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
New SUMC blog post shows reality of car-free life.
Making multi-stop trips of varying lengths using separate mobility services isn’t easy. Until we have a multimodal system, see how one SUMC staffer did it on a Saturday.
Read “Four Modes, Two Legs, and Shared Wheels.”
SUMC is hiring!
Join a distinguished public interest organization dedicated to creating a multimodal transportation system for all: us! SUMC is looking for a Program Manager and a Program Coordinator for our Los Angeles, CA location.
View full job descriptions and apply.
Sharpen your pencils! Papers are now accepted for TRB 2020. The spotlight theme is “A Century of Progress: Foundation for the Future.” Find out more here.
Ridehailing/Carsharing/Carpooling
BMW’s ReachNow carsharing service is partnering with Oregon Health and Science University to launch six cars to the Portland campus, making it the company’s third collaboration in the city.
Share the commute! Waze has launched its carpooling service in Atlanta’s north suburbs of Johns Creek and Alpharetta.
Congestion in Chicago is a hard issue to tackle without mentioning the effects of ridehailing services. But when they fill gaps in mobility that transit can’t, the Chicago Tribune asks, how can their overall impact be measured?
India plans to implement a rule that will order taxi aggregators and ridehail companies to ensure that 40% of their fleets are electric by 2026, a major boost for EV adoption in the country.
Partnerships and Programs
Bloomberg announced a $500 million campaign called Beyond Carbon, the largest coordinated effort to combat climate change in the US to date, that focuses in part on low-carbon transit funding and larger deployment of electric vehicles.
As part of BMW and Daimler’s recently announced joint venture, parking tech company ParkMobile and REACH NOW (formally moovel North America) are partnering to create seamless mobility and parking solutions for Smart Cities.
Six leading clean energy companies in Europe are planning to deploy 1,000 hydrogen fuel cell buses while building out the required hydrogen infrastructure to popularize the new technology.
Toronto has a new resilience strategy outlining 37 goals and actions that focus on how people, neighborhoods, and infrastructure can face the urgent issues surrounding climate change and inequity.
Bikesharing and Micromobility
Starting this Saturday, ten different dockless electric scooter companies are bringing 250 vehicles each to the North and Northwest-sides of Chicago in a four-month pilot. While community reaction is mixed, this is a milestone in micromobility for the city.
Dockless scooter company Bird has acquired Scoot, giving it an entry into San Francisco’s tightly-restricted micromobilty market.
Bay Area Motivate (owned by Lyft) is suing San Francisco over the city’s newly announced dockless bikeshare expansion pilot, claiming that it has exclusive rights to bikeshare systems in the city. The city argues that the contract only applies to station-based programs, not dockless.
With over 20,000 scooters on city streets, Paris is putting major restrictions to dockless companies with plans to reduce the number of operators from 12 to two or three & decrease scooter use on pavement and parks.
New York-based micromobility company Charge wants to get dockless scooters and e-bikes in Atlanta juiced up through 250 rentable charging and docking stations, with 25 up and running in the next few months.
Transit
Power up a new game called “Overcrowd: A Commute ‘Em Up” that lets you build your own transit station, one heavily based on London’s Underground tube system, in a 3D cube space. Then see if you can make the commute.
Atlanta is moving forward with its MARTA expansion and investment plan by focusing its initial efforts on bus rapid transit, but some city leaders and transit advocates think the project timeline and dismissal of rail development is shortsighted.
The lack of transit access in Jefferson County, AL leaves many without any options for long-distance trips, while pedestrian infrastructure makes walking dangerous. MAX Transit is changing that with 49 miles of new bus routes in four underserved cities.
AUDIO: Listen to a new Overhead Wire episode featuring Maritza Pechin, a planner with AECOM, who discusses transportation innovations in Richmond, VA including the bus network redesign and how the new system is bringing people back to transit.
Technology
Rumors are swirling that Apple is in talks to buy self-driving technology company Drive.ai, who has been reportedly looking for a buyer since March. Could Apple be throwing its hat back into the autonomous vehicle ring?
EasyMile’s newest version of its EZ10 autonomous shuttle can be operated without an on-board attendant and is monitored by a remote supervisor instead—a first of its kind in AV tech.
Ready to charge up? There are now 120 ultra-fast EV charging stations at Walmart stores across 34 US states thanks to an initiative from Electrify America and Walmart.
A partnership between Momentum Dynamics, BYD, and IndyGo will work to install 300-kilowatt, on-route charging points in Indianapolis, IN to power up its 31-bus EV fleet, which will make it one of the highest capacity charging systems in the world.
Urban Sustainability
With fresh faces and a new mayor, Chicago wants to keep growing sustainable transportation initiatives so the city stays bikeable, walkable, and transit-friendly. Here, five aldermen speak about the changes shaping the city’s mobility future.
New York cycling advocate Joelle Galatan dives into the roadblocks that disabled cyclists meet, including creating space for more adaptive bikes and how cities can create a better infrastructure that breaks down the barriers of ableism in active transportation.
“Would you rather spend a lot of money to increase road capacity to achieve moderate and temporary congestion reductions and bear higher future costs from increased motor vehicle traffic, or implement other types of transportation improvements?” Planetizen looks at the auto-focused bias still affecting transportation planning in metros.
A new survey from the Public Policy Institute of California shows that 62% of surveyed people want counties and cities to build high-density housing around transit centers in single-family home communities.
Requests for Proposals, Inquiries, and Information
RFP: Impact of Transformational Technologies on Underserved Populations
Transportation Research Board
Deadline: July 18, 2019
TRB’s Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) has released a request for proposals to develop guidance on corrective actions with data, methods, and metrics to achieve inclusive mobility with regards to new and emerging technologies and modal alternatives. There is a concern that access to mobility services exacerbates the disparity between the low- and high-income earners. This is a 24-month contract.
RFI: South Bend Mayors Challenge: Augmenting South Bend’s Shared Mobility Systems
City of South Bend, Indiana
Deadline: June 28, 2019, 5 PM EST
The City of South Bend, in partnership with local employers, is preparing to launch a new mobility program aimed at serving populations for whom transportation is a barrier to employment. The program is launched in conjunction with the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge and is intended to function as a “Transportation as a Benefit” program. The City hopes to expand its shared mobility systems by identifying alternative approaches to provide a greater range of options offered as part of the Transportation-as-a-Benefit program.
RFP: Downtown Pittsburgh Mobility Plan
The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP)
Deadline: June 28, 2019, 5 PM
The PDP requests proposals from qualified firms or teams of firms with the appropriate expertise to serve as a consultant and develop a multimodal mobility plan for Downtown Pittsburgh, PA. The PDP strives to advance an accessible, welcoming, and safe multimodal transportation system that is informed by a shared vision while balancing needs and optimizing space in the geographically limited Central Business District. Answers to questions will be made available to all respondents via email and the PDP website at downtownpittsburgh.com/mobilityRFP on Monday, June 17, 2019.
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