Billy Riggs

Riggs was born in the Louisville, Kentucky metro. He is of German-Jewish descent and his great-great-grandfather, a baker from Frankfort, Kentucky fled Germany in the late 1800s to avoid persecution and mandatory military service.[4] He also is said to have some Native American heritage in addition to having relatives from Ireland, England and the former Austro-Hungarian empire.[5] His maternal grandfather was William Gorman managed an oil business for Palm Springs developer, Ray Ryan.[6]

Riggs grew up on a farm outside Louisville where he was consistently exposed to art and education including "his father's eclectic record collection" which included work ranging from Icarus by Paul Winter Consort to The Planets by Gustav Holst.[7] He attended Graceland Christian High School in New Albany, Indiana and where he excelled academically and athletically, being honored as both Valedictorian and Athlete of the Year in his senior year.[8] He also played in two bands during this period, the Hermits, and Just Visiting.

He attended Ball State University and studied history with a focus on art and architecture while participating in NCAA Division I Cross Country and Track and Field. His senior thesis attempted to understand the social cultural influences of modern religious music.[9] As a student athlete he was selected to represent Ball State the 2000 NCAA national leadership conference.[10] In 2009 he was honored with a Graduate of the Last Decade award.[11]

After graduating from Ball State he studied for a Master's of Urban Planning at University of Louisville. While at Louisville he continued to be involved with athletics but also began to hone his design and technology skills.[12] Riggs also worked as an intern at the Robert Doughty Consultancy in Lincolnshire, England during this period.[13]

After five years of work for the US Coast Guard he attended Berkeley for a PhD in City and Regional Planning, studying under Dr. Robert Cervero, Dr. William Satariano, Dean Sam Davis and Dr. Malo Hutson.[14] While at Berkeley, Riggs focused on work in walkability and housing that was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle,[15] and the Wall Street Journal.[16] He also became influenced by Rich Lyons, Dean of the Haas School of Business, on the topics of leadership, behavioral economics and human capital.[17] He wrote about those in a 2010 article talking about economic development, the information economy and the lack of jobs in his hometown of Louisville, KY.[18]

Riggs has worked as professor at numerous academic institutions, a venture partner at the social impact venture capital firm, Just Business[19] and an urban designer / environmental / land use / transportation planner for the UC Berkeley, the international consulting firm Arup, and the US Coast Guard.[20] At Just Business he successfully invested-in and advised green tech companies including American Battery Technology Company[21] and Hydra Energy.[22] While at UC Berkeley he worked as the Transportation Program manager and was praised for his efforts in promoting bicycle transportation[23] and acquiring a $1.8M grant from the Federal Highway Administration to improve parking and transportation systems in Berkeley.[24]

Riggs was a professor of City Planning at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, from 2013 to 2017. He was awarded campus research grants in 2013 and 2014, and was selected as a Service Learning Faculty Fellow in 2014.[25] He served as a Commissioner for the City of San Luis Obispo's Planning Commission.[26] He served on Transportation Research Board's Standing Committee on Transportation Law and Standing Committee on Transportation Economics[27] and on the City of Palo Alto's Planning & Transportation Commission,[28] including a term as chair, before resigning in 2021.[29]

In addition to his role as a professor at University of San Francisco, he consults for Sustinere.co and advises numerous technology companies in the San Francisco Bay Area[30][31] which have included OppSites,[32] ReStreet.[33]

Riggs has gained national recognition for his publications and is an active researcher. He was awarded the University of San Francisco, Outstanding Research Award in 2018, for "his prodigious stream of work bridging urban planning, public administration and policy analysis toward more livable communities."[34] His work has been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Governing Magazine, Courier Journal,[35] The Atlantic,[36] Planetizen.com and many more. He issued an noteworthy report on City Planning Websites that called cities to rethink their web strategies[37] and was an author of the American Planning Association's national policy guidance on autonomous vehicles, Planning for Autonomous Mobility.[38]

He is an expert on future cities and self-driving cars[39] and was featured in a 2018 special report in The Economist, talking about the "social equity implications around the fringes of cities."[40] He has written more about autonomy and cities in a Planetizen series called Autonomous Future.[41] Dr. Riggs' ReStreet app was featured by CityLab as a tool to rethink streets for autonomous vehicles.[42] His research on street design is also of note and has received nationwide attention in that it called for conversion of multi-lane one-way streets as one part of an economic development strategy[43] but also cautioned for a balanced approach to comprehensive economic development.[44]

Riggs has been quoted as wanting to design streets to create, "a more livable environment" and argued that traffic calming can have an "economic development benefit... (and) we can actually focus on livability and environmental sustainability at the same time as economic vitality."[45] Urban thinker Richard Florida has featured his work on spatial inequity and walkability, stating that it "reminds us that not all urbanites have the same kind of access to walkable streets and neighborhoods."[46][47] He was among the authors of an open letter supporting economic non-aggression for cities competing to host the Amazon.com second headquarters, along with Richard Florida, Robert Reich, Edward Glaeser, and Jeff Sachs.[48] In an interview with USA Today he framed the issue as "a race to the bottom."[49] He also has been vocal that while competition for jobs can jumpstart housing and transit projects,[50] "something must be done to mitigate (the urban impacts of unmitigated tech growth)."[51]

Billy is married and has two children.[58][59] He is an active runner and cyclist, and finished the 2005 Boston Marathon in 2:52 having come back from a 2001 Achilles tendon injury.[60] He is said to love science fiction and wine making.[61]