The Transformation of Transportation
Mile Marker Summer 2018 Study Looks at How We’ll Get From Here to There as Caltrans Plans for Future. New technology, evolving economic and societal directions, and a changing climate are creating a seismic shift in the way California moves people and goods — and that makes transportation planning particularly challenging. A new study commissioned by Caltrans suggests that the field of transportation is in the midst of a transformation not experienced since the invention of the automobile. There are many intriguing possibilities and trends emerging, according to the Future of Mobility White Paper, which is intended to inform Caltrans planners who will lay the groundwork for California’s transportation network into 2050. “The rapid changes in the transportation industry will dramatically alter California’s transportation system and affect the way Caltrans operates,” said Chris Schmidt, Caltrans’ Division Chief of Transportation Planning. “The Department will have to develop and implement realistic policies while taking into account rapidly changing technological advancements, many of which continue to evolve and new ones emerge.” The revolution in moving people and goods has already arrived. In just the last five years, ride-sourcing companies such as Uber and Lyft, car-sharing services like Getaround and car2go, and bike-sharing businesses such as Spin and Ford GoBike have expanded market share. Autonomous vehicles are a reality, drones and self-driving trucks could shake up the goods-moving industry, and technologies considered unthinkable a decade ago — such as hyperloop and air taxis — are no longer just science fiction imagination. Not only are modes of transportation changing, but major advancements have been made in vehicle safety technology. The refinement of on-board cameras,...
Why Little Vehicles Will Conquer the City
June 21, 2018 BY: BENJAMIN SCHEIDER Can e-bikes, electric scooters, velomobiles, and other battery-boosted mobility gizmos really rid the city of the private car? The public reaction to the arrival of dockless bikes and electric scooters in U.S. cities can be tracked in stages. The first stage, for many, was annoyance. Who were these grown men and women on candy-colored bikes and teeny kick-scooters speeding down the streets and sidewalks, menacing walkers and leaving their rented toys all over the place? Especially in San Francisco, where this whimsical new mobility mode has taken off, scooters have come to represent yet another example of tech industry entitlement, another way for a startup to move fast and break stuff. Read the rest of the article...
Car-Share Companies Get Coveted Parking in New York City
May 31, 2018 By: SARAH MASLIN NIR Losing a handful of street parking spots along a stretch of Upper Manhattan may seem like relatively little to give up. But in the blood sport that is parking in New York, Elisa Ferreira, who was pushing her son, Mason, in a stroller through Hamilton Heights on a recent weekday, said that the 20 spots the city plans to remove from her neighborhood will just make the ordeal even worse. “It’s already really hard to find parking” Ms. Ferreira said. “It’s only going to be harder for us.’’ Starting Monday, as part of its campaign to expand transportation options, the city is taking away about 300 parking spots in more than a dozen neighborhoods, mostly outside of Manhattan, and reserving them exclusively for vehicles from car-share companies, like Zipcar. It is the first time the companies, which currently keep their inventory in parking garages, will be allowed to store cars on city streets. Read the rest of the article...
Why Uber is buying e-bike sharing startup Jump Bikes
April 10, 2018 BY: KATIE FEHRENBACHER The big daddy of ride sharing, Uber, has officially jumped into electric bike sharing. On Monday Uber announced that it has acquired Jump Bikes, a ten-year-old venture capital-backed startup that rents out dockless electric bicycles to users around cities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but a report from last week said that an acquisition was worth over $100 million. So why has Uber, with its $72 billion valuation and deep global reach, suddenly noticed the company that’s been managing 250 neon red e-bikes in its backyard for a few months (as well as thousands of non-electric bikes in other cities)? It’s a combination of the right timing for the mobility market, the evolution of the wireless computing and battery technology, and the right positioning for a friendlier Uber (along with a few other things). Read the rest of the article here: https://www.greenbiz.com/article/why-uber-buying-e-bike-sharing-startup-jump-bikes ...
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