Welcome to the Shared-Use Mobility Center’s weekly guide to the most impactful news, thought-provoking articles and innovative technologies that are shaping our transportation future. We believe in sharing information, just like sharing cars, bikes, and scooters, so if there’s anything additional you’d like to see, just drop us a line.

Announcements

National Shared Mobility Summit
March 17 – 19, 2020 | Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, Chicago

We are less than 60 days out from the largest shared mobility summit and expo in North America. We’ve lined up incredible plenary and keynote speakers from the boldest cities, the hottest companies, and the most groundbreaking transit agencies. Meet them below and stay tuned for more.

Meet the Plenaries!

• Seleta Reynolds, General Manager, Los Angeles Department of Transportation

• Robbie Makinen, Chief Executive Officer, Kansas City Area Transportation Authority

• Benjamin (Benjie) de la Peña, Board Member, Project for Public Spaces

• Shin-Pei Tsay, Director of Policy, Cities and Transportation, Uber

• Veronica Vanterpool, Chief Innovation Officer, Delaware Transit Corporation

• Yann Leriche, Chief Executive Officer,  Transdev North America

• More to be announced!

Be sure to register before we sell out and join these inspiring leaders, along with transportation experts, policymakers and innovators. In three collaborative days, we’ll host discussion panels, interactive sessions, workshops, networking events and the Shared Mobility Expo dedicated to making shared mobility work for all.

Spotlight on the Startup Spotlight

Applications are still open for the 2020 Startup Spotlight at the National Shared Mobility Summit, which brings together the best and brightest young companies and innovators to pitch their ideas to a national audience of transportation leaders. Just look at two of our finalists from last year’s Startup Spotlight.

Apply now and you could be featured in a future Mobility Hub!

CLEVR Mobility: Fills First/Last Mile Gaps
CLEVR is a light electric vehicle mobility platform that provides cities and fleet operators with e-bikes, e-scooters, and future LEVs that deploy as an extension of public transit, giving customers flexible, commuting solutions.

Velocia: Makes Commuting, Rewarding
Velocia incentives shared mobility via their mobile app by offering rewards to users every time they commute. Partners include Miami-Dade County Transit’s Metrorail and Metrobus, CitiBike, Getaround, Bolt, and Dashee.

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Upcoming Webinar on Mobility Partnerships

February 12th, 2019 | 10:00-11:30 AM PST
If you’re interested in learning more about clean mobility partnerships, we encourage you to join us for this upcoming webinar. It will feature tips for developing public-private partnerships from the Shared-Use Mobility Center, followed by rapid-fire presentations from operators of the Clean Mobility Provider Directory, and equity-focused approaches from mobility operators.
Learn more and register here.

Bedford Park RFQ is a first/last mile solution to a unique problem.
The Village of Bedford Park, outside of Chicago, is an industrial suburb where jobs outnumber residents by more than 50 to 1. With the support of Cook County, the Village has been studying ways to improve workers’ commutes around the clock. A new pilot, Connect2Work, aims to increase transit connections and job access with shared mobility services. SUMC, along with team members Antero Group and the Active Transportation Alliance, is providing technical assistance for the project and encourages transportation and technology providers to apply.
View the RFQ here and below.

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Ridehailing/Carsharing/Carpooling

Partnerships and Programs

Dubbed as the “largest microtransit system in the US”, the Sacramento Regional Transit District and ridehailing company Via launched their SmaRT Ride on-demand transit service to cover nine city zones with 42 vehicles.

Ridehailing service for children HopSkipDrive is launching in Las Vegas and partnering with the city’s Child and Family Services department to offer transportation options for youth in foster care.

The current state of sidewalks in Atlanta is, as Curbed put it, “virtually unnavigable” which makes it difficult for people to travel by foot and especially wheelchair. New legislation wants the responsibility for maintenance and repair to fall on the city, not adjacent property owners.

Six nonprofits will get the chance to leverage micromobility company Spin’s street data toolkit to boost safety and infrastructure solutions in cities around the US.

Bikesharing and Micromobility

The Co-founder of CLEVR Mobility makes the case to extend the utility “public transit” to include shared scooters to foster a greater multimodal ecosystem in cities.

The City of Columbus and Lyft are working to add 250 pedal-assist ebikes to the CoGo bikeshare system and upgrade all bikes to include hybrid, lock-to technology to help riders end trips at a bike rack or station.

Uber, along with PeopleforBikes, the North American Bikeshare Association, and the League of American Bicyclists, want Congress to improve street safety and infrastructure for pedestrians, cyclists, and scooter users as part of a new mobility campaign.

If, as Fast Company found, a majority of U.S. mayors like the idea of less-car focused street design and improved safety for pedestrians and cyclists, what’s preventing them from enacting policies to make it happen?

Transit

Free public transit is not a new concept, but more US cities are looking at the idea as a way to increase ridership and provide a sustainable, public good that can combat traffic congestion.

According to new data from the National Transit Database, public transit ridership in the US grew over 2% from 2018 to 2019, but the growth was mainly driven by New York’s and DC’s rail and bus trip gains.

Corporate commuter buses are a staple in almost any urban transportation system, especially in areas like Silicon Valley. GreenBiz believes its time for all these commuter shuttles to go full electric and follow Bay-area company Genentech’s lead.

Greater Greater Washington rounds up the legislation in Virginia that looks to make transportation safer and help get public transit funded around the state.

Technology

Street data company Coord has announced a new Digital Curb Challenge that aims to help public agencies manage curb space and sidewalk efficiency using the company’s analytics tools and APIs.

Shared scooters are going through an evolution where independent tech startups want to reduce sidewalk clutter with charging docks. Can this model succeed in a world of questionable profitability for the micromobility market?

Arrival, a UK-based startup that focuses on making electric vans for urban delivery, just received a big boost in funding from Hyundai and Kia.

In more news from across the pond, Nottingham, UK will be testing wireless charging of 10 Nissan and LEVC electric taxis as part of a new £3.4 million investment.

Urban Sustainability

“…you can imagine a time when driving into a smog-laden city, in all but the greenest cars and for all but the most essential journeys, will feel as antisocial as smoking on the bus.” We can’t wait. Read more on The Guardian.

As part of his presidential campaign, Michael Bloomberg unveiled a transportation plan that aims to increase access to zero-emission transportation options by focusing on transit, biking, and walking solutions.

The sum of all the parts in mobility-as-a-service equals to more than just an app with trip-planning features. It takes tight integration with public transit, forward-thinking transportation policy, and key public-private partnerships to create a multimodal mobility system that seamlessly and easily works for all.

You can add this to the long list of reasons to #BanSUVs: the brake dust emitted from cars braking in cities can cause severe lung issues, with heavier and larger cars creating the most non-exhaust pollution.

Requests for Proposals, Inquiries, and Information

RFI: Transportation Network Services for Eligible Individuals with Disabilities
Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation
Deadline: February 10, 2020

RFQ: Connect2Work
The Village of Bedford Park, Illinois
Bedford Park, Illinois
Deadline: February 14, 2020

RFP: Accelerating Clean Transportation Now (ACTNow)
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
Boston, MA
Deadline: March 3, 2020

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