We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mehul Malhotra. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mehul below.

Hi Mehul, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

I practice Transportation Planning professionally, holding a Bachelor’s degree in Automobile Engineering and a Master’s degree in Transportation Systems Research & Design. I find myself in a unique position in a field typically dominated by Urban Planners and Policymakers. There are two main aspects that I believe set me apart from the industry standard.

Firstly, I can provide the perspective of a user experience designer and researcher, which I have found to be of paramount importance in an industry where every project has a tangible and direct impact on our users, namely, the public.

Secondly, with a less ‘traditional’ planning background, I can approach things from a slightly different angle, which has proven to be highly beneficial while working in the Office of Innovation. I believe that being a jack-of-all-trades, particularly in a space where my goal is to innovate or facilitate innovation, has enabled me to learn and adapt quickly. This adaptability has allowed me to contribute to a wide range of projects, including Mobility Wallets, Travel Rewards Research Pilots, the future of fare payments in public transit, operator surveys, and more!

Mehul, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In 2019, I moved to the United States from India to pursue a Masters of Science studying Transportation Systems Design at ArtCenter College of Design, Pasadena. Through the next three pandemic-ridden years, I gained invaluable research and design expertise through incredible mentors. I worked on sponsored projects with Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (now Stellantis) and Google, and secured multiple internships, including one at LA Metro, all while conducting research for my graduate thesis. My studies at ArtCenter piqued my interest in the public sector of transportation and how mobility offerings for the public impacted the lives of the communities. Through my graduate thesis research paper (titled, “Into the Informality Diorama”), I explored a usually less-valued area of public transportation – Informal Transportation systems that enable the majority of the public of global south countries.

In 2022, I successfully transitioned my internship at LA Metro into a full-time role as a Transportation Associate. Working at Metro, I have had the privilege of being surrounded by highly skilled professionals and gaining insights from various community members involved in the projects I have had the fortune to work on. Today, I hold the position of Senior Transportation Planner at the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or LA Metro.

As a part of the Office of Strategic Innovation (OSI), I work on ‘pilot’ projects that test innovative ideas aiming to improve both public transportation and overall mobility across Los Angeles County. As a creative professional, my work involves researching, designing, and experimenting with new concepts that shape the future of mobility alongside partners across transit agencies, cities, private mobility companies and academia/universities. As an example, one notable project I work on is the Mobility Wallet Pilot (which you can read more about here: https://thesource.metro.net/2023/07/31/introducing-the-mobility-wallet-mw-a-collaborative-transportation-solution-for-residents-of-south-la/). As the article states, Mobility Wallet (MW) a pilot program oriented to the community of South L.A. that provides an all-in-one way to pay for multiple modes of transportation.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One lesson I had to unlearn very quickly was my idea of success. I believe one of the most influential factors shaping my concept of success was how it was presented to me through the education systems I encountered. In school and college, if a student performed well, or if I didn’t do as well, teachers would encourage me to emulate the more successful students. Over time, this educational approach instilled in me a growing fear of failure. Education became synonymous with fear: the fear of performing poorly in an exam, the fear of asking a question that might be perceived as inadequate, the fear of being reprimanded, and the fear of sounding unintelligent, among others.

To my astonishment, when I entered grad school, I found that I was expected to be different. In fact, I was discouraged and almost made to fear being too similar to someone else! The more unique I was, the more I was rewarded. This relieved the pressures associated with failure and encouraged me to embrace the idea of failing in order to succeed. Thus, unlearning and reshaping my notion of success allowed me to embrace the idea of failure, which has greatly benefited my professional career.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Towards the end of my undergraduate studies, as I prepared to graduate as an automotive engineer, most jobs in the market related to my studies and my area of interest offered very little creative scope. They mostly involved a computer-aided race for efficiency. I had always been fascinated by automobiles and yearned for a more creative role within this industry.

During college, I managed to secure an internship with an exciting startup in India that focused on creating smart automotive solutions for two and four-wheeled vehicles. This opportunity allowed me to explore my creative side by practicing design while using my engineering expertise. This internship marked a turning point, shifting my focus from working on engineering tasks like modeling/simulation in order to maximize different types of efficiency for production and manufacturing, to design tasks like researching the market, understanding users and sketching new ideas for designs.

This internship not only reshaped my career path but also inspired me and gave me a great foundation to apply to Universities internationally, in pursuit of a Master’s degree in design. I was amazed when I received an acceptance into ArtCenter College of Design, especially considering I had no formal training as a designer. The rest, as they say, is history! Little did I know that this wouldn’t be the only pivot in my journey. In short, I had a series of pivots going from automotive engineering to automotive design, then to transportation systems research and design, and finally into transportation planning!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mehulmalhotra.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mezm7.design/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehulm29/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mehulmon