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
Watch the Virtual Shared Mobility Summit Sessions
SUMC Founder and Executive Director Sharon Feigon speaks with Emily Castor Warren, Principal and Director of Policy at Nelson\Nygaard, before the second plenary panel discussion: Long-term Strategies for Transit and Shared Mobility Moving From COVID-19.
When 2020 began, preparations for the 2020 National Shared Mobility Summit were in full swing. It was with great sadness that in light of the then-growing COVID-19 pandemic, we had to cancel the in-person conference and expo. Our Summit—which has become the premier event for discussing and advancing new ideas in shared mobility, bringing together private and public sectors, and networking with industry leaders and associates—could not physically take place.
We quickly pivoted to a virtual event and with great trepidation and determination, we held our two-day event a month later on May 5 and 6. Leading up to it, we held a virtual panel on Partnering for the Public Good based on our previously planned plenaries. Then we updated the themes of our virtual Summit to reflect this critical time.
- We discussed strategies beyond vehicle electrification for reducing CH2 emissions.
- We hammered out short- and long-term strategies for transit and shared mobility can move forward from COVID-16.
- We discovered ways to innovate, despite and because of our situation.
- We explored the pandemic’s impact on TNCs, micromobility, business models, freight and goods delivery, and more—and mapped out possibilities for new models that can help us successfully reshape transportation to focus on the vision of a multi-modal transportation system that truly works for all.
Our virtual Shared Mobility Summit playlist is a tool for looking forward, not back.
Mobility Justice
“The highways and public spaces that shape our cities were often intentionally built at the expense of Black, Latino, and other minority Americans.” Learn how the history of the built environment and transportation is intertwined in civil rights and racism, and how we can improve our systems to undo the damage and boost livability, in this NPR audio clip.
Tracey Capers from the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation pens an op-ed for Streetsblog NYC that acknowledges the importance of equitable representation and involvement with street safety for Black and brown communities—and explains how Black Lives Matter can enable more “freedom of movement.”
Unequally-applied traffic enforcement and the birth of the Federal Aid Highway Act in America created racial injustice in transportation that perpetuated physical and social barriers—highways and heavy policing—which still target Black Americans today. Defunding the police and redirecting money to end traffic violence in these neighborhoods would be a good first step to tackle the issue.
Boston City Council President Kim Janey and other local advocates call for MBTA buses to be fare-free in a push for more racial justice in public transit as the state Senate sits on the long-awaited $18 million transportation bond bill.
Ridehailing/Carsharing/Carpooling
Uber will now be doing online grocery delivery in Canada and parts of Latin America, giving the mobility company larger reign in the food delivery and transportation industry.
UC Berkeley professor and transportation researcher Susan Shaheen takes a look at the history and future of shared rides and carpooling in Transfers Magazine, comparing how traditional methods of pooled services stack up to ridehailing, public transit, and informal “dollar vans”.
A study published in Nature Energy outlines the importance of electrifying ridehailing vehicles and motivates that the “potential environmental and emission reduction benefits” could hit about three times higher for EVs in ridehailing compared to regular EV usage in California.
ZITY is expanding its electric carsharing service in France with 500 all-EV Renault ZOEs in the western suburbs of Paris.
Bikesharing and Micromobility
Estonian mobility company Bolt will be launching dockless, pedal-assist bikeshare in Paris, with other European cities in the works, as cycling takes off in the region.
Meet the recipients of the PeopleForBikes Foundation and Better Bike Share Partnership’s Emergency Response Grants program and learn how the funding helped nonprofit and city-led bikeshare services serve essential workers with mobility options.
UK mobility company HumanForest is launching 200 dockless shared bikes with pedal-assist tech in London and topping it with 20 free minutes of daily use in an effort to give “free and sustainable mobility to everyone.”
Dutch bicycle-subscription service Swapfiets will be expanding its services to London, Milan and Paris, after successfully entering the Germany, Denmark and Belgium markets, giving users on-demand repairs, replacement, and options such as e-bikes.
Transit
AUDIO: The Economist Radio podcast sits down with Director of Research at TransitCenter Steven Higashide to chat about transportation’s response to COVID-19 and how planning for the bus can make transit networks, and also cities by extension, more dynamic by default.
The ongoing pandemic hasn’t only been tough for public transit, but also intercity bus networks in the US. With budgets strained and ridership thinned out, companies like Greyhound and Coach USA are navigating the health crisis with staggered service restarts while mandating face masks.
In a socially-distanced world, any move to reduce points of touch in public transit can bring reduce the changes of spreading the virus, and PYMNTS dishes out why contactless fares are just the touch-elimination move our transit systems need.
Planetizen has put together a short guide on how transit agencies in the US are handling emergency pandemic response and how that affects service in both local communities and larger regions.
Technology
Autonomous tech startup Momenta, which has backing from Daimler, is working towards the bold goal of having their entire self-driving ridehailing fleet operational without backup drivers by 2024.
Vehicles, in general, can bust down and become completely inoperable well before hitting 300,000 miles, whether that’s by combustion power or electricity. How would our transportation world work and sustain with EVs having “million-mile” batteries?
In the world of freight, Hyundai has just shipped its first 10 XCIENT hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks, coined as “the world’s first mass-produced fuel cell heavy-duty truck”, to Switzerland with plans to dole out 1,600 XCIENT trucks by 2025.
VentureBeat takes a look at autonomous shuttle startup May Mobility and how recent conversations with former employees paint the workplace in an ambitious yet faulted light that pinpoints the many challenges that self-driving tech companies can face.
Sustainability
Transportation and parking researcher extraordinaire Donald Shoup makes the (long overdue) case for congestion pricing in LA, laying out what the city’s 2021 toll pilot program means for traffic in the region’s future.
Drive-in theaters are a common American staple that have persevered over decades of cultural shift. When a pandemic hits, how can all residents safely participate socially-distanced entertainment if they don’t have access to a car. Streetsblog covers why Chicagoans (and others) need more activities that are ped-and-bike friendly. We agree.
Modesto, CA will use a $24.8 million grant to develop more affordable housing options with $10 million of the grant going towards local bike, rail, and bus upgrades to help reduce the effects of climate change.
If you build it, they will use it. Adding new highway capacity in cities tends to spur more traffic while promoting suburban sprawl. A new study out of UC Davis found how environmental reports for five major highway projects failed to properly account for this induced demand, uncovering a long-standing bias in travel demand models.
Requests for Proposals, Inquiries, and Information
RFP: Paratransit and Flex Route Services
City of DeKalb
DeKalb, IA
Deadline: July 16, 2020
RFP: On-Demand Microtransit Software and Support
By Green Mountain Transit Authority
St. Albans, VT
Deadline: July 17, 2020
RFI: Creative Uses for Utilizing Existing Curbside Electric, Telecommunications, and Electric Vehicle Infrastructure
IndyGO
Indianapolis, IN
Deadline: August 14, 2020
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