17 episodes

Transit innovator Ben Whitaker looks to amplify the voice of those who have pushed the envelope and worked tirelessly to make public transit the backbone of people’s mobility. What results is a light-hearted conversation intertwined with reflections about the practical use of technology in the transit industry, reducing waste and getting the most for your public buck, and most importantly, getting people out of their personal cars and onto public transit and shared mobility whenever possible. As a technological pioneer in transport ticketing, Ben is passionate about not falling prey to the technological overhype and instead looking for practical solutions that will bring the most value to transit agencies and riders alike. This is a common thread throughout this podcast series and stands as the basis of the ‘Boondoggle vs The Underdog’ section of the episodes.

Transit Voices Ben Whitaker

    • Business
    • 5.0 • 4 Ratings

Transit innovator Ben Whitaker looks to amplify the voice of those who have pushed the envelope and worked tirelessly to make public transit the backbone of people’s mobility. What results is a light-hearted conversation intertwined with reflections about the practical use of technology in the transit industry, reducing waste and getting the most for your public buck, and most importantly, getting people out of their personal cars and onto public transit and shared mobility whenever possible. As a technological pioneer in transport ticketing, Ben is passionate about not falling prey to the technological overhype and instead looking for practical solutions that will bring the most value to transit agencies and riders alike. This is a common thread throughout this podcast series and stands as the basis of the ‘Boondoggle vs The Underdog’ section of the episodes.

    Sampo Hietanen: Lessons and the Future of Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

    Sampo Hietanen: Lessons and the Future of Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

    This month’s episode of Transit Voices delves into the intricate world of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) with Sampo Hietanen, the visionary behind the travel app Whim. Coming on the heels of MaaS Global’s bankruptcy filing in Finland, Sampo shares invaluable insights from the two-decade journey of all-in mobility innovations.
    Sampo and host Ben Whitaker unravel the essence of MaaS, debating whether its core lies in journey planning or payment functionalities, and draw parallels to the evolution of the telecoms market in terms of subscriptions and roaming.  
    A significant portion of their discussion focuses on the competitive landscape, with Sampo pointing out that different public transport modes should not see each other as rivals but should work together.  “For MaaS to actually start thriving, we'll have to define kind of the competitive landscape in a bit of a different way,” he explains.  “20% of household costs go now into mobility, [and] 76% of that money goes into the car, and the car ownership. Now within the services industry, if we would all consider changing the paradigm of what is my competition, and if the competition is car against everything else, we would see it in a different format where it makes sense to actually collaborate in order to tap open that three quarters of the market which is blocked.”
    The conversation also touches upon various subscription models tested by MaaS Global. When people are offered unrestricted MaaS, including access to a car, their car use actually falls in time as they choose public transport: “We tried for seven years with these customers having unlimited - so they have unlimited taxis, unlimited cars, unlimited public transport, everything unlimited.  And surprise, surprise, their modal split was always going up with public transport.”
    Despite differing views on the importance of a single payment system within MaaS, Sampo and Ben concur that investing public funds in city-specific MaaS solutions, which compete against established transit planners, may not be the most effective use of resources. This episode of Transit Voices offers a deep dive into the challenges and opportunities within the MaaS ecosystem, providing a comprehensive look at its potential to transform urban mobility.

    • 48 min
    Carlos Pardo: From Bikes to BRT and Beyond

    Carlos Pardo: From Bikes to BRT and Beyond

    This month on Transit Voices we go beyond the headlines with Carlos Felipe Pardo from Colombia, a champion cyclist who then became a mobility and urban transport policy adviser for organizations such as the UN and the World Bank.
     
    In the conversation with Masabi co-founder Ben Whitaker, Carlos explains why car schemes always seem to get the investment instead of public transit. “Many times, we see the large investments in roads, because they're incredibly expensive, and that is pretty clear to people in transportation” he says. “But then people who have the voice in the media, and in policy, and even in Congress, they are people who are either riding a car all day or most of the time, or would like to.”
     
    We also get the real story behind some of the projects like Bogota’s BRT bike parks, former Bogota Mayor Enrique Peñalosa’s quotation on real developed cities having the bankers on the bus, and a few of the really gnarly problems about safety, getting people on to public transport in more dangerous areas. Carlos gives an interesting insight to the issue in Bogata: “BRT is the safest way to move in Bogota, in terms of road safety,” says.  “The worst way to travel in Bogota is walking, sadly, going by motorbike, then riding a bicycle. So public transport is incredibly safe in terms of road safety, [but] getting to the buses, not so safe.”
     
    You’ll also hear about why road tunnels are a boondoggle in urban transportation, and why Carlos thinks cargo bikes are a big underdog in cities.

    • 38 min
    David Block-Schachter: Paving the Way for User-Centric Integrated Mobility

    David Block-Schachter: Paving the Way for User-Centric Integrated Mobility

    This month’s Transit Voices welcomes David Block-Schachter, the Chief Business Officer at Transit to talk about designing transit solutions around what riders need.
    “One of the biggest issues I think, is that when you work within an agency, you are beset by all of the internal requirements about what something needs to do, as opposed to focusing on what the rider needs, as you should be,” he says.
    David, who lives a car-free life, explains how traditional thinking in transit has been an issue, because sometimes the technology in the vehicle costs the same as the vehicle itself.
    “We were running these Mercedes Sprinter vans around Boston,” he tells host Ben Whitaker. “We were trying to figure out how you would pay for fare in an integrated way, and the only way they could figure out how to do it was to put a farebox on this Mercedes Sprinter van. Well, the problem was that the fare box actually cost more than the vehicle.”
    The episode also delves into broader topics like Mobility as a Service, open payments, the integration of bikes and various transit modes, and the MBTA’s Charlie 2.0 procurement.
    You’ll also hear why driver split shifts are David’s boondoggle, while his underdog is investing in staff capability and training.

    • 51 min
    Satinder Bhalla: Embracing the Evolution Toward Outcome-Based Procurement

    Satinder Bhalla: Embracing the Evolution Toward Outcome-Based Procurement

    This episode of Transit Voices features host Ben Whitaker in conversation with Satinder Bhalla, President and Co-founder of TransSIGHT, a transit services company and IT integrator that works with all sorts of different transit agencies joining together their data.
    They dive into the critical role of data in transforming transit services and how agencies can pivot from providing standard services to those actually desired by passengers.
    “I've felt like there has always been a friction between the riders and what is being offered,” says Satinder, “which makes it totally inconvenient. So that was indeed the one key element for us to solve as part of TransSIGHT.”
    Satinder and Ben discuss the difference between providing products which an agency uses to fulfil its needs, or customized solutions, which take much more work to provide based on an agency’s wish list and how to move towards products.
    This will happen “Only if the agencies start to look to procure something more like a solution,” says Ben. “Because I think the habits in the industry… and the cost of a procurement process, makes people feel that they've got to fill everything on their Christmas list in, if Christmas only comes once every ten years. The tendency to fill out all possible requirements for the next five to 10 years means it's very hard to get a productized solution, and it almost always results in something customized.”
    In their conversation, they also discuss APIs, how the US might catch up and even overtake Europe when it comes to new ways of paying for transit, and the procurement for small businesses. You’ll also hear why, when it comes to Satinder’s boondoggle, it has to be Chat GPT.

    • 38 min
    Richard Rowson: Pioneering Online Ticket Sales and Transforming Transit Journey Planning

    Richard Rowson: Pioneering Online Ticket Sales and Transforming Transit Journey Planning

    This month on Transit Voices, we are thrilled to host Richard Rowson, a trailblazer in online ticket sales, known for his pioneering work on the UK's Trainline website two decades ago. 
    In this program, he tells host Ben Whitaker about the challenges in setting up the site because, as he puts it “until 2007 the industry in many ways wasn't ready for it.” Discover the blend of online transactions and fax communications that marked the early days of digital ticketing, facilitating passengers to have their tickets printed at specific stations
     “A lot of that first decade was the heavy engineering,” he explains, “How can you build a Journey Planner that takes all these feeds and within a few seconds can give you some journey results?”
    The conversation about journey planning deepens as Richard talks about how even now, planners do not take into account the real world, “They'll either try and get you on the bus all the way from door to door, which will probably look slow and unappealing, or they'll give you a driving option where they assume that you'll be able to park on the pavement right outside the office that you're going to and completely ignore the issue that you'll end up parked in a multi-story a mile away from where you're going and still have a miles walk at the end of your journey,” he says.  Ben agrees, commenting “Some of the data feeds you're now consuming to find those buses and shuttles and everything else aren't fit for purpose yet, because nobody's really used them and you find out that they're wrong or out of date,” he says. “And that's hard, hard, hard work, and someone somewhere has to pay for it.” 
    The discussion takes a fascinating turn toward monetizing journey planning and the allure of Mobility as a Service for some companies. While that’s a snippet to leave you hooked, this episode also unfolds discussions on contactless pay-as-you-go systems, fare policies, compensation, revenue management, and the gaps that exist in the current transit framework. Tune in to this engaging episode of Transit Voices to explore the evolution of online ticketing and the myriad dimensions of journey planning in the modern transit landscape.

    • 34 min
    Jerome Horne: New Urbanists' Vision for Transit and Cityscapes

    Jerome Horne: New Urbanists' Vision for Transit and Cityscapes

    On this episode of Transit Voices, we embark on a journey through time to envision the future of our cities under the leadership of the emerging “new urbanists.”
    Our spotlight guest is Jerome Horne, a notable “new urbanist” from TransitCenter, a foundation devoted to enhancing public transit across US cities by introducing innovative design ideas for both urban spaces and their transit systems.
    In the podcast, Jerome tells host Ben Whitaker how he’s always been interested in transit, so much so that at the age of ten he wrote to the CEO of the transit system in his home city of Baltimore asking how he could get his job when he grew up.
    “When I was younger, I was just playing with model train sets, maybe watching Thomas the Tank Engine,” Jerome says.  “My dad gave me an early copy of the game Sim City, and so you know, there was a fascination there.”
    Speaking on the “new urbanists” movement, Jerome delves into the importance of creating cities that prioritize liveability, emphasizing the pivotal role of efficient transport systems. “It is encouraging, we are seeing more focus on the rise of urbanism - just the concept of a walkable place become more mainstream,” he says.  “What we're talking about is people, regardless of demographic, socio ideology, even political positioning.  A lot of people just like to go to a place where they can walk. This is really key to the future and how do we figure out how to orientate cities around humans.”
    Jerome discusses the need to reduce parking provision so that more people are encouraged to take public transit, but also to educate them about the options.  “Some people are just either unexperienced or they're just ignorant about taking public transit,” he says.  “And I don't mean ignorant in the sense that’s a bad thing, but because there hasn't been good public education campaign.  There are simple barriers sometimes that get in the way of deciding to make a different choice, so some of that is just a marketing and education campaign to show people they only live five minutes away from a bus route that runs every ten minutes, and takes you where you like to go on the weekends.”
    The conversation extends to concepts like the 15-minute cities, carrot and stick, and targeting people ready and willing to change their travel habits.  You’ll also discover why the so-called Tesla Tunnels are Jerome’s boondoggle.

    • 38 min

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