so how did we get here today show of
hands
bus trained as policy director for lyft
I took a lift to any lifters how about
uber it’s okay you can say it I can
handle it
we can’t talk about the future of
Transportation unless we talk about
where we’ve come
transportation has evolved over the
years from the horse and buggy to the
steam engine to cars and now to
autonomous vehicles the world is
changing and so is the way we get around
but let’s not forget how some of the
major roadways and transportation were
used when they’re originally built
roadways that were meant to connect
people actually wound up creating
tension between ethnicities cultures and
races we all know the other the phrase
the wrong side of the tracks right it
had very little to do with access to the
trains but everything to do with the
poor versus the wealthy the white
community versus communities of color
and the good versus the bad think about
1994 the main arterial Expressway here
in the city of Chicago aka the Dan Ryan
it’s arguable social impact and purpose
was to separate the black community from
the white community a major highway down
the middle of Chicago separating
Economic Opportunity from one community
while allowing thriving access to
another the Robert Moses Parkway in New
York has a similar story of segregation
it has been said that Robert Moses
ordered the engineers to build the
bridges extra low to prevent poor people
using buses from using the highway
luckily things are changing now don’t
get me wrong it is very far from perfect
but a mode of transportation that we’re
using today linked with technology is
allowing people to not be limited to
only what their neighborhood has to
offer now it’s easier to get from point
A to point B we just grabbed
our phone tap a button and in a few
minutes
were on our way so that’s easy for us
but for folks like my parents and
probably many of yours it wasn’t so much
easy easier to do my father and my
mother came here in the 1960s to pursue
a better opportunity the American dream
my father grew up in a rural village in
southern India with limited
transportation options and no running
water until the 1990s they came here
because they had better access to
transportation that their families did
not for example in order to get to my
father’s village you had to go in a boat
in a canal where the Buffalo bathed
decades later when one road was built in
mind you that same road had to be built
over and over every year because of the
monsoons only limited vehicles could
transport individuals and goods because
of its rocky terrain so they chose to
come to Chicago because of how centrally
located it was and how accessible it was
to world-class opportunities top-notch
education exposure to different
backgrounds and connected by major
roadways that allowed them to experience
everything Chicago and the suburbs had
to offer I was more fortunate than them
growing up because of their immigration
here I was surrounded by classmates and
friends from different backgrounds
Heritage’s and perspectives those
factors are not lost on me it prepared
me for college my career and eventually
becoming a parent I to well know that
individuals of communities especially
those of color never have had access to
many of these options ride-sharing and
the future of transportation are
eliminating the barriers for people of
underserved communities this technology
and new technology of the future
are having a systemic change in
segregation it is linking and bridging
communities that have historically been
denied access to you or don’t have the
means to get a
because of where they live or the color
of their skin it is why I’m invigorated
as policy director to finally be a
solution to a problem that has been
baked into the fabric of our country
since its inception yep that’s me in
front of the Canadian City Council in
Winnipeg my primary responsibility is to
educate electeds and staff about the
benefits that we bring it is amazing to
see what is so obvious to the industry
is completely foreign to governing
bodies and it’s not so much so that they
don’t want us to operate there they just
have a hard time figuring out what
benefit we bring for example electives
who have been around for a long time
cannot understand how you would get into
a personal car of a stranger and be
transported from one place to another
flipping the phrase stranger danger on
its head sure if that’s what you think
the industry does then you’re gonna have
a hard time understanding the benefits
it brings but once I explain the tools
processes benefits utility the ability
to generate revenue the conversation
starts to shift from why do we need this
so what more can you do for our
neighborhood when I was in New Orleans
post-katrina during legal aid I was
shocked to see how disjointed the city
was and how it limited the
infrastructure was to access different
parts of the city areas like New Orleans
East which had FEMA trailers well after
2005 were completely isolated it was one
of the main arguments I use with the
council people when advocating for riot
sharing to be brought to the city we
didn’t have to wait for the government
to respond and we didn’t have to build
an entirely new infrastructure here was
a technology that got the same outcome
in a quicker and much more radical way
so it wasn’t just about getting from
Bourbon to Frenchmen it was now a person
who had a job the person who could
provide for themselves and the
livelihood of their families and an
economic stimulus of an additional
seventeen million dollars in local
spending in a city to this day that is
still recovering
from a natural disaster this is where it
is exciting and this is why we should
all be inspired about the possibilities
of the future transportation as a whole
technology linked with transportation
means so much to so many people it means
hope choice opportunity it means the
freedom to be your own boss an
opportunity to make choices I hope to
give back to your community name one job
where you can pick your own hours choose
your own workplace and change it on a
weekly basis but it’s more than that
it’s about connecting people people to
their friends their family their
relatives their favorite restaurant
maybe to a place in the city they’ve
never been to people need to get places
and we get them there we get them to
show up so whether it’s the long journey
that my parents took to pursue the
American dream or a shorter one to
register to vote or to go to a job
interview a mode of transportation got
them there that is changing lives for
example ride-sharing operates in all 50
Ward’s of the city of Chicago a quarter
of them begin or end in traditionally
underserved areas of transportation that
is impact on the systemic segregation in
a meaningful tangible way now let’s dig
deeper forty percent of passengers spend
more money at local businesses and
seventy percent of passengers go out and
stay out because of ride-sharing think
about those local businesses and
restaurants who have never seen foot
traffic like this before
transportation will continue to evolve
we’re seeing it now with autonomous
vehicles which will even further bridge
the digital divide
but then what more green space how if we
have technology that requires us to have
fewer cars there’ll be fewer cars on the
road and if there are fewer cars maybe
we won’t need as many parking lots so
how do we repurpose those parking lots
maybe it’s a new school a new library a
new gym a new park you name it
we’re connecting communities even
disenfranchised one so this new wave of
transportation revolution as we know it
is more than just getting someone from
point A to point B it’s transforming
lives that’s right
transforming us as individuals and
communities look around us there are
people from every background heritage
with stories that they hold dear but the
concept of showing up and getting from
point A to point B we’re actually
transforming the way we work think and
live that is a compelling notion to
understand that a mere convenience that
we take for granted is impacting people
inside this room and outside of it so
know that when you go to leave today and
you grab your phone and you tap that
button know that you’re showing up for
something new and rare know that you’re
showing up for people you may never meet
in your life
and know that you are change agents of
your own thank you [Applause]
hands
bus trained as policy director for lyft
I took a lift to any lifters how about
uber it’s okay you can say it I can
handle it
we can’t talk about the future of
Transportation unless we talk about
where we’ve come
transportation has evolved over the
years from the horse and buggy to the
steam engine to cars and now to
autonomous vehicles the world is
changing and so is the way we get around
but let’s not forget how some of the
major roadways and transportation were
used when they’re originally built
roadways that were meant to connect
people actually wound up creating
tension between ethnicities cultures and
races we all know the other the phrase
the wrong side of the tracks right it
had very little to do with access to the
trains but everything to do with the
poor versus the wealthy the white
community versus communities of color
and the good versus the bad think about
1994 the main arterial Expressway here
in the city of Chicago aka the Dan Ryan
it’s arguable social impact and purpose
was to separate the black community from
the white community a major highway down
the middle of Chicago separating
Economic Opportunity from one community
while allowing thriving access to
another the Robert Moses Parkway in New
York has a similar story of segregation
it has been said that Robert Moses
ordered the engineers to build the
bridges extra low to prevent poor people
using buses from using the highway
luckily things are changing now don’t
get me wrong it is very far from perfect
but a mode of transportation that we’re
using today linked with technology is
allowing people to not be limited to
only what their neighborhood has to
offer now it’s easier to get from point
A to point B we just grabbed
our phone tap a button and in a few
minutes
were on our way so that’s easy for us
but for folks like my parents and
probably many of yours it wasn’t so much
easy easier to do my father and my
mother came here in the 1960s to pursue
a better opportunity the American dream
my father grew up in a rural village in
southern India with limited
transportation options and no running
water until the 1990s they came here
because they had better access to
transportation that their families did
not for example in order to get to my
father’s village you had to go in a boat
in a canal where the Buffalo bathed
decades later when one road was built in
mind you that same road had to be built
over and over every year because of the
monsoons only limited vehicles could
transport individuals and goods because
of its rocky terrain so they chose to
come to Chicago because of how centrally
located it was and how accessible it was
to world-class opportunities top-notch
education exposure to different
backgrounds and connected by major
roadways that allowed them to experience
everything Chicago and the suburbs had
to offer I was more fortunate than them
growing up because of their immigration
here I was surrounded by classmates and
friends from different backgrounds
Heritage’s and perspectives those
factors are not lost on me it prepared
me for college my career and eventually
becoming a parent I to well know that
individuals of communities especially
those of color never have had access to
many of these options ride-sharing and
the future of transportation are
eliminating the barriers for people of
underserved communities this technology
and new technology of the future
are having a systemic change in
segregation it is linking and bridging
communities that have historically been
denied access to you or don’t have the
means to get a
because of where they live or the color
of their skin it is why I’m invigorated
as policy director to finally be a
solution to a problem that has been
baked into the fabric of our country
since its inception yep that’s me in
front of the Canadian City Council in
Winnipeg my primary responsibility is to
educate electeds and staff about the
benefits that we bring it is amazing to
see what is so obvious to the industry
is completely foreign to governing
bodies and it’s not so much so that they
don’t want us to operate there they just
have a hard time figuring out what
benefit we bring for example electives
who have been around for a long time
cannot understand how you would get into
a personal car of a stranger and be
transported from one place to another
flipping the phrase stranger danger on
its head sure if that’s what you think
the industry does then you’re gonna have
a hard time understanding the benefits
it brings but once I explain the tools
processes benefits utility the ability
to generate revenue the conversation
starts to shift from why do we need this
so what more can you do for our
neighborhood when I was in New Orleans
post-katrina during legal aid I was
shocked to see how disjointed the city
was and how it limited the
infrastructure was to access different
parts of the city areas like New Orleans
East which had FEMA trailers well after
2005 were completely isolated it was one
of the main arguments I use with the
council people when advocating for riot
sharing to be brought to the city we
didn’t have to wait for the government
to respond and we didn’t have to build
an entirely new infrastructure here was
a technology that got the same outcome
in a quicker and much more radical way
so it wasn’t just about getting from
Bourbon to Frenchmen it was now a person
who had a job the person who could
provide for themselves and the
livelihood of their families and an
economic stimulus of an additional
seventeen million dollars in local
spending in a city to this day that is
still recovering
from a natural disaster this is where it
is exciting and this is why we should
all be inspired about the possibilities
of the future transportation as a whole
technology linked with transportation
means so much to so many people it means
hope choice opportunity it means the
freedom to be your own boss an
opportunity to make choices I hope to
give back to your community name one job
where you can pick your own hours choose
your own workplace and change it on a
weekly basis but it’s more than that
it’s about connecting people people to
their friends their family their
relatives their favorite restaurant
maybe to a place in the city they’ve
never been to people need to get places
and we get them there we get them to
show up so whether it’s the long journey
that my parents took to pursue the
American dream or a shorter one to
register to vote or to go to a job
interview a mode of transportation got
them there that is changing lives for
example ride-sharing operates in all 50
Ward’s of the city of Chicago a quarter
of them begin or end in traditionally
underserved areas of transportation that
is impact on the systemic segregation in
a meaningful tangible way now let’s dig
deeper forty percent of passengers spend
more money at local businesses and
seventy percent of passengers go out and
stay out because of ride-sharing think
about those local businesses and
restaurants who have never seen foot
traffic like this before
transportation will continue to evolve
we’re seeing it now with autonomous
vehicles which will even further bridge
the digital divide
but then what more green space how if we
have technology that requires us to have
fewer cars there’ll be fewer cars on the
road and if there are fewer cars maybe
we won’t need as many parking lots so
how do we repurpose those parking lots
maybe it’s a new school a new library a
new gym a new park you name it
we’re connecting communities even
disenfranchised one so this new wave of
transportation revolution as we know it
is more than just getting someone from
point A to point B it’s transforming
lives that’s right
transforming us as individuals and
communities look around us there are
people from every background heritage
with stories that they hold dear but the
concept of showing up and getting from
point A to point B we’re actually
transforming the way we work think and
live that is a compelling notion to
understand that a mere convenience that
we take for granted is impacting people
inside this room and outside of it so
know that when you go to leave today and
you grab your phone and you tap that
button know that you’re showing up for
something new and rare know that you’re
showing up for people you may never meet
in your life
and know that you are change agents of
your own thank you [Applause]
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