Model and Strategy
The project’s purpose is to harness the three most significant mobility revolutions occurring right now—the advent
of the sharing economy, long-range electric vehicle technology, and self-driving cars—to boldly reimagine
transportation and move towards a zero-carbon mobility paradigm. The Cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles
are both invested in leveraging these opportunities to increase utilization of existing resources and cut greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions, and they need partners with the expertise to execute. NRDC will work with both cities to
pioneer models for game-changing mobility innovations by leveraging the explosion of ride-share, car-share, and
bike-share services to cut GHG emissions. NRDC will aid in the creation of mobility-as-a-service models that
include setting environmental performance metrics for mobility companies to achieve, accelerating adoption of
electric vehicles and other low-carbon mobility choices, and integrating them into an increasingly efficient grid.
Impact
The Bay Area is arguably the world’s greatest innovation hub, not to mention a hotbed of venture capital funding.
Billions of dollars in VC funding are deployed every year, with significant resources aimed at generating the best
ideas to solve society’s most pressing challenges. By leveraging this concentration of resources, NRDC could help
to pilot test a radically more efficient, affordable, and sustainable approach to mobility that would showcase to the
world what is truly possible. It is no secret that Los Angeles is known around the world as a car capital, notorious
for its traffic and smog. If NRDC can demonstrate that alternatives to single occupant vehicles and traffic
nightmares are possible—even in Los Angeles—other cities, and critically, burgeoning mega-regions in developing
countries, may be inspired to leapfrog to new, smarter models of mobility. California already leads the world in
cutting-edge environmental policies. By capitalizing on existing political will and the significant talent and resources
at hand, NRDC could create in SF and LA real-life models for success that could be catalysts for change across
the country and internationally.
Leadership
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Amanda Eaken
Director of Transportation and Climate