Muhammed Patel

I’m a five year practitioner in the transportation space, sitting at the intersection of climate policy and infrastructure implementation. I’m an expert in transportation policy that ranges from funding/financing, workforce development, governance, and climate. As the Midwest Transportation Advocate for NRDC, I’m responsible for leading our policy advocacy in electrifying vehicles, investing in charging infrastructure, and transforming infrastructure investments across the region, with a focus in Illinois and Michigan. As part of this work, our team is co-leading a coalition of over 200 organizations in Illinois to pass comprehensive transportation legislation, merging historically separate advocacy spaces of transit, highway capacity, and electrification under one umbrella. Acknowledging that we are stronger together, we are using this as a test case for how all solutions that reduce fossil fuel car trips should be considered as part of holistic climate solutions. I co-lead the entire omnibus campaign, focused on doubling operations funding and reforming transit governance in the Chicagoland area, changing the illinois DOT planning process to fully consider GHGs in the planning of highway capacity expansion projects, and passing clean vehicle standards and supplementary policies that move us toward a zero-emission vehicle system.