Remix Expands Policy Team to Enable Better Transportation Outcomes

SAN FRANCISCO, April 3, 2019 (Newswire.com) - Remix (remix.com), the platform used by 350+ cities worldwide to plan and manage their transportation future, announced the addition of two new Policy Advisors today: Jascha Franklin-Hodge, former Chief Information Officer of the City of Boston, and Meera Joshi, former Commissioner of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. Both will be advising Remix as the team works with city customers and partners to achieve the best transportation outcomes for all. Both Franklin-Hodge and Joshi bring a wealth of policy experience that will be invaluable in such a rapidly changing environment.

Jascha Franklin-Hodge is a national thought-leader on data governance. During his tenure as Chief Innovation Officer at City of Boston, Franklin-Hodge created the City's first Digital Team to build exceptional, user-centered digital services, such as the award-winning Boston.gov and BOS:311 mobile app. He also established a Citywide Analytics Team to apply the tools of modern data analysis and modeling to improve quality of life in the city, enhance the operations of government, and support data-driven policy making. His team addressed issues as diverse as firefighter safety, workforce diversity, and ambulance response times. Franklin-Hodge also spearheaded city policy and programs related to broadband and digital equity, created a digital constituent communication program, and led Boston to be the first-ever city to negotiate a data sharing agreement with Uber in 2015.

Prior to his career in public service, Franklin-Hodge founded Blue State Digital and led the technical infrastructure that powered the success of the 2008 Obama campaign. He recently finished his term as a Joint Research Fellow with the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy and the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Meera Joshi is the former Commissioner of NYC’s Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), where she oversaw the largest private for-hire ground transportation industry in the U.S., making a million trips a day. Under her leadership, the agency fostered tremendous diversity, growth, and innovation in the taxi, car service, ride-hailing, and commuter van industries while maintaining the highest standards of public safety and consumer protection. Joshi initiated programs that have made TLC a national leader in data analysis, accessibility for individuals with disabilities, protecting drivers’ pay, and traffic safety.

Joshi is a vocal advocate for the value that robust transportation data brings to policymakers and citizens alike, and under her tenure, NYC became the first city in the nation to require detailed data from large app operators like Uber and Lyft. By making much of this data public, she has become a leader in the Open Data movement. Under her leadership, NYC created the largest wheelchair-accessible for-hire fleet in the country, including a program that centrally dispatches a wheelchair-accessible taxi on demand to anywhere in the five boroughs, and created the first pay protection for drivers of app services like Uber and Lyft in the nation. TLC serves as one of the lead agencies in New York’s citywide “Vision Zero” program and promotes traffic safety through a comprehensive suite of education, outreach, enforcement, and technology promotion programs. Through these efforts, fatalities involving TLC vehicles were reduced by 50 percent. Joshi is currently a Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy.

Franklin-Hodge and Joshi join the accomplished members on Remix’s policy team today, Rachel Zack and Andrew Glass Hastings. Remix is excited to have such a strong team pushing for better transportation policy outcomes in cities – including equitable access to mobility services, sustainability, and safety. 

ABOUT REMIX: Remix is the platform for designing and managing your city’s transportation future. Trusted by 4,000 planners in 350+ cities worldwide, Remix helps cities understand how streets, public transit, and private mobility work together – so that ultimately cities are safe, accessible, and equitable for everyone. Headquartered in San Francisco, Remix was founded in 2014 out of Code for America, a nonprofit that believes government can work for the people, by the people, in the digital age. To learn more, visit remix.com.

Press Contact:
Tiffany Chu
Co-founder, Remix
415-610-5336
[email protected]

Source: Remix