Tanuj Deora is the Director of Colorado Governor’s Energy Office. He is working to clean-up our energy, diminish our need for foreign sourced energy, and make the State more energy efficient. He explains to Dan what the GEO does, their current areas of focus on transportation and they also discuss the bigger mobility picture as well. “TJ” as he is known, gets the multimobility future (he went to college in the Boston area and was a Zipcar member).
Denver-based developer Chris Crosby is a rock star. He understands the consumer’s changing relationship with the automobile and has leveraged his insight to become one of the most successful developers in the country. His 500-unit Spire residential development is a showcase for New Transportation. Dan interviews Chris at a Spire penthouse and learns what measures Chris and his partners took with regards to transportation to make Spire the success it has become.
Dan has known Andrea White-Kjoss for years and has the deepest respect for the work Bikestation does to transform mobility in the United States. Dan and Andrea discuss the many encouraging developments around the country related to Public Biking Centers. They also discuss the importance of installing these centers at every station on a metropolitan light rail (or BRT) network.
Alan Hoffan built his brain at Harvard and MIT and has the know-how to dramatically improve communities and cities around the United States. If you are going to watch only one Wheelchange show, it might as well be this one.
For Wheel! If our transportation is not smart, then it’s dumb! And our current mobility system is DUMB! Scott Belcher, CEO of ITS-America joins Dan to talk about what his organization does and the need for states to get moving on funding ITS projects that can save a substantial number of lives and injuries.
Ariel Schwartz, Assistant Editor at Fast Company, (and contributor to their Co.Exist blog) covers smart mobility. Dan discusses a number of her recent stories with her, the ambitions for Co.Exist at FC, and a little about her life living “above” car in San Francisco (that means she is free from car ownership)
They say people with a difference of opinion makes for a good show. Well, this is a good show 
Dan talks to Chicago’s newest Transportation Commissioner Gabe Klein on a snowy Chicago night. The conversation covers a lot of ground: What’s it like working for Mayor Emanuel, how’s Ray LaHood, bike lanes, potholes, $900,000,000 budgets, background at Zipcar and with FoodNEVs, before arriving to a differing view on the future of the suburb (and mobility). Gabe is an exceptional guy, really plowing forward to make a better city and world. This is a bit longer than other shows (40 min)
Dan Sperling, Director of ITS-Davis, member – California Air Resources Board, author, Two Billion Cars, joins Dan to discuss the opportunity to better integrate the growing portfolio of new mobility options to reduce car dependency. Sperling talks about CARB’s SB375 law (which he helped to craft) that has got California cities talking about increasing urban density, reducing sprawl, reducing vehicle use, and making communities more livable. Sperling also discusses how our institutions are not working in this area and are all set-up to serve single occupancy cars.
Dan (Sturges) presents his vision for a regional “GoPoint” multi-mobility hub-and-spoke network for our “thin cities”, a model to help certain market segments shed a car for these new mobility portfolios of options. (While not mentioned in the interview, a rough estimate of achieving 20% market penetration with the GoPoint system would re-direct $17 billion in revenue yearly to mobility providers in the Southern California market alone, while saving these consumers another $17 billion that could be spent on other needs or kept as savings each year. GoPoint also offers to reduce emissions, and traffic congestion, and enable more active lifestyles). Sperling validates the GoPoint system concept saying “These are great ideas and are the “Way to Go”.
Excerpt from interview, Dan Sperling: “We need cities to pursue innovative ideas and physically create new demonstrations that can serve as models for people to see”.
On the global automobile population swelling towards two billion, Sperling says: “…most disconcerting is the amount of carbon emissions associated with another billion cars. The world is headed towards big trouble and if we go in the wrong direction – as we are – it’s catastrophe that’s awaiting us in so many ways”
Dan (Sturges) has known Dan Sperling for 18 years. It’s a result of Sperling reaching out of his “silo” to connect with Sturges from another field in order to advance the sustainable / smart mobility agenda. Dan Sperling was the only leading eco-transport researcher in the United States in the 1990s interested in small personal vehicles (NEVs), and interested in the potential benefits of offering consumers a comprehensive mobility solution that still allowed drivers to “drive”.
Dan Sperling (seen below) on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart promoting his book Two Billion Cars
Some people actually retire after working for IBM and Sprint for decades. Not Colorado Springs (CO) resident Ray Krueger who has been working at a feverish pace to promote innovative mobility solutions in his city. Starting three years ago, Ray became active in responding to transit cuts, promoting mobility and access for elderly, and advocating for advanced autonomous local vehicle solutions for a certain area of CS. Ray talks with Dan about his efforts and reveals frustration over the widespread auto-dependency and announces he will move to central Seattle, a highly livable city, and plans to sell his car.
