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Talking transit and the future of mobility with Tim Papandreou

Talking transit and the future of mobility with Tim Papandreou

Tim Papandreou The Future of Mobility Speaker Series

As TransLink prepares to update Metro Vancouver’s transportation plan through to 2050, we brought in Tim Papandreou, a leading global expert in the future of mobility and automation, to introduce the challenges and opportunities of next generation mobility.

Organized by TransLink as the first of it’s The Future of Mobility Speaker Series – #TransLinkTomorrow, the talk was held at Simon Fraser University’s Vancouver campus.

TransLink Tomorrow is our commitment to continuously explore, test, and implement innovative ways to improve mobility in Metro Vancouver.

On Thursday, Tim spoke to a packed room of transit users, policy makers, transit enthusiasts, as well as other members of the public on the what the future holds for transit.

The transportation sector is about to experience its biggest shake up since the combustion engine replaced the horse and carriage. Electrification, automation and the sharing economy are converging to change the modes we use to move and the services we expect.

The audience explored these topics, and discussions about autonomous vehicles with Tim, who led strategic partnerships to commercialize Waymo and launch the world’s first fully self-driving ride hailing service.

Tim spoke about new modes and services, and the need to prepare to plan, operate and manage new mobility in radically different ways.

What changes are coming, and what does this mean for public and private transportation services? When will automated vehicles take to – and take over – our roads? And what do these changes mean for our cities, and how we choose to use and navigate space?

Andy Yan, Director, SFU City Program, opened the talk by discussing Vision Triple Zero: a future where there are no collisions, no fatalities, and no drivers (autonomous vehicles).

TransLink’s CEO Kevin Desmond spoke about the importance of collaboration between cities and the importance of the zero-collision corridor the City of Vancouver and the City of Surrey envision.

The City of Vancouver (represented by Joanna Clark, Citywide Transportation Planner) and City of Surrey (represented by Douglas McLeod, Transportation Planning Manager & Acting Transportation Infrastructure Manager) also took the stage to talk about their joint Smart Cities Challenge proposal. The cities are working to pilot autonomous shuttles in Metro Vancouver’s largest and fastest growing cities.

Following his presentation, Tim was joined on stage for a moderated Q&A with Jen St. Denis, Star Metro Vancouver’s city hall reporter.

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Author: Terence Chu & Tanushree Pillai

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