Paulo Nunes-Ueno on the Past, Present, and Future of Transportation

The former Director of Transportation for Seattle Children's Hospital and current cutting-edge consultant talks culture, cost, convenience, and concrete.

I was fortunate to connect with Paulo Nunes-Ueno a few months ago because we think about transportation and infrastructure planning similarly. Culture is key.

That’s how we’ve approached what we’ve gotten wrong, what we can do better right now, and what a successful future looks like, through the lens of equity and dignity that’s so often defined by how an organization thinks about its stated goals or how it hires or how it prioritizes projects. We know how to build the big stuff, but can we make the small stuff work, too? How do we measure success through that lens?

We talked about Paulo’s experience working at Seattle Children’s Hospital and at the City of Seattle and his current work as a wide-ranging, deeply skilled, and empathetic consultant. You can learn more about his work here.

I’ve lightly edited our conversation for clarity and …