Over the past decade, the concept of smart cities has evolved significantly. I have been working with cities to better understand the potential unintended consequences of data collection at the scale proposed by smart cities. From privacy and data security to ensuring data is open and accessible, I am a staunch advocate for intentional policy that do not subvert human outcomes to the technology. Smart cities can also reshape the physical form and civic participation within our cities and, as an architect, I have worked with the real estate development and financial sectors to consider these implications. While technology may come and go, ensuring an equitable future requires a commitment to exploring the possibilities in a rapidly changing world.

Balancing an understanding of initial costs with lifetime project benefits is a helpful way to approach decision-making. While working with Miami-Dade County, we developed a social benefit calculator for transportation capital projects and mobility improvements to empower policy makers to better understand the trade-offs of environmental, economic and equity considerations. The calculator’s flexible, open-source framework allows staff and community members to make adjustments over time to take new information into account, as well as apply the framework to different policies and investments. It also incorporates a long-term time horizon (30 years for infrastructure, 10 years for add-on investments) to guide smart decisions.

Transportation Happiness is the idea that the experience of travel is a critical element to the success of a mode — public or private, motorized or nonmotorized — in an increasingly competitive mobility market and that all Angelenos should have a good user experience, regardless of how they travel. Transportation Happiness requires the collection of customer feedback as key indicator in understanding how a travel mode is meeting basic needs while also providing a common level of care. Guided by the core values outlined in the Mobility Bill of Rights, Transportation Happiness is both a quantitative and qualitative means of understanding what it is like to move around Los Angeles, regardless of mode.

Through a one-year fellowship, funded by the Goldhirsh Foundation with the Mayor’s Fund of Los Angeles, I developed Urban Mobility in a Digital Age to define a vision of the future of shared and autonomous vehicles. The City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) was among the few cities at that time thinking about how shared mobility and the future of autonomous vehicles would reshape mobility, urban form, and quality of life. This established a vision that leveraged the benefits of these technological advancements with a people-first approach. This work would continue beyond the fellowship with an ongoing partnership with LADOT on implementing the vision established herein.