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
Did you know its #InfrastructureWeek? As spending bills heat up the congressional floor, we deep-dive into stories shaping this discussion.
Strong Towns dives into the division of rhetoric vs reality when it comes to the whirlwind of debate centered around infrastructure spending. Transportation For America urges people to focus on the problem behind prioritizing already allocated funds to repair our aging and failing infrastructure, instead of trying to pump money into new plans. If you are more interested in how the US has handled infrastructure spending over the past decade, check out Brookings Institute’s five latest research findings.
May is also #BikeMonth and there is no shortage of highlights and headlines about the two-wheel mode.
The League of American Bicyclists recently celebrated 39 cities for efforts to making cycling safer with the Bicycle Friendly Community award, supporting achievements made on biking around the US. San Francisco’s Mayor celebrated #BikeToWorkDay, along with many others, by riding on the city’s new Valencia Street protected bike lane to kick off the campaign and now wants double the number of protected lanes over the next few years. For Los Angelenos, Streetsblog LA’s This Week In Livable Streets features all the cycling events happening around LA this month. Why is the bike considered, even today, one of the more liberating modes of travel and mobile independence? It has a lot to do with the women’s suffrage movement of the 19th century. If you’re in Chicago, Bike the Drive is Sunday, May 26th along the city’s Lake Shore Drive. Grab your wheels and head over for 5 hours of car-free fun to support biking, walking and other forms of earth-friendly transportation.
Coming next week: Recap and takeaways from the Mobility on Demand Sandbox Innovation and Knowledge Accelerator workshop in Seattle.
Ridehailing/Carsharing/Carpooling
What are Uber’s long-term strategies after going public? Try flying taxis, sidelined #autonomous vehicles, #transit partnerships, and the “Amazon of Transportation” for starters.
Via, the biggest on-demand shared rides provider, wants to take a different approach by focusing expansion efforts on public mobility. Check out Via CEO Daniel Ramot’s interview on Fox Business.
In non-IPO Uber news, the ridehailing giant introduced Uber Movement Speeds, which provides 5 global cities with traffic speed data at the street segment and hourly level—important for infrastructure improvements and hopefully a sign of more data sharing to come.
Atlanta wants to boost its carsharing program to 55 vehicles total, up from the now 28, at 22 MARTA transit stations.
Partnerships and Programs
DC is ramping up its efforts to meet a Vision Zero future with not just one but three bills that will feed into the city’s “Sustainable DC” commitment for more equitable and less car-dependent communities.
Between massive lakefront trail developments and a proposed regional transit hub, the latest transportation plans for Chicago range from the pie-in-the-sky to the possible.
Ohio’s Greater Dayton RTA and Ford have partnered together to offer the Ford’s GoRide Health paratransit and non-emergency medical transportation service “to connect people with access to healthcare, food, medicine, and other services safely, reliably and on time.”
Medical and transportation management company MTM, Inc. and urban microtransit provider eCab are teaming up to tackle first/last-mile transit problems in cities.
Bikesharing and Micromobility
Data and how to manage it are at the forefront of a long-standing struggle between micromobility providers and the City of LA. What level of access is best to ensure a properly controlled transportation environment that is open, privacy-minded, and fair?
Mobike’s European division is looking to break off (sort off) from the global operations of the company, further confirming the micromobility startup’s retreat from a worldwide presence.
Rochester, NY may have a chance at a scooter-sharing program through its bikeshare operator Zagster, potentially making it officially the first city in the state to launch dockless scooters.
Kansas City will be rolling out scooters in the coming weeks from both Spin and regional transit operator RideKC, one of the first transit authorities to offer scooters directly.
Transit
Hear the latest Rail~Volution Podcast, hosted by The Overhead Wire’s Jeff Wood, with TransitCenter and the Port Authority of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh discussing long-term transit ridership goals and how the diversity of riders can change the focus of transportation planning.
The Central Ohio Transit Authority and Grove City want to fix gaps in transit access with a proposed on-demand shuttle pilot to help get underserved communities to jobs.
A new bus station in Tilburg, the Netherlands is a great example of both design and function for transportation infrastructure: open spaces, green infrastructure, ample seating, and a solar-paneled roof to power it all.
The Federal Transit Administration just announced $5 million in funding to support transit services for Native American tribes and Alaska Native villagers in rural areas. The application period closes on July 9.
Technology
Michigan-based May Mobility is launching its autonomous shuttle service in a third city, Rhode Island. The pilot program, called “Little Roady”, is part of the Rhode Island Transportation Innovation Partnership.
The rapid development of the electric vehicle sector is putting an impressionable but slowly growing mark in Europe, but the lack of a strong charging network in the southern and eastern regions creates a barrier.
The Denver Regional Transportation District’s autonomous shuttle pilot with EasyMile for first/last mile connections can teach us a few lessons and show us best practices. Read the takeaways on Metro Mag.
Mercedes-Benz is promising to have a fully carbon-neutral fleet of consumer cars by 2039, but is that quick enough to fight climate change?
Urban Sustainability
The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy has unveiled the Great American Rail-Trail, a cross-country biking route that runs through 12 states from coast-to-coast, with the goal of being no more than 50 miles from roughly 50 million Americans.
More biking infrastructure is one of the best, if not the best, ways to get more people on bikes, but cities will have to do more than slap on a fresh coat of white paint to make cyclists feel truly safe.
Parking management company FlashParking reimagines how parking garages and structures would be used as urban mobility hubs in the future that can accommodate EV charging for dockless micromobility, ridehailing corrals, and driverless vehicle stations.
A new video study from Denmark shows that cyclists break fewer traffic laws while riding than motorists do when driving. Bikers, feel proud.
Did someone forward this to you? You can sign up for our newsletter here.
