Trains, Buses and Cable Cars

11/19/21 • 35 min

1 Listener

Electric autonomous vehicles shuttle us to high-tech mass transit hubs. Our fare system is contactless. We’ve already paid via a customized, equitable subscription model. All the trains and buses are on time. And we don’t have to wait in traffic. This is a world in which we can hop in a car to get somewhere, but we don’t have to.

In this episode, the second in our five-part series on transportation, Dr. Giovanni Circella paints a picture of a net zero world in which public transportation improves our quality of life, while also reducing carbon emissions.

What will it take to get there?

Dr. Circella and Dr. Melissa Lott talk about electrifying transit, coordinating autonomous vehicles for the public benefit, land use planning, fare pricing, and why so many in developing countries aspire to car ownership.

And we tell the story of TransMiCable, an electric cable car system in Bogotá, Columbia, and the researchers who are tracking the impact on the long commutes and air quality for residents of some of its poorest neighborhoods.

Guests: Dr. Giovanni Circella directs the 3 Revolutions Future Mobility Program at UC-Davis and is a Senior Research Engineer at Georgia Tech. Dr. Olga Lucia Sarmiento is a Professor of the Department of Public Health at the School of Medicine at Universidad de los Andes. Brett Marsh is a journalist and photographer based in Oakland, CA.

The Big Switch is produced by Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy in partnership with Post Script Media. This episode was produced by Daniel Woldorff and Alexandria Herr. Theme music and mixing by Sean Marquand. A special thanks to Natalie Volk, Kirsten Smith and Kyu Lee. Our executive editor was Stephen Lacey.

What will it take to get there?

Previous Episode

Decarbonizing Cars

In the next five episodes, we'll take a deep dive into decarbonizing the entire transportation sector -- everything from bulldozers and planes to ships and trains.

In this episode we start with cars. How do we switch the world's over 1 billion fossil-fuel-powered cars to zero-carbon alternatives, and fast?

Dr. Melissa Lott explores the most promising pathway -- electrification -- with Dr. Sonia Yeh of Chalmers University. What kind of infrastructure and technology do we need to scale up electric cars? And why aren't there more electric vehicles on the roads right now?

We'll also tell the story of Tim Treuer, who put his EV to the test on 7,600-mile road trip, risking jail time in the process.

Guests: Tim Treuer, a biologist, journalist and cross-country EV adventurer. Dr. Sonia Yeh is Professor in Transport and Energy Systems in the Department of Space, Earth and Environment at Chalmer University in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Next Episode

Heavy-duty Trucks

Heavy trucks emit an outsize share of greenhouse gasses and toxic pollutants. But we rely on them for nearly everything we buy. What will it take to decarbonize them?

We hear from staff at the Community Center for Action & Environmental Justice. They’re demanding clean air in “America’s shopping cart,” a polluted region dominated by warehouses and trucking.

And Dr. Ben Sharpe of the International Council on Clean Transportation covers the technologies and policies we need to reach zero-emission trucking.

Guests: Dr. Ben Sharpe is a Senior Researcher at the International Council on Clean Transportation. Anna Gonzalez is the Interim Executive Director of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ). Faraz Rizvi is CCAEJ’s Special Projects Coordinator.