Joint Panel on Urban Mobility
Robin Chase
Co-Founder and Former CEO of ZipCar, Buzzcar, and GoLoco
Co-Founder, Veniam
Anthony Townsend, PhD
Senior Research Scientist, New York University
Austin Brown
Assistant Director for Clean Energy and Transportation, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Executive Office of the President
Advancement in automation continues at an unprecedented pace, and automated vehicles are coming fast.
City and regional leaders will have to prepare to integrate innovative technologies into their transportation networks. Our municipalities need effective, coordinated policies, strategies, and processes to address goals related to transportation access, land use, energy, and cost. Planning for tomorrow today will help fully realize the potential of automated vehicles to advance the safety, efficiency, sustainability, and health of our cities and communities.
Dr. Austin Brown, assistant director for Clean Energy and Transportation at the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President, moderated a joint panel on urban mobility as part of Volpe's Future of Transportation series.
This panel featured Robin Chase, co-founder and former CEO of ZipCar, Buzzcar, and GoLoco, and co-founder of Veniam; and Anthony Townsend, PhD, senior research scientist at New York University.
About the Speakers
Robin Chase is a transportation entrepreneur. She is co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest carsharing company in the world; Buzzcar, a peer-to-peer carsharing service in France (now merged with Drivy); and GoLoco, an online ridesharing community. She is also co-founder and executive chairman of Veniam, a vehicle communications company building the networking fabric for the Internet of Moving Things.
She is on the boards of Veniam, the World Resources Institute, and Tucows. She also served on the board of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the National Advisory Council for Innovation & Entrepreneurship for the US Department of Commerce, the Intelligent Transportations Systems Program Advisory Committee for the US Department of Transportation, the OECD’s International Transport Forum Advisory Board, the Massachusetts Governor’s Transportation Transition Working Group, and Boston Mayor’s Wireless Task Force.
Read more of Robin Chase's biography.
Dr. Anthony Townsend is a senior research scientist at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management. He investigates the impacts of mobile information services and communications on travel behavior and long-term shifts in mobility demands in megacities, and the impacts of both trends on transportation planning and policy analysis.
Dr. Townsend is also a fellow at the Data & Society Research Institute, a newly launched think/do tank located in New York City. His research focuses on the emerging field of urban informatics and its impact on local government and citizen engagement.
Read more of Anthony Townsend's biography.
About the Moderator
Dr. Austin Brown is assistant director for Clean Energy and Transportation at the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in the Executive Office of the President.
At OSTP, Dr. Brown’s portfolio covers technologies, policies, and research strategies to enable a cleaner, more affordable, and reliable energy system. He is particularly interested in low-carbon options for improving the transportation system, including connected and automated vehicles, electrification, smart cities, and innovative transit solutions.
Dr. Brown teaches a class on transportation technology and policy at Johns Hopkins University. He has a BS in physics from Harvey Mudd College and a PhD in biophysics from Stanford University.
News and Video
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The views of these presenters do not necessarily reflect those of U.S. DOT.