Speaker(s)

Margaret Cederoth, Director of Planning and Sustainability, California High-Speed Rail

Abstract

High-Speed Rail is a transformative investment for California. The system connects regions of the state in under an hour and enables a San Francisco to Los Angeles trip in under three hours. It connects communities in the state that, historically, have been left behind in the tech and knowledge sector transformation seen in coastal regions. High-speed rail is a unique transportation tool: a zero-emissions mode capable of shifting people out of cars, and crucially, airplanes for long distance travel that also reinforces and concentrates development in existing downtown cores.

This talk will cover the basics of the system and its delivery as well as detail the policy and program approaches that enable it to be an organizing principle for local and regional development to achieve economic development, climate mitigation, and resilience.

Biographical Sketch

Margaret Cederoth is an urban planner with two decades of experience working in sustainable infrastructure and land use and transportation planning throughout the US and globally. Ms Cederoth was appointed by Governor Newsom in 2019 to be the Director of Planning and Sustainability for the California High-Speed Rail Authority. She previously led sustainability work for the Authority, and as a consultant she oversaw corporate sustainability initiatives for WSP USA, including their commitment to carbon neutral operations and the development of training and tools for implementing sustainability approaches on a range of infrastructure projects. She has a Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.