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
Read about the Five Trends Pedaling Bikeshare Forward
Bikesharing services debuted in the US in 2010. Since then, they’ve expanded to include dockless, adaptive, and electric, pedal-assist varieties. But in 2017, another two-wheeled transportation device appeared on the block and skyrocketed in use—e-scooters. In this new blog post, SUMC looks at the major trends influencing the future of bikeshare.
Visit the blog.
New on the MOD Learning Center: Rural and Small Town Transportation
Shared mobility is only for cities, right? Wrong. While it’s true that small towns and rural areas don’t have the same access to multiple public transportation options as more densely populated urban environments, the public and private sectors are collaborating on ways to leverage emerging technology and service models to improve mobility options. In this new MOD Learning Center module, SUMC breaks down the policies, programs, and planning around rural transportation in the US. Learn more on the MOD Learning Center.
Non-SUMC Events
Attend the first meeting of the Chicagoland Bike Sharing Forum
Join regional bicycle and transportation advocates on Monday, October 21, 2019, from 10:00 am until 12:00 pm at the Kane County Government Center. The forum is an opportunity for current and prospective bikeshare stakeholders to discuss the variety of topics surrounding this ever-changing technology.
Learn more and register.
Ridehailing/Carsharing/Carpooling
The city council of El Monte, CA, unanimously voted to draft a law that would guarantee a $30-an-hour wage for ridehail drivers—essentially double the minimum wage in LA County.
GeekWire investigates the shutdown of BMW’s now-defunct ReachNow carsharing service in Seattle and Portland and how the recent Daimler-BMW joint venture had a hand in its demise.
Lyft has more plans to expand across Canada with Vancouver as its next target city.
VIDEO: Grist set out to see what mode (or combination of modes) would be fastest to get from downtown Seattle out to Seward Park. Did transit come out on top? Did ridehailing steal first? (Hint: it’s a little bit of both.)
Partnerships and Programs
Uber Health, the company’s initiative for non-emergency medical transportation, is partnering with American Logistics for more integrated healthcare transportation management and paratransit mobility in one unified platform.
According to a new study about statewide congestion from MassDOT, Boston is seeing some of the worst traffic around the country, and it looks like roads will stay car-choked if single-occupancy driving doesn’t decrease. Luckily, the agency has plans to boost transit service, encourage telecommuting, and fund more bus/rail infrastructure to kick the trend.
In their latest guide, the National League of Cities calls for more cities to consider congestion pricing to keep traffic low and create safer/cleaner communities. We agree.
Michigan’s SMART transit system donated a 32-foot bus to the Dearborn Heights Parks and Recreation Department to help seniors and riders with disabilities live independent lives by scheduling trips to cultural and community-based events—for free.
Bikesharing and Micromobility
Metro bikeshare has launched in North Hollywood with 150 bikes at 16 stations near the Orange and Red Line stations for better multimodal connections with transit.
How are dockless mobility, transit, and active transportation access impacted by equity goals in the DC region? Greater Greater Washington joined We Act Radio, Bird, and the District DOT, along with local community organizations, for a panel to discuss just that.
Atlanta has enacted a nighttime ban on electric scooters between 9 pm and 4 am after a series of accidents, almost all involving cars. No actions were taken against the automobiles.
Detroit’s MoGo bikeshare system is adding 50 new pedal-assist e-bikes to its fleet: great for longer trips, hilly terrain, and commutes.
Transit
The Koch brothers are at it again with dark-money campaigns to push anti-transit messaging, and this time its in Phoenix in the form of Proposition 105 to stop light rail development in the city’s South side.
Learn about LA Metro’s Office of Extraordinary Innovation and how its approach to transit and mobility technology are making it easier to live in LA without a car.
Caltrain in San Francisco wants to offer a “BART-like service” with a proposed expansion plan that would have trains showing up every 15 minutes, ideally boosting daily ridership from 65,000 to 180,000.
Check out this guide from Curbed on eight public prairie lands, forest preserves, streams, and lagoons that are accessible by public transit in the Greater Chicago area.
Technology
Google Maps wants to give you better walking directions by using augmented reality to overlay arrows and provide intuitive navigation in real time. It’s in beta everywhere Street View is available.
Street Story is a free online platform that allows anyone to contribute, collect, and analyze street design information in their communities. Streetsblog covers how this powerful tool is helping community groups and public agencies dissect the high rate of bike and pedestrian accidents happening around Humboldt County, CA.
Self-driving shuttle programs are kicking it into high gear around the US. Optimus Ride has started giving autonomous rides to ferry commuters at Brooklyn Navy Yard, and two companies are forming a partnership to offer “autonomous modular solutions” to help turn human-operated vehicles into self-driving versions.
MIT’s SENSEable City Lab and the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions want to use autonomous boats to ferry people across waterways so that larger fixed-route boats can get through without building a tall, expensive bridge.
Urban Sustainability
You can’t picture the prototypical American city without including multi-level parking garages dotting city streets, but now these auto-centric monoliths are being repurposed into modern apartment complexes while new structures are being built with a mixed-use retrofit in mind.
New York is going to make a part of Manhattan’s busy 14th Street almost completely off-limits to cars (save for deliveries, and drop-offs/pick-ups), a bold step to address the automobile’s role in congestion, pollution, and low public-transit ridership.
Climate Change and Land, a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, focuses on agriculture and conservation with an underlying idea we stand behind: to limit the negative consequences of unsustainable land management we need to stop cities from sprawling.
Glide past the taxis, TNCs, and traffic-stuck cars and take a bike ride to the airport. At least that’s what Bike Snob did as he details his trip to La Guardia while wondering why airports don’t make it easier for the traveling cyclist.
Requests for Proposals, Qualifications, or Information
RFP: Forty-Foot (40’) Zero Emission Electric Buses
Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation (IndyGo)
Indianapolis, Indiana
Deadline: September 3, 2019
RFP: Accessible Mobility on Demand
Sound Transit
Seattle, Washington
Deadline: September 27, 2019
RFP: Transit District Development Opportunity
City of White Plains
White Plains, New York
Deadline: November 1, 2019
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