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.
Missed our Microtransit Public-Private Partnerships webinar?
Access the webinar recording on the MOD Learning Center.
On September 18, Transportation for America (@T4America) held a tweet chat about the big issue missing from the climate conversation: driving. We need to reduce vehicle miles traveled and move #BeyondEVs to truly move the environmental needle. SUMC participated in the live Q&A focused on how policy can help to do this and the benefits of driving less along with America Walks, Salud America!, U.S. PIRG, Rails-to-Trails Conservany, the NUMO Alliance, and others, captured for you below.
See all of SUMC’s answers to the chat on Twitter and check out T4A’s summary of the Q&A.
Want more inspiration?
Watch a riveting speech by a young woman who needs no introduction.
Ridehailing/Carsharing/Carpooling
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has her eyes on ridehailing, proposing a new tax on Uber and Lyft rides (51 cents each) to finish the streetcar downtown and fund affordable housing—and she’s studying a minimum pay rate for Uber and Lyft drivers.
Lime’s free-floating carsharing service called LimePod is no more in Seattle. GeekWire points out the patterns in mobility trends and offerings, comparing this news to the recent shutdown of BMW’s ReachNow and the outcome of the dockless bikeshare program.
Jefferson Transit is replacing an underutilized bus route with subsidized Lyft rides as part of a new six-month pilot program in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.
AUDIO: Hear New Urban Mobility Alliance’s Robin Chase chat with tech and AI podcast The Disrupters about the future of urban transit, how Zipcar’s lead in redefining transportation prefaced the rise of Uber, and how shared mobility can be used to fight climate change.
Partnerships and Programs
The FTA has announced $19.2 million in funding to boost transit-oriented development and public transit access in the US with new funding opportunity.
Blue Shield of California is launching its rideQ transportation platform in the Sacramento area, giving enrolled members the option to book Lyft rides for non-emergency medical trips at no cost.
Lime will be using electric cargo bikes in Warsaw, Poland to transport its EV dockless scooters to be used for more sustainable traffic solutions.
Streetsblog features an excerpt from the Vision Zero Cities Conference Journal that looks at the development around traffic safety and active transportation in smaller US cities, with examples from Anchorage, Durham, and Caldwell, ID.
Bikesharing and Micromobility
Lyft will now show protected bike lanes and bike-friendly routes in its app in all cities where they operate bikeshare and scooter-sharing services.
Lacuna is a new mobility management company that banks on LADOT’s open-source Mobility Data Specification to leverage dockless scooters and bikeshare to build out software that informs policy-driven action with open data sharing.
Lime has passed 100 million trips globally through its bikeshare and dockless scooter services! Congrats on getting more people out of cars and into shared mobility.
Suffolk County, NY has launched a new bikeshare system with 100 bikes at 17 stations in Babylon, Patchogue, and Hampton Bays, courtesy of mobility operator Zagster.
Transit
A Boston Magazine writer makes a 240-mile journey across Massachusetts using only public transit and talks about the lack of better regional connection among local transit agencies in the state.
Bus stop signage can make or break a transit system in many cities, with the ease of navigating a bus route reliant on how well the information is relayed from agency to rider.
Jersey City is getting an on-demand microtransit service as part of a new program with Via to help connect transit riders to busy districts and light rail stations with 10% of the vehicle fleet being electric.
Wi-Fi on school buses may sound like a distraction for tech-savvy kids, but a few school districts use this tool as a means to get more kids connected to bus-tracking apps, help increase schoolwork time before/after class, and create community hotspots for better digital access in internet-starved areas.
Technology
Uber will be gathering data and mapping streets with human-driven SUVs for autonomous vehicle testing in downtown Dallas starting early November as the company expands operations in the Texan metro.
Private startups with mobility apps have been the go-to solution for quick, on-demand travel in cities for some time now. Would creating a platform operated by public entities and transit agencies create a more open ecosystem instead?
Mobility platform Moovel has launched a loyalty and rewards program for cities to integrate into their mobile ticketing apps which incentivizes shared and clean mobility options that could boost local business and reduce car dependency.
As automakers, technology companies, and mobility startups vie to dominate autonomous vehicle development and innovation, the real battle of creating a sustainable business model that lasts under the new tech slowly rears its head.
Urban Sustainability
The Trump administration looks to revoke California’s authority on greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) standards very soon and has plans to roll back federal GHG regulations. The Washington Post lays out a few scenarios that could play out from this direct opposition to clean transportation policy.
“We believe that streets are best explored on two wheels.” Read about the start and rise of Detroit Bikes, a US-based manufacturing facility that wants to reignite urban cycling in America with local bike production and community partnerships.
The common myth of “not enough infrastructure” to support new housing in cities gets dispelled in Planetizen’s latest deep dive on how transit capacity and other infrastructure factors are negatively affected by more restrictive zoning policy.
Politico wants politicians to do one simple thing so they can be better connected to the communities and areas they serve: go car-free at least one day a week. We support this 100%.
Requests for Proposals, Qualifications, or Information
RFI: Twin Cities EV Mobility Network – EVSE hardware, software, ownership models
City of Saint Paul
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Deadline: October 14, 2019
RFP: 2021 Transportation Alternatives Program
Kansas Department of Transportation
Kansas
Deadline: November 1, 2019
Notice of Funding Opportunity for the Pilot Program for Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Planning
Federal Transit Administration
Washington DC
Deadline: November 18, 2019
RFI: Implementing a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service along MD 355
Montgomery County Department of Transportation
Rockville, Maryland
Deadline: December 9, 2019
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