Pacific Cities Green Transportation Conference: Mobility, Livability, and Economic Growth: Sustainability Lessons from the Pacific Rims

The Pacific Cities Sustainability Initiative presents a conference exploring California's sustainability policies to its counterparts in the Pacific Rim.

As cities become the center of global commerce and daily life, movement within cities and the connections between them can influence business opportunities and determine quality of life. Effective public transport systems not only boost a city’s competitive advantage and enhance its livability but can serve as models for sustainable mobility. How can cities in Asia experiencing increasing urbanization take advantage of current technology to create efficient and sustainable transportation systems? As California and the US struggle to overcome a staggering economic crisis, how can sustainable transportation solutions increase cities’ economic advantage? And how can such cities in North America and Asia learn from each other?

This conference will explore sustainable transportation ideas, policies, and technologies from California’s largest metropolises to the other side of the Pacific. The San Francisco conference will focus on the importance of transit on urban livability and its impact on cities’ economic competitiveness as well as on innovative sustainable transportation technologies and systems in North America and Asia. The Los Angeles conference will explore how sustainable mobility can help LA recreate itself as a vibrant green metropolis and focus on best practices, cultural differences, and how North America and Asia can work together to solve collective problems.

These conferences seek to promote long-term collaboration between the US and Asia on sustainable growth by bringing together specialists from the fields of research, technology, architecture, business, urban planning, and policy.

Conference Schedule:
Keynote Remarks

Panel Discussion I:  Public/Private Partnerships: Fields for Collaboration

Panel Discussion II: Green Transportation: Enhancing the Competitiveness of Cities

Lunch

Panel Discussion III: Sizing Up Change: From Micro-innovations to Megaprojects
(Examining sustainable transportation solutions of different scales, i.e. from a regional high speed rail to local, small scale innovations)

Speakers:
Peter Calthorpe
Architect, Urban Designer, Urban Planner, Calthorpe Associates

Gordon Feller
Director of Urban Innovations, Internet Business Solutions Group, Cisco

Jeffrey Heller
President, Heller Manus Architects

Barbara Lloyd
Managing Director, Infrastructure, KPMG Advisory

Sean Randolph
President, Bay Area Council Economic Institute

Gene Rodrigues
Director of Energy Efficiency, Southern California Edison Company

Orville Schell
Director, Center on U.S. China Relations, Asia Society

Invited Speakers:
Ken DeWoskin, Director, Research & Insight Centre, Deloitte China
Duan Xiaomei, ITDP
Ray LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation
Wilfred Lau, Director, Ove Arup & Partners
Stella Li, Senior Vice-President, BYD
Steven Kline, Chief Sustainability Officer, PG&E Corporation
Norman Mineta, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Retired
Peter Schwartz, Chairman, Global Business Network
Jeffrey Tumlin, Principal, Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates
Steve Westly, Managing Partner, The Westly Group