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.
SUMC News and Announcements
MOVING FROM 2020 – TO 2021 AND A BETTER FUTURE
Can we take this moment of crisis to align our strategies, break down our usual siloed approaches, and address the above ills with a synergistic approach that will create an upward spiral to lift us to mobility for all?
Can we create a multimodal transportation system that works for all—powered by sustainable energy sources, massive new infrastructure that promotes safe active and multi-passenger rides, creates decent paying jobs, supports innovation using science and technology, and provides right-sized sustainable transportation choices that meet the needs of different geographies, ages and occasions and is affordable, accessible and fair?
The events of 2020 supercharged existing trends such as transit innovation, active transportation, micromobility, and pop-up infrastructure. Agencies showed remarkable flexibility and ability to move quickly, cities everywhere scrambled to find new ways to manage freight and delivery more effectively, and data analysis continued to become more sophisticated and useful. These developments can help us realize better opportunities in 2021.
A new administration with a focus on addressing climate change and racial injustice, as well as an interest in rejoining the world community, will help us solve common challenges—and the jobs needed to solve these challenges could help us grow our economy. We are hopeful that the learning that has gone on in this most challenging environment can take us a long way toward a more just, equitable, and sustainable transportation system and a better year for all.
Have a safe and happy holidays and new year,
Sharon Feigon
Founding Executive Director and CEO
TEN NEWS STORIES OF NOTE FOR HOLIDAY READING
Transit agencies across the country are breathing a sigh of relief after the approval of the $900 billion COVID stimulus bill, which allots $14 billion for public transportation nationwide. Although the amount is less than half of the amount sought, it is a lifeline that will hopefully lead to more funds in the coming year.
Over 100 years ago, the dangerous “Jaywalking” campaign was created by automakers to put the blame of pedestrian deaths on people walking instead of a car-centric environment. Now, mobility justice advocates in Virginia are pushing to decriminalize the act to shut down the racially discriminatory practices in its policing.
Billing the startup as the “anti-Tech bro company in the Tech Broiest of industries,” Candice Xie, co-founder and CEO of micromobility company Veo, sets the record straight on being the truly first profitable micromobility company—they have been since May—and on their expansion from a mobility underdog to “offering a vital sustainable transportation service.”
How can a city reenvision chaotic, car-covered streets into activity-laden, people-focused spaces? The New York Times combined the experience of residents enjoying the city’s Open Streets with thoughts from WXY Urban Planner and Architect Clair Weisz into an interactive reveal of what pedestrianization looks like.
The Seattle Times Traffic Lab team sits down with King County Metro General Manager Terry White to discuss the agency’s rolling recovery plan to offer safe, reliable transit during the pandemic and the importance of responsive strategies for the transportation network to address equity and public health issues.
A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development stresses the importance of reducing particulate matter (the matter propelled into the air from tire, brake, clutch, and roadway wear) because of the damaging health impacts it poses and how the takeover of electric vehicles in transportation won’t slow it down.
What can a bookseller do when online giants like Amazon can ship and deliver your read of choice at the push of a button? If becoming a travelling, cargo bike-riding salesperson was your answer then you were right. Read the story of one bookshop owner in Milan that took on tech-enabled e-commerce with two wheels and ingenuity in the Guardian.
Read an excerpt from author Diana Lind’s book “Brave New Home: Our Future in Smarter, Simpler, Happier Housing” that points out the effects of single-family zoning on housing’s affordability and sustainability and what works to create humanistic communities that heal.
Planetizen breaks down the harmful and financially devastating effects that automobile-dependence creates for people who have no affordable mobility options and the mechanisms at play that enable cities to force driving as the sole transportation system by design.
Move over congestion. Shorter-distance travel should be the real focus of restructuring transportation systems and neighborhoods, proposes the Brookings Institution—and they have a new “level of service” metric that reflects the built environment, as well as the social and economic goals of the surrounding communities.
Requests for Proposals, Inquiries, and Information
RFP: Microtransit Technology Services
Virginia Department of Rail & Public Transportation
Gloucester County and Town of Wise, VA
Deadline: December 31, 2020
RFSOQ: Las Vegas Medical District Automated Circulator and Connected Pedestrian Safety Program
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC)
Las Vegas, NV
Deadline: January 5, 2021
Notice of Intent: Accelerating Clean Transportation Now Program
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC)
Boston, MA
RFP Release: January 8, 2021
Open Call: Climate Smart Cities Challenge
Nesta
London, GB
Deadline: January 22, 2021
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