The transportation sector poses significant opportunities for and challenges to reducing US greenhouse gas emissions as the Country’s highest-emissions sector. As a result of stay-at-home orders issued in March and April in cities and states across the US, we’ve seen a visible difference in smog in part due to less driving. Streets in cities also comprise more than 30 percent of all land in many cities, and therefore more than 80 percent of public space. Yet for much of the past century, we’ve been designing them to prioritize moving cars quickly, which is neither safe nor efficient. What if we designed streets with different priorities and invested in high-quality public transportation?
In this month’s episode, Kelly and our guest, Zak Accuardi, discuss the attributes of public transit service that make it possible and desirable for people to use transit more, and why this can be so impactful in US cities today.

Episode Guest: Zak Accuardi, NRDC 

 
Zak Accuardi works in Los Angeles as a Transportation Advisor at the Natural Resources Defense Council. He coordinates with cities across the U.S. to advance transportation policies and projects as part of the American Cities Climate Challenge. Previously, Zak has consulted on transportation policy and climate change mitigation across a variety of organizations and sectors, and worked as a Senior Research Associate at TransitCenter, where he co-authored several national policy reports including 2018’s Inclusive Transit.
 
 
Episode Information & Resources

* Natural Resources Defense Council
* American Cities Climate Challenge
* TransitCenter
* 2018’s Inclusive Transit
* High Frequency Podcast by The TransitCenter

 

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