#13: Chilling Out Urban Mobility with Melinda Hanson, Carlos Pardo, and Charlie Welch

Earthlings 2.0 Podcast

E-bikes, e-scooters, and other forms of micromobility are changing how we get around cities and cities. In this episode, we examine multiple angles of this change to smaller, more efficient forms of transportation, looking at the benefits to individual riders and how and why we can change cities to allow people to meet their travel needs more efficiently. We also explore the danger of fires from today’s lithium-ion batteries and new chemistry that could make micromobility safer.

In this episode, our guests include:

• Melinda Hanson, co-founder of Electric Avenue and the Equitable Commute Project: Getting e-bikes into the hands of low-income people and how this can change lives
• Carlos Pardo, senior advisor to the New Urban Mobility Alliance: Working with cities to accommodate simpler forms of mobility and better meet the needs of residents - and Bogota’s experience doing this
• Charlie Welch, co-founder and CEO of ZappBatt: Lithium-titanate battery chemistry and how it can help to make e-bike batteries safer and shared micromobility more efficient

Resources:

The Equitable Commute Project

The Banality of Joyfulness (in Transportation) by Carlos Pardo

Lithium-titanate could prove the new driver of micromobility by Charlie Welch

How to Prevent an E-Bike Fire (Consumer Reports)

Websites:

Electric Avenue

Zapbatt

New Urban Mobility Alliance

Thanks to audio editors Yan Mora and Eduardo Prosperi, and special thanks to Zachary Subin of RMI for research support.