Mobility Forum with Jinhua Zhao

Epizode

• Gas Tax Is Going to Zero, Oregon DOT Spent 25 Years Building the Replacement: Road Usage Charge 26.06.2026 44min

  In November 2025, Oregon made a per-mile road usage charge mandatory for EVs and hybrids — 2.3 cents a mile, starting July 2027. This episode of Mobility Forum, Jim Whitty, who began the work in 2001, and Frederic Charlier, CEO of ClearRoad told us how it finally happened.If we want to joint live session of Mobility Forum, subscribe here: https://zhaojinhua.com/mobility-forum/
• The Fiscal Cliff Playbook: Inside Chicago and San Francisco's Transit Reset with Tom McKone & Julie Kirschbaum 22.06.2026 51min

  Chicago and San Francisco turned a funding emergency into their fastest service reforms in decades. The frequent-bus, transit-lane, and headway-management moves you can borrow — plus the revenue strategy underneath them.Tom McKone, CFO of the Chicago Transit Authority, and Julie Kirschbaum, who runs the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, run the most ambitious service reforms their agencies have attempted in decades. My conversation with them covers: The cliff is structural and not a passing dip, you can't cut your way off it, the service-quality playbook working right now in Chicago and San Francisco, the revenue fight that decides whether any of it lasts.If we want to joint live session of Mobility Forum, subscribe here: https://zhaojinhua.com/mobility-forum/
• Microtransit at Scale: Via CEO Daniel Ramot on Citywide Transit and the AI in the Control Room 14.06.2026 48min

  How a DOT with no transit history, no appetite for risk, and a skeptical public built a microtransit system that works ?Arlington, Texas with 400,000 people, 99 square miles, 3 failed transit votes over 25 years— built citywide public transit for a fraction of the cost of conventional fixed-route transit. A ride is now available within a two-block walk of every resident. I sits down with Daniel Ramot, CEO of Via, and Alicia Winkelblech, Director of Transportation for the City of Arlington, Texas, who lived the transition firsthand. Via now serves 800+ cities across 30+ countries, powering microtransit, paratransit, school bus, transit planning, and autonomous-vehicle networks, and went public on the NYSE in 2025.This episode is for the practitioner staring at a bus network bleeding both ridership and budget. It walks Arlington's route from the inside: how to procure for outcomes instead of vehicles; how to de-risk a launch so a skeptical public will tolerate it; and whether on-demand transit can scale to meet the needs of growing cities, and what role it plays alongside fixed-route systems.We also covers the role of AI in the next generation of public transit. How Via is using it to reshape planning, scheduling, and real-time decision-making for DOT and cities.If we want to joint live session of Mobility Forum, subscribe here: https://zhaojinhua.com/mobility-forum/
• Stop Benchmarking Copenhagen: The Cities You Should Be Learning From Instead 11.06.2026 43min

  Adam Millard-Ball mapped walking and cycling across 11,587 cities in 121 countries. The results may surprise you: density and bike networks matter far more than climate, walking delivers most of the emissions gains, and your best peer city is probably one you've never studied. If we want to joint live session of Mobility Forum, subscribe here: https://zhaojinhua.com/mobility-forum/
• Robotaxis Are Here: AV Lessons From San Francisco, Austin, and Washington 11.06.2026 40min

  Today’s episode is my conversations with three city leaders sitting at three different phases of AV deployment: Rachel Castignoli in Austin, Tilly Chang in San Francisco, and Stephanie Dock in Washington, D.C. We’ll walk each city in turn — the Wild West, the rulebook, and the capital.Three cities, three phases of deployment — and the same three gaps: no data, no first-responder protocol, and no authority to fix either.If you want to join us live at Mobility Forum or receive updates, subscribe at ⁠zhaojinhua.com/newsletter⁠
• Governing Autonomous Vehicle: Heaven, Hell and Who Decides 11.06.2026 35min

  Today's episode is my conversation with Kara Kockelman and Robin Chase. With AVs, the technology won't decide whether a city gets Heaven or Hell. The governance will.Here's the lever cities finally have, the empty miles to watch, and the pricing fight worth having.If you want to join us live at Mobility Forum or receive updates, subscribe at zhaojinhua.com/newsletter
• Research Stack Powering the World's Most Experienced Autonomous Driver 11.06.2026 47min

  As of Nov 2025, Waymo is delivering over 250,000 rides a week. In today's episode, I sit down with Drago Anguelov Head of Research at Waymo to unpack the AI behind autonomous driving: from 3D Sensing & Spatial Reasoning to AI foundation models and Social Intelligence.If you want to join us live at Mobility Forum or receive updates, subscribe at ⁠zhaojinhua.com/newsletter⁠
• Inside Transport for London's Secret Sauce: How TfL Got London’s Businesses to Fund a £19B Railway, and the 4 Moves US Cities Can Steal 10.06.2026 53min

  What does it take to build a world-class transportation system - and keep it world-class for 25 years? I am Jinhua Zhao, Welcome to the Mobility Forum - where the leading minds in transportation come together to shape how cities move.Today, I sit down with Shashi Verma, Chief Technology Officer of Transport for London - the man who has personally touched every major innovation TfL has delivered over the past two decades. from Oyster Card, contactless payment to Crossrail and congestion charging.If we want to joint live session of Mobility Forum, subscribe here: https://zhaojinhua.com/mobility-forum/