Shared Mobility | Innovative Mobility Research

UC Berkeley releases report on disaster evacuations

by Apaar Bansal | Jul 15, 2019 |

Aidan Freeman July 12, 2019 A U.C. Berkeley team that conducted wildfire evacuation focus group research in Lake County released a report this week that recommends more use by government agencies of the sharing economy during disaster evacuations. The report, entitled “Current State of the Sharing Economy and Evacuations: Lessons from California,” investigates the public perception and potential impacts of ridesharing and homesharing during events like the Mendocino Complex Fire of 2018, for which the Berkeley team hosted a Spanish-speaking focus group to study that demographic’s stance on sharing homes or vehicles during emergencies. The Berkeley study’s primary authors, Stephen Wong and Susan Shaheen, write that “In many evacuations including wildfire evacuations, public agencies often do not have enough resources to evacuate and shelter all citizens.” “Consequently,” they continue, “we propose that the sharing economy, through private companies and/or private citizens, could be leveraged in disasters for transportation and sheltering resources.” The need for more efficient means of transport during and emergency evacuation was made horrifically clear during the Camp Fire in November when thousands of Paradise residents attempted to flee the approaching fire at once along just a few viable exit routes, resulting in congestion and many casualties. In Lake County, roughly 19,000 residents were evacuated during the Mendocino Complex Fire last year. But in rural counties like Lake, Wong noted in an interview, the sharing economy manifests differently than it does in urban areas. Tech-based ridesharing companies like Uber and Lyft are hardly present in Lake County at all, and while homeshares through Airbnb are present here, most of the subjects in the Berkeley focus group were...

What’s The Future Of Transportation? 16 Experts Share Their Insights

by Apaar Bansal | Jul 8, 2019 |

Sam Mire June 30, 2019 Flying cars…crash-proof motorbikes…squirrel chauffers. OK, maybe I’m getting a bit carried away with my personal vision for the future of transportation. But a man can dream, can’t he? For a more realistic vision of the future of transportation, here are some industry insiders kind enough to share their (significantly more trustworthy) insights… Read the full article here: What’s The Future Of Transportation? 16 Experts Share Their...

Can smart mobility solutions answer transit’s first/last mile challenge?

by Apaar Bansal | Jul 3, 2019 |

The Globe and Mail July 3, 2019 In a business park on the northwest side of Denver, an autonomous all-electric bus has been shuttling commuters from the 61st and Pena commuter rail station to the building that houses the offices of Panasonic and EasyMile. The first of its kind in Colorado, the shuttle moves people from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday, as part of a six-month pilot project between the Regional Transportation District (RTD), Denver’s transit agency; EasyMile, a driverless mobility company; and many other project partners. RTD is evaluating the shuttle’s reliability and availability. “RTD wanted to see how easily and effectively it could be integrated into the overall service,” says Lauren Isaac, EasyMile’s director of business initiatives…. Read the full article here: Can smart mobility solutions answer transit’s first/last mile...

Shuttle Express into the Future

by Apaar Bansal | Jun 28, 2019 |

Bosch June 14, 2019 Does the future of our everyday mobility lie in self-driving shuttle busses? Professor Susan Shaheen has looked into how this new form of mobility can be organized equitably for everybody. She says the transition on our roads has already begun… Read the full article here: Shuttle Express into the...

How can companies like Airbnb, Lyft or Uber help in disasters?

by Apaar Bansal | Jun 20, 2019 |

Linda Vu June 19, 2019 In the past few years, devastating California wildfires have forced more than half a million people to evacuate their homes. In many cases, local government agencies did not have enough resources to transport and shelter all of the evacuees, especially vulnerable populations like the elderly and disabled. Meanwhile those who could afford it, secured hotel rooms or Airbnbs and evacuated with their cars. Now, researchers at UC Berkeley are suggesting that emergency management agencies and local relief organizations partner with companies in the sharing economy — including Airbnb, Lyft and Uber — and private citizens, to ensure equity in evacuations. They described their ideas in a first-of-its-kind policy brief published today. “Private sharing economy companies have already acted in California disasters and I’ve found that private citizens are moderately willing to share their own resources in disaster relief situations, especially transportation,” said Stephen Wong, a transportation engineering Ph.D. candidate in UC Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center. “Local organizations and emergency response agencies should… Read the full article here: How can companies like Airbnb, Lyft or Uber help in...