The Leading Mobility Team
David Cooper
MPl, MCIP, RPP
Principal & FOunder
David Cooper is the founder and principal of Leading Mobility, providing strategic transportation planning, infrastructure delivery, stakeholder engagement and government relations support. Since 2005, he has advanced major transportation initiatives across Canada, drawing on public-sector experience in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto to guide politically sensitive projects through planning, procurement and delivery.
His contributions include Toronto’s Relief Line Subway and King Street Pilot, Vancouver’s Broadway Subway procurement and TransLink’s battery-electric bus program, and Calgary’s LRT/BRT expansion and regional transit. He also authored the Canadian Urban Transit Association’s COVID-19 National Recovery Strategy, helping secure emergency operating support and long-term capital funding.
David teaches transportation policy, planning and public consultation at the University of Calgary, University of Toronto and Toronto Metropolitan University. His leadership has been recognized with the Canadian Institute of Planners’ President’s Award for Young Planner of the Year, the Canadian Urban Transit Association’s Individual Leadership Award and Mass Transit’s Top 40 Under 40 Award.
Alex Gaio
PhD
Associate Principal
Alex Gaio is a transportation planner and researcher whose work connects public transit, emerging mobility and the needs of people who use and share our streets. As Associate Principal, he supports public agencies and industry partners with transportation planning, policy analysis, applied research and stakeholder engagement.
Alex’s project portfolio includes Calgary’s Green Line LRT, Auckland’s new bus network and Canada’s On-Demand Transit Guidelines. His recent work addresses transit speed and reliability, strategies to reduce vehicle travel, and the relationship between transit investment, housing affordability and displacement.
Alex holds a PhD in Geography from Trinity College Dublin, where his SSHRC-funded research examined interactions between bicycle users and automated vehicles. He brings this human-centred perspective to consulting, combining spatial analysis and qualitative research to develop practical recommendations.
Alex co-produced the American Planning Association’s State of Transportation Planning reports in 2020 and 2022. He is also a sessional instructor at the University of Calgary and a Canadian Armed Forces Cadet Instructor Cadre officer.