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
Congratulations to President-elect Joseph Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris
Now that the election is over, it’s time to focus on the work ahead to get the US on track to address its transportation, climate, and equity challenges.
Fixing the nation’s neglected roads and bridges, building resilience to climate change, and reprioritizing our infrastructure investments—building frequent, dependable transit, carving out safe street space for bikes and scooters, expanding and improving sidewalks space for pedestrians, bringing electric vehicle charging and broadband connectivity to every neighborhood—are all vital for moving toward a just and resilient future. This doesn’t just mean better transportation, it also means jobs, as was called out in the Biden Plan for a Clean Energy Revolution and Environmental Justice. Climate change is an urgent threat, but we must work to reduce its impact and rebuild our economy by decarbonizing transportation and investing in clean energy.
The Shared-Use Mobility Center looks forward to continuing our work with the federal government and in communities around the country. Grounded in principles of equity and sustainability, we will continue our efforts to mitigate climate change and redress the legacy of racist policymaking by advancing a robust set of mobility options that are affordable, accessible, and environmentally sound.
Again, our congratulations to the new administration. Now let’s get to work!
Join us next week:
Webinar on Policy Tools to Decarbonize Transportation
How States are Moving the Emissions Needle
Friday, November 20th, at 10:30 am Pacific/12:30 pm Central/1:30 pm Eastern
Have you explored the Micromobility Policy Atlas yet?
With a database of over 100 bike- and scooter-sharing policies and management approaches from over two dozen countries, it can help decision-makers get the most value from micromobility services.
Learn more and try it out for yourself
New Shared Mobility Industry Survey
MobilityData is the organization chosen by NABSA (North American Bikeshare Association) to manage the General Bikeshare Feed Specification (GBFS). This survey will help MobilityData better understand the business and technical needs of the community, so the data obtained through the GBFS can improve the traveler experience. It will take about 10 minutes and you will receive a summary of responses.
Events on our radar:
Collaborative Mobility Virtual Conference 2020
November 17-20, 2020
CoMoUK
Learn more and register
Measuring, Managing, and Maximizing Transportation Happiness Using Smartphone-Aided Day Reconstruction Method
November 19, 2020, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
UIC Urban Transportation Center Fall Seminar Series
Learn more and register
Mobility Justice
With California making the slow move towards banning the sale of gas-powered vehicles, what can the state do to ensure that everyone can participate in the zero-emission vehicle future? EV carshare and affordable e-bike options would help break key barriers, according to Greenbiz.
According to Streetsblog Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot is in the final stages of her new capital spending plan that would invest billions of dollars to fix the city’s aging infrastructure—with an eye on fortifying bridges, viaducts, and underpasses—while promising equitable action for communities in desperate need of public financial resources.
Virginia steps towards cleaner transportation initiatives with the launch of six new electric buses for Hampton Roads Transit as part of the multi-state Transportation and Climate Initiative to curb regional emissions and invest in underserved and overburdened communities negatively affected by air pollution.
Using equity data from the Livable Streets Alliance, Boston’s MBTA launched 14 miles of dedicated bus lanes to keep essential workers, who are mostly made up of low-income people of color in the region, moving during the pandemic as part of its Rapid Response Bus Lanes program.
Ridehailing/Carsharing/Carpooling
Contactless P2P carsharing models like Getaround are proving to be a robust mobility operation that are successfully navigating the seemingly-volatile environment for transportation during the pandemic era, according to a PYMNTS interview with Getaround CEO Sam Zaid.
Does the presence of ridehailing options in cities like New York help reduce the amount of reported sexual assaults incidents? One study looks at how the on-demand, location-based nature of the mobility mode correlates to sexual assault crimes that can specifically occur in more transit-deprived and nightlife-heavy neighborhoods.
European ridehailing company FreeNow will offer an electric-only booking option for corporate riders to help cut on travel emissions and give users a new way to sustainably get around their cities.
Get ready Madison, WI for a new ridehailing option by startup Mobile22 that utilizes partnerships with local taxi companies—including one fleet with 55 all-electric cabs—to give local operators and residents a clean mobility alternative to driving.
Bikesharing and Micromobility
Streetsblog NYC sits down with London’s Walking & Cycling Commissioner Will Norman to talk about how the bicycle is a key solution to improving air quality and public health, and how designing the urban landscape for safe, socially-distanced public spaces can foster active transportation.
Austin, TX plans to propel cycling and walking efforts by a cool $460 million with the historic pass of Proposition B that, as PeopleForBikes firmly predicts, will take the city to the heights of becoming one of America’s greatest biking cities.
Hear from Kyle Rowe, micromobility company SPIN’s Global Head of Government Partnerships, and his experience working with the Seattle Department of Transportation on making the switch from a financially-strapped docked bikeshare system to a completely restructured dockless system driven by forward-thinking policy on the Talking Headways Podcast.
“I avoid driving cars because when I get behind the wheel, I have fewer civil rights than everyone else.” Meet Portland City Commissioner-elect Mingus Mapps, a single, cycling father of two who wants to build better biking infrastructure for the city and fight systematic racism in traffic enforcement.
Transit
Thanks in part to efforts by local transportation officials, voters in Austin TX approved a $7.1 billion Proposition A ballot measure that promises an extensive public transit expansion across the area. Now, believes Capital Metro CEO Randy Clarke, is when the real work starts to make it a reality.
You can now keep pedaling on after taking the Metra as the agency pilots bike cars for the Milwaukee District North Line while temporarily easing bike restrictions on all 11 lines, giving multimodal options a boost as the pandemic keeps Metra ridership down by more than 90%.
President-elect Joe Biden wants to “provide every American city with 100,000 or more residents with high-quality, zero-emissions public transportation”, according to his administration’s Build Back Better website, to address issues surrounding climate change, the workforce, and transportation access.
Transportation incentives app Velocia has teamed up with Miami-Dade County to offer vouchers that can be used for ridehail, carshare, bikeshare, and ferry trips to transit riders who complete in-app surveys and commit to off-peak traveling on Metrobus.
Technology
Walmart and GM’s Cruise arm will start testing driverless delivery vehicles in Scottsdale, AZ in 2021 to compete in the growing autonomous goods/food delivery race that also includes giants Amazon and Ford.
Speaking of Ford, the automaker has finally taken the wraps off of its all-electric model of the commercially-popular Transit delivery van line, dubbed E-Transit, that carries 126 miles of range and a $45,000 price tag.
E-bikes will enable safer streets for Amsterdam residents in the near future thanks to a new government-backed project in collaboration with manufacturers, that will automatically shut down the e-bikes electric motor when it enters “residential or built-up areas” in the metro.
Transportation solutions company First Transit has tapped mobility app Moovit to bring more integrated ‘Mobility as a Service’ tech to millions of riders across the US and Canada, enabling users to plan, book, and pay for all types of mobility modes through one app.
Sustainability
President-elect Joe Biden has already released a comprehensive plan to fight climate change and Vox pulls ten key orders—including strong vehicle-emissions standards and boosting ZEV adoption—with the potential to build clean energy resilience throughout the nation.
What are “climate reparations” and how can they fundamentally change the way emissions-heavy countries aid those displaced by climate-related disasters? Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists defines the need for them and why the Global North must face its “climate debt” as payment towards international environmental justice.
Officials in Mexico have voted in favor of adding a new amendment to the country’s constitution that dictates, “Every person has the right to mobility under conditions of safety, accessibility, efficiency, sustainability, quality, inclusion and equality”— a bold move we wholeheartedly support.
Pittsburgh, like many US cities, is grappling with increasingly dangerous streets brought on by car-centric travel, but the city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure envisions a calmed-down, protected future (and present) for road safety that’s equitable for everyone—not just drivers.
Requests for Proposals, Inquiries, and Information
RFI: Clean Mobility Provider Directory 2.0
Clean Mobility Options Voucher Pilot Program
California
Deadline: December 11, 2020
The Clean Mobility Options Voucher Pilot Program administrator team is conducting a second RFI process to expand and update the existing CMO Clean Mobility Provider Directory. The intended audiences for this RFI are professional mobility operators, vehicle suppliers, infrastructure suppliers, and software providers who are interested in partnering with lead applicants to provide and support zero-emission shared mobility services in eligible communities throughout the State.
RFI: Mobility Integration Platforms
Indianapolis Public Transportation Corporation (IndyGo)
Indianapolis, IN
Deadline: November 30, 2020
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