The Mobility Hub

Your weekly guide to the latest in shared mobility

SUMC News and Announcements

 

Summit speakers, imperatives, and the end of an early bird era

You know how it goes. A moderator asks questions to a distinguished panel of experts that the Summit organizers (us) put together. This year we’re doing things differently.

We’ve spelled out our Equity Intent, our Climate Crisis Imperative, and our commitment to you that is propelling our preparations for and the 2021 Summit itself. We hope you’ll take a look.

Next, we’ve empowered a group of thought leaders, all women of color, to create the conversations—and choose the voices at the table—that can help us achieve equitable, sustainable, transportation and mobility systems. We’re excited to introduce two of our hosts to you today:

Regan F. Patterson, Ph.D. Dr. Regan F. Patterson is the Transportation Equity Research Fellow for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Incorporated (CBCF). Prior to joining the CBCF, Dr. Patterson was a postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, where she examined the linkages between racial residential segregation and air pollution. In February, she presented New Routes to Equity: The Future of Transportation in the Black Community at the UCLA Institute for Transportation Studies.

Tiffany Chu is the CEO & co-founder of Remix, a collaborative mobility platform that works with 350+ cities worldwide. She is a commissioner of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment and also sits on the city’s Congestion Pricing Policy Advisory Committee. Previously she was at a Fellow at Code for America and launched the UX practice at Zipcar. A designer and planner by training, she has a background in architecture and urban planning from MIT.

Lastly, Early Bird registration is over on MONDAY, 4/26 at 11:59 PM. Sign on up today!

What’s wrong with this statement from the NYT this morning? 
“President Biden will announce Thursday that the United States intends to cut planet-warming emissions nearly in half by the end of the decade, a target that would require Americans to transform the way they drive, heat their homes and manufacture goods.”

SUMC’s Policy and Strategy Director Ellen Partridge explains in this apt commentary regarding the NYT article about the Biden/Harris administration’s newly announced climate goals.

New on SUMC’s Learning Center
How integrated is integrated? In Marin County, CA, Connect2Transit brings together on-demand microtransit service, job access, and real-time transit information for all transit providers in the County. A brand new case study on the Learning Center tells you all about it and features a video interview with Marin Transit’s Cody Lowe.

Interested in USDOT funding? Check out the RAISE Grant Webinar Series
RAISE, or Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, grants are an important avenue for the Federal government to provide funding for infrastructure projects. These webinars dive into the application process.

Mobility Justice

The new US infrastructure plan is a milestone in addressing systemic racism with climate-focused investments, but as the Boston Globe points out, community involvement, accountability, and transparency must be prioritized to actually benefit BIPOC communities.

As the Texas DOT weighs a proposal to “realign” three Houston highways (sounds so innocuous, right?), the Kinder Institute for Urban Research looks at the generational displacement of Black and Brown communities in The Metropole’s fifth installment of Justice and the Interstates.

Helmet Laws are unevenly enforced in the US, a fact that puts more homeless people and BIPOC in dangerous situations involving the police, but as activists point out, maybe armed policemen aren’t the best way to ensure bicyclists’ safety in the first place.

Ridehailing/Carsharing/Carpooling 

The UK’s victory in classifying Uber drivers as workers is becoming a template in places like South Africa and Nigeria as courts and groups of ridehail drivers take up legal battles for better compensation and benefits as “employees”.

Customers of corporate ground transportation management platform Gett can add yellow cabs to their mobility mix now that the company’s new partnership with Curb has lit up taxi-hailing for businesses in 65 US cities.

Delaware’s DART and Via have partnered on a new on-demand microtransit service called DART Connect—FTA-funded through the Accelerating Innovative Mobility grant program—that hopes to revamp rural mobility in Sussex County, DE.

Bikesharing & Micromobility

AUDIO: The New Yorker breaks down the new e-scooter program that’s sailing around the city and how making transportation cleaner, smaller, and more efficient is the ticket to reducing auto dependency in cities.

Pittsburgh sees a future where cycling abounds and they’re planning to make it come true with a long-term plan to improve bike safety by turning over 250 miles of streets into bike lanes.

Rising micromobility rising star Dott has just secured $85 million in Series B funding, a handy sum for entering the bikeshare market and expanding to other regions around Europe.

Transit

As a response to a recent anti-transit article in the Chicago Tribune, public transportation advocates and leaders Jacky Grimshaw and Lynda Lopez reiterate its power as an affordable, sustainable lifeline that benefits everyone, especially the marginalized (usually Black and Brown) communities located near emissions-heavy highways.

Is the US ready for high-speed rail (HSR)? Vice says “no”, arguing that places like Japan, France, and Germany had more established rail networks to begin with and that upgrading the track we have now makes a lot more sense than starting over.

Streetsblog Chicago takes a ride on the CTA’s new electric buses being tested on the popular #66 Chicago Avenue route—gushing over the quiet, smooth trip and informative digital transit screens while leaving emissions back at the depot.

Technology

Volvo and Chinese mobility giant DiDi Chuxing have teamed up for a robotaxi fleet that will use the automaker’s XC90s and the latter’s autonomous vehicle tech to create “a self-driving car system that DiDi calls Gemini”.

The self-driving hype isn’t done yet, as Dubai’s RTA agency has picked driverless leader Cruise to operate an electric and autonomous ridehail and taxi service in the sprawling metro—while also choosing Dubai as the first non-US city to host Cruise’s self-driving Origin prototype.

Amazon is ready to help you with public transportation trips with the launch of its new Alexa Transit feature in eight major US cities. Get ready to ask, “hey Alexa, can you shorten my commute?”

Sustainability

Have cars made society less social? Streetsblog sits down with pastor Eric Jacobsen about his book “Three Pieces of Glass” to get to the root of US obsessions with screens, glass, and isolation that is further compounded by people using cars to separate themselves from fellow humans.

AUDIO: The latest episode of Strong Towns’ Upzoned podcast delves into the housing affordability crises from the architectural design angle, exploring if aesthetic charm makes housing solutions even more difficult to implement.

Aspen’s Smart Zones program, developed with curb solutions company Coord, uses tech and analytics to dynamically monitor busy streets. But the real test is the experience of the actual user, and Heavy Duty Trucking Magazine has this covered in a very smart report.

Project Funding Opportunities

RFP: Mobility on Demand Rideshare Service
VIA Metropolitan Transit
San Antonio, Texas
Deadline: May 13, 2021

RFP: On-demand/Microtransit Service Planning and Software
The Cape Fear Public Transportation Authority
Cape Fear, NC
Deadline: May 21, 2021

Request for Expression of Interest:
Facility Upgrade Plan for Battery Electric Buses

Connecticut Department of Transportation
Newington, Connecticut
Deadline: May 26, 2021

RFP: Paratransit Operations
Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation (IndyGO)
Indianapolis, IN
Deadline: June 4. 2021

We’d like to thank the following sponsors for their support
of the 2021 National Shared Mobility Summit.

Interested in sponsorship? (Yay!) Take a look at the options.

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