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
The Time to Act on Climate Change is now.
Watch webinar on tools to decarbonize transportation
Did you know that 23 states plus the District of Columbia have their own greenhouse-gas reduction targets? These efforts include net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions targets (23 states plus DC), renewable portfolio standards (19 plus DC), and a power-sector emissions trading system (10 states.) While many of us look towards opportunities in a new administration, we know that states can make or break efforts on both sides—and innovate themselves.
The Shared-Use Mobility Center held How States are Moving the Emissions Needle, the second webinar and workshop in our Path to the Summit series, to share knowledge about state and multi-state tools for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, funding sustainable transportation, and enacting policy change. It featured speakers from across the country who shared their ongoing work to decarbonize transportation at the state and regional level.
SUMC invites you to watch this informative webinar and download the presentations on the MOD Learning Center. In addition, you can access the tools to take action with the following resources:
SUMC Emissions Calculator
The calculator is a tool for cities to estimate the emissions benefits from deploying various modes of shared mobility, providing a baseline for turning greenhouse gas mitigation goals into concrete plans.
Equitable and Clean Mobility for All: Clean Mobility Options
The Clean Mobility Options Voucher Pilot Program (CMO) provides $20 Million in voucher-based funding for zero-emission shared mobility services in California’s historically underserved and tribal communities.
The Intergovernmental Panel Report on Global Warming of 1.5 ºC
This special report details the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways.
Join our dedicated team
The Shared-Use Mobility Center (SUMC) is expanding its LA and Chicago offices to serve a growing set of programs that support practitioners and stakeholders in pursuing transportation equity and climate mitigation. Learn about the open positions and how to apply here.
The Shared-Use Mobility Center (SUMC) is a non-profit public interest organization that promotes multimodal transportation systems that work for all. Just as we are dedicated to inclusion in transportation, and we strive to reflect that mission in the composition of our staff.
Mobility Justice
Reversing structural, racial inequity that creates cyclical poverty while catering to white residents takes more than a movement, it also takes a just-as-structured, systemic plan. Learn how Oakland’s OakDOT agency is paving the way in revitalizing streets and neighborhoods for safe and sustainable mobility for Black Oaklanders in Transfers Magazine.
A new study from the Journal of Transport Geography found (to no one’s surprise) that ridehailing options Lyft and Uber were not filling gaps in transit access in lower-income neighborhoods of color on the Chicago’s South and West sides, but predominantly serving majority-white, affluent areas.
Read this nonfiction comic “A Tale of Two Pandemics: Historical Insights on Persistent Racial Disparities” by journalist Josh Neufeld that merges research about racial health disparities during COVID-19 and misinformation around the 1918 influenza pandemic to show the timely need for equitable health safety education.
Ridehailing/Carsharing/Carpooling
The California Public Utilities Commission has given the green light for companies to start testing—and charging—for robotaxi services through two new programs aimed at autonomous vehicle development in the state.
Bedford Park, IL will see new on-demand and microtransit services, along with a mobility-as-a-service app, to serve late-night workers in transit-light areas as part of the Connect2Work pilot in collaboration with local agencies, Uber, Via, and Moovit.
California was first and now Massachusetts, as the employee classification fight for ridehailing drivers heats up in the Commonwealth with legislators and companies preparing for a future ballot measure to either fight against or acknowledge drivers as full-fledged employees.
Bikesharing and Micromobility
TechCrunch lays out the important policy milestones and actions in Paris, Barcelona, London and Milan that have revolutionized micromobility use in the metros and reclaimed the streets “for feet and two wheels.”
Downtown Chicago is slowly getting more pedestrian- and cyclist- friendly with a fresh set of paint and posts for bump-outs and pedestrian islands (bringing the total in the urban core to 24) and recently installed “Don’t Block the Box” markings and signs to keep drivers from blocking intersections.
Equity and community engagement go hand-in-hand and the Better Bike Share Partnership believes a strategic connection between equity goals in mobility and key local advocacy is necessary to “reflect the community you aim to serve”.
Transit
Commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation Polly Trottenberg is leaving the agency next month after seven-years of helming the city’s Vision Zero program and shouldering many transit-funding setbacks from the mayor and governor. We wish her well.
Buses move a majority of NJ Transit customers including essential workers. All the more reason to increase funding, create dedicated bus lanes and expand service in underserved areas, says the NJ Transit’s Regional Plan Association.
Transportation fare solutions company Masabi and the San Joaquin Council of Governments have teamed up to offer cash-free mobile fare ticketing for “seven participating transit systems in the region” through the Vamos Mobility App for regional and local bus and rail services.
Technology
St. Petersburg, FL gets the state’s first autonomous vehicle program that will run in mixed traffic along Bayshore Drive at no cost to the public, all thanks to a new effort between the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority, self-driving tech company Beep, and the Florida Department of Transportation.
Arlington RAPID is a new collaborative project between May Mobility and ridehailing company Via that will give students in Arlington, TX the chance to take free driverless shuttles rides in the city center and University of Texas at Arlington campus starting March 2021.
Innovation in logistics and freight is gaining traction with freight companies like TuSimple that are already testing self-driving trucks from Arizona to West Texas—with more driverless 18-wheelers on the way.
Sustainability
In a bold clash with a previous stance against emissions standards, General Motors will be dropping its litigation against California for imposing its own fuel economy rules, which was done in stark opposition of the efforts to rollback standards by the Trump Administration in 2019.
If it can happen there….Edmonton, Alberta is home to a thriving oil industry, the world’s largest parking lot, and a sprawling cityscape with density lower than Phoenix and Houston. Fighting against the storm, the city council voted to abolish minimum parking requirements earlier this year due to strong advocacy efforts from local organizations like YEGarden Suites.
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.
RFP: Microtransit Technology Services
Virginia Department of Rail & Public Transportation
Gloucester County and Town of Wise, VA
Deadline: December 31, 2020
RFSOQ: Las Vegas Medical District Automated Circulator and Connected Pedestrian Safety Program
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC)
Las Vegas, NV
Deadline: January 5, 2021
Funding Opportunity: Accelerating Clean Transportation Now Program
Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC)
Boston, MA
Deadline: January 8, 2021
Open Call: Climate Smart Cities Challenge
Nesta
London, GB
Deadline: January 22, 2021
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