edu/fellows-alumni/fellows-search/andrewsalzberg/
• Transport for London: https://tfl.gov.uk/
• House Democrats’ climate proposal: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/06/30/pelosi-climate-plan/
• Lyft’s pledge to go 100% EV by 2030: https://www.lyft.com/blog/posts/leading-the-transition-to-zero-emissions

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant