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
2020 National Shared Mobility Summit
March 17-19, 2020
Hyatt Regency McCormick Place, Chicago, IL
Mobility for all is coming. Learn more.
Look out for exciting Summit news next week!
Fresh from the MOD Learning Center!
We’ve updated the Metro Profiles of the top 25 largest regions in the US with the latest carshare and bikeshare numbers. Speaking of carshare, did you know that 34% of all adults in Vancouver have a carshare membership? Read about one innovative pilot that’s helping them expand these numbers even more. Visit the Learning Center.
Shape mobility and equity in Detroit on October 23, 2019.
Join SUMC, Via, Ford Mobility, and Bedrock to lean about the changes taking place and share your ideas for ensuring that transportation is available, affordable, and accessible for everyone. Learn more and register here.
We’re hiring! Visit our site to view job openings in both our Los Angeles and Chicago locations.
Ridehailing/Carsharing/Carpooling
Uber drivers aren’t drivers, “They’re independent, third-party transportation providers.” This Washington Post article investigates how ridehailing companies like Uber classify their workers as a legal defense against liability.
Drivy will now be known as Getaround in France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Belgium, and the UK. This comes six months after Getaround acquired the French startup.
Carpooling app Hitch is expanding its service to include a new Austin-to-Dallas route, adding another needed option for shared, long-distance trips in Texas.
The competing motivations of revenue-preserving “walled gardens” vs the fundamental need for open mobility are increasingly vying for dominance. Lyft’s blockage of a third-party transit app from accessing New York’s Citi Bikes is the latest example.
Partnerships and Programs
The Pittsburgh Micromobility Collective is a consortium that wants to reduce solo-driving commutes with mobility hubs, bringing together bikeshare and scooter-sharing options near transit and navigable through the Transit app.
An on-demand, flexible transit pilot has been proposed for Wilson, NC, with help from Ford-owned transportation solutions company TansLoc. It could come in early 2020 and feature wheelchair-accessible vehicles.
The US DOT has launched a new initiative to boost transportation projects and infrastructure focus in rural areas. Smart, considering these are the areas where solo driving is often considered the only option.
VIDEO: BBC compares three family’s routes to school in the UK—car, bike, and walking—and determines which mode is exposed to the most pollution. It’s the car, of course.
Bikesharing and Micromobility
Read up on Mobility Lab’s evaluation of Arlington County, VA’s dockless mobility pilot, including the lessons city and mobility operators learned.
The head of sustainability at Bird pens an op-ed about the need for more micromobility (read: bike lanes) on New York streets to give low- and no-carbon modes a bigger piece of the street-space pie.
German mobility startup Tier is the first to operate dockless scooters with swappable batteries with 200 models launched in Paris, making it easier and more sustainable to juice up shared scooters.
Chipping away at car culture, new micromobility options in Milwaukee are working in tandem with the city’s Bublr bikeshare system to get people out of cars for cleaner and safer city streets.
Transit
Transit advocate and consultant Jarrett Walker reviews Better Buses, Better Cities by TransitCenter’s Director of Research Steven Higashide, which looks at the opportunity and power of this humble mode.
A new report from US PIRG and Environment America profiled six metro areas where electric buses can be successful and what local transit agencies are doing to make them go toe-to-toe with legacy diesel options.
Governing lays out how the US-China trade war is shaking rail car manufacturing operations in Philadelphia, putting local agency SEPTA right in the middle of a piping hot economic struggle.
What if New York’s recent transformation of a busy section of 14th Street into a bus-only street was repeated with bus lanes across the country? CityLab looks at the impressive results.
Technology
Google Maps has upgraded its directions feature with improved voice navigation and guidance for people with visual impairments, a big step forward in accessible mobility wayfinding.
Billions of dollars and years of development later, Dyson has officially killed its anticipated EV project after having difficulties finding a buyer for the project’s design.
Mobility fare payment company Cubic is working with Google Pay to enable transit cards in Google’s payment platform so users can reload funds and purchase tickets all through their smartphone.
AUDIO: Hear Sidewalk Labs’s latest City of the Future podcast episode about Mobility on Demand and how shared mobility innovations are transforming cities with mobility analyst Horace Dediu, Trimet’s Bibiana McHugh, MaaS Global CEO Sampo Hietanen, and Sidewalk Labs’ Associate Director for New Mobility Corinna Li.
Urban Sustainability
Read this open letter to C40 mayors on congestion pricing, signed by Uber, Via, UC Davis, WRI, Lyft, World Economic Forum, Imperial College London, Mobility IL, and the University of Cologne on behalf of the World Economic Forum’s Global New Mobility Coalition.
Curious about passenger- and freight-traffic emissions across the US? This detailed map courtesy of the New York Times has you covered.
According to Bike Snob, cycling is much more prominent in the US than it appears and giving cyclists a safe, secure path to ride would increase these numbers. Absolutely.
There’s more to America’s car culture than what big automakers promote in glossy TV ads. NBC’s THINK segment dissects the hidden, and often polarizing, subsidies that make it easy and pretty much free to drive and how changing this model is starting to move forward.
Requests for Proposals, Qualifications, or Information
RFP: Strategic Plan
Akron Metro RTA
Ohio
Deadline: November 6, 2019
RFP: Bus Inspection Services for Battery Electric Buses
Des Moines Area RTA
Iowa
Deadline: November 15, 2019
RFP: Environmental Assessment Services
VIA Metropolitan Transit
San Antonio, Texas
Deadline: November 26, 2019
Did someone forward this to you? You can sign up for our newsletter here.
