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
Create a New Climate of Mobility and Equity at the 2020 National Shared Mobility Summit, March 17-19 in Chicago.
Visit the 2020 Summit Site and secure early-bird registration now!
We are at a critical moment for the environment and fair access to transportation, and our decisions and policies have historical consequences. The National Shared Mobility Summit will equip attendees to rise to the challenge, together. This year, you’ll find even more opportunities to learn, network, and collaborate on our summit site. Take a look around and secure your early-bird discount today! #SUMC2020
Last chance to register for the Mobility on Demand On-Ramp workshop in Dallas, TX on November 21.
Join SUMC staff, MOD On-Ramp participant agencies, and area transportation leaders on a technical work session and field trip where you’ll experience MOD projects first-hand.
Register by November 18 here.
SUMC’s Open House has been moved to December 5, 2019.
Stay tuned for details!
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Ridehailing/Carsharing/Carpooling
Addressing accessibility concerns, Chicago is lowering the fee for wheelchair users as a part of its proposed ridehail tax increase. The vote goes down later this month.
Lyft is enticing people in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago with $250 in ridehail credit and three free months of Lyft’s Pink subscription to anyone that sells their car to online, used-car retailer Carvana.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance has filed a lawsuit against Uber about contested taxes deducted from drivers’ paychecks, part of a larger movement to boost the wages of gig-economy workers.
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Partnerships and Programs
The US DOT has released details about the recipients of the Fiscal Year 2019 BUILD grants, with projects including a pedestrian bridge in Hawaii, an eight-mile BRT line in Memphis, and a new multi-modal transportation center in Carbondale, IL. (The majority of the money, however, is going to highway or road-widening projects, largely in rural areas.)
New York’s car-free 14th Street busway is moving into the next phase of the pilot with installations of new bus boarding platforms at seven stops, a move to make the corridor even more pedestrian friendly.
Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont has unveiled his 10-year master plan for investing roughly $21 billion in public transit, ports, bridges, roads and railroads all around the state, with $6.2 billion earmarked for rail upgrades and improvements.
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Bikesharing and Micromobility
The District DOT has opened its application process for the 2020 Shared Dockless Vehicle Program, which increases the total number of mobility vehicles to 10,000 – 20,000 scooters and 10,000 bikes and installing 100 parking corrals to mitigate clutter and sidewalk use.
San Antonio is tightening its dockless scooter regulations to control micromobility deployment and is settling on three preferred operators: Lyft, Lime, and Razor.
In efforts to avoid being caught off guard in a ridehailing repeat, a joint hearing of the Senate attempted to unfold the regulatory patchwork around micromobility and determine what cities and states should regulate for better local management, datasharing agreements, and safety.
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Transit
The rollout of a controversial pickup plaza to corral taxi and ridehailing trips for Los Angeles’ LAX wouldn’t be an issue for many if they just tried the more hassle-free option: mass transit.
Great work! A charter change measure to create the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure was approved by voters, creating opportunities for more citywide walking, biking, and transit.
New research from BCG, using Via’s data in four cities, details how on-demand microtransit services gave riders more trip flexibility while lowering per-passenger cost compared to traditional fixed-route transit—in the right regulatory and operational environment of course.
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Technology
Google’s crowdsourced public transit updates app Pigeon has flown into five new US cities—Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and DC.
Finnish mobility startup MaaS Global has a new influx of funding and plans to expand its multimodal offerings to the US Japan, Singapore, and more European cities in 2020.
Intel’s autonomous tech offering Mobileye is partnering up with Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio to bring a robotaxi service and self-driving EVs to China by 2022.
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Urban Sustainability
Less space for cars, and more for the people. LA’s City Planning Department has released its awaited community plan called DTLA 2040 that proposes to eliminate all parking requirements in downtown LA.
Changing zoning rules to allow for the upzoning of neighborhoods with single-detached houses to mixed-income duplexes is a divisive issue. Sightline provides a glossary of how the language “middle-housing” can help make the case.
The gross injustices that came from the “urban renewal” era of building highways through black communities has a chance of being righted with the teardown of a section of Interstate 81 in Syracuse, NY’s Southside. Residents feel there’s one way to make the turnaround more certain: reparations.
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Requests for Proposals, Inquiries, and Information
RFP: Proposals for Mobility Study
Greater Lafayette Public Transportation Corporation
Lafayette, Indiana
Deadline: December 9, 2019
RFP: Sepulveda Transit Corridor Project
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Los Angeles County
Deadline: April 1, 2020
Access the RFP here.
RFP: Accelerating Clean Transportation Solutions
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center
Boston, Massachusetts
Deadline: March 3, 2020
