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
Less than 30 workdays away! Don’t wait, register now.
National Shared Mobility Summit
March 17 – 19, 2020 | Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, Chicago
Make a difference on St. Patrick’s Day with
2020 Summit Workshops
Workshops are intimate, focused, work sessions on transportation’s most pressing issues. Just take a look at the topics! All workshops take place on March 17th from 12:00 PM to 3:45 PM and lunch is included.
REGISTER NOW AND BOOK YOUR WORKSHOP
Already registered? No problem, add a workshop to your registration here.
Workshop 1: Lessons Learned from Mobility on Demand Projects
Join SUMC, the Federal Transit Administration, ICF, and UC Berkeley to examine the progress in innovation made by transit agencies in recent years, including the evaluations of the MOD Sandbox projects. Then, discuss the strengths and role of transit in an integrated mobility future.
Workshop 2: Understanding Risk in Shared Mobility through Human-Centered Design
This workshop will help participants identify and address the emerging risks of new forms of shared mobility. Using human-centered design methodology, participants will gain insights and tools to improve their understanding of risk management within this sector.
Workshop 3: Transportation Decarbonization without Electrification
In this workshop, a group of public, private, and nonprofit national leaders will debate and discuss policy, funding, the available toolkit, research, and marketing to identify where we can have the most impact in moving toward mode shift to reduce transportation CO2 emissions. (By invitation.)
Workshop 4: Human Service Transportation and Universal Mobility
This workshop will look at opportunities for data integration around human service transportation and larger Mobility as a Service (MaaS) initiatives. Participants will break into groups and discuss policy strategies that could be adopted at either a city, state or federal level.
Speakers include:
Jana Lynott, Senior Strategic Policy Advisor, AARP Public Policy Institute
Judy Shanley, Asst. VP, Education & Youth Transition, Easterseals Headquarters; Co-Director, National Center for Mobility Management
Roger Teal, President, DemandTrans Solutions
Katherine Freund, Founder and President, ITNAmerica
Joseph Yawn, Program Project Coordinator, Atlanta Regional Commission
Workshop 5: Leveraging Technology and Strategic Partnerships for Sustained Industry Transformation
This workshop provides a critical look at the digital transformation in cities and the specific implications that change creates within transportation, focusing on macro technology trends, common challenges, and methods to establish meaningful partnerships.
Check out the newest speakers on the block at what’s shaping up to be our best Summit yet!
Ridehailing/Carsharing/Carpooling
After losing many free-floating, carsharing services over the past year, the mode is making its way back to Seattle through Envoy with EV carshare programs at housing developments.
Ridehail for kids startup HopSkipDrive has secured a recent boost of $22 million to keep increasing their efforts in family-friendly mobility. Catch up with CEO Joanna McFarland on how the startup is focusing on offering on-demand transportation options to homeless children and those with specialized needs.
HyreCar, a carsharing platform for ridehail drivers, is teaming up with Clutch Technologies on the backend so dealers, OEMs, and other fleet managers can provide their vehicles for on-demand use by ridehail drivers.
BlaBlaCar had major growth in 2019 and saw a 71% increase in revenue, which can be attributed in part to the bus ticketing options on its app in select European markets.
Partnerships and Programs
A new $20 million grant from Lilly Endowment will help Indianapolis expand its pedestrian and cycling Cultural Trail by two miles to create better neighborhood connectivity for active transportation.
A new partnership between the New York MTA and ridehail companies is expected to increase mobility options for late-night shift workers where transit access is scarce, but some advocates believe that buses could do the job better.
Lyft and GoDurham transit agency have launched a first/last mile ridehail pilot program in East Durham, NC to help people get to and from the bus. Go Carolina!
You will soon see a lot more EV carshare and vehicle-sharing service in the Citymapper app thanks to a new partnership with Vulog that promises more seamless end-to-end mobility-as-a-service (MaaS).
Bikesharing and Micromobility
LA and Uber have been in a contentious fight over shared scooter and bike data, and the city recently won an appeal on its decision to suspend Uber’s permit after the company refused to share real-time data citing privacy concerns.
After surveying Atlanta residents to find out what changes they want out of the dockless scooter program, the City found out that 64% of respondents wanted to see more safe places to ride. Micromobility lanes are a must for safer streets.
Ford released an emoji jacket to help cyclists communicate with drivers while sharing the road, but it puts the responsibility (and blame) for accidents on the bicycle riders, not the drivers of 3,000+ lb automobiles.
Jacksonville, FL approved a dockless bike- and scooter-sharing program for the city that will require dedicated parking corrals to mitigate sidewalk clutter.
Transit
Hear about Shreveport, LA’s SporTran transit agency and how their community- and story-focused public transportation efforts have turned an inefficient system into an innovative and equitable EV-focused bus network.
LA Metro is getting a $1.3 billion grant from the FTA to build out the final phase of its Purple Line Extension rail project.
Uber wants to help you make that last train with a new feature that uses real-time transit data to schedule rides around New York’s Long Island Rail Road and San Francisco Bay Area Caltrain trips.
A new bill making its way around Georgia wants to remove the requirement that allocates fuel tax funds strictly for work on road projects and allow for any transportation-related program to benefit, including public transit.
Technology
Get around on foot with augmented reality (AR). Moovit now offers AR navigation when walking for easier way finding around cities in its app.
The NHTSA has just granted Nuro, an autonomous vehicle delivery company, an exemption that will allow Nuro to make and deploy up to 5,000 of its EV delivery vehicles, which don’t include any windshields, side mirrors or backup cameras, during a two-year period.
Fiat Chrysler is working with Chinese startup AutoX to launch a self-driving vehicle ridehail service in areas including Shenzhen and Shanghai in the first half of this year.
A hybrid human and automated on-demand transit service is coming to Norway and Netherlands as part of a joint initiative with self-driving tech startup Spare Labs and SAGA, a Canadian and Norwegian autonomous vehicle management consortium.
Urban Sustainability
A new study from research consultancy firm Kantar shows that private car trips in cities will drop by around 10% by 2030 while trips made by walking, biking, and public transit will rise a combined 49% in the same period.
The new Moving Forward Framework bill backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio proposes that more people will use active transportation if it is convenient and safe. We agree.
A cultural shift is transforming Denver into a much more bike-friendly haven but the need for more protected lanes and safe infrastructure is still there. Read more in the Denver Post.
AUDIO: Hear about the latest transit trends and community development happening in Charlotte, NC that are building a resilient city with a robust and equitable transportation system on TransLoc’s The Movement podcast.
Requests for Proposals, Inquiries, and Information
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 below.
RFQ: Connect2Work
The Village of Bedford Park, Illinois
Bedford Park, Illinois
Deadline Extended: February 28, 2020
RFP: Accelerating Clean Transportation Now (ACTNow)
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
Boston, MA
Deadline: March 3, 2020
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