UML Spring Newsletter
This is an exciting time to be in transportation!
Greetings from our Executive Director, Sam Morrissey
Throughout the spring, I’ve been hearing many different people exclaim, “this is an exciting time to be in transportation!” From Miami to Los Angeles, the country is emerging from two years of pandemic lockdowns and looking towards a future with many new mobility technologies and opportunities. Combined with massive Federal funding commitments and budget surpluses at the state levels, this is truly an exciting time to be in transportation.
This is also a critical moment in our history, as we have the opportunity to tackle longstanding and systemic challenges that face our collective society as a whole by investing in mobility. Transportation and mobility represent the through line connecting nearly all of the challenges facing us today - access to education, access to jobs, access to opportunities, access to health care, economic benefits, housing, child care, wellness, safety, and more. How we make investments in transportation, what modes of transportation we focus our investments on, and what communities these transportation modes operate within must reflect the urgency of this moment.
At Urban Movement Labs, we’ve been energized by the discussions and activities around these new funding sources and technologies. The technologies themselves have little importance for our staff in terms of what might be considered “cool” or “groundbreaking.” Rather, we are excited by how new technologies align with our mission, vision, and values as a nonprofit organization. Each new technology and partner presents an opportunity to work with our public agency partners and community members to improve mobility for all people in a way that is safe, equitable, and sustainable for all. Through conversations with public agency staff and analysis of existing policies, we are able to provide much-needed bandwidth for the proactive development of policies, procedures, and regulations. This allows our public agency partners to be better prepared to anticipate new transportation technology offerings rather than responding to new technologies when they are deployed on city streets and sidewalks. Similarly, we help our private partners unlock the full potential of their technology offerings, charting a path towards long-term fiscal sustainability. In this way, Urban Movement Labs is uniquely situated to leverage transportation technology to bring about real change through the work of our staff and the leadership of our Board. It is an exciting time to be in transportation, and an exciting time to be a part of Urban Movement Labs. #jointhemovement
Managing the Curb at Curbivore 2022
We had a fantastic time at Curbivore! The Mayor of LA, Eric Garcetti, acknowledged our effort working for a safe, sustainable and equitable Los Angeles facilitating the deployment of innovative transportation technologies. An underused parking lot in Downtown Los Angeles was the location of Curbivore, a space to discuss an overlooked transportation vital question: How to regulate the curb? Read more about our experience here.
Good Times at CoMotion Miami 2022
Miami and Los Angeles have many things in common, and the CoMotion conference, held in both cities every year, is one of them. The Urban Movement Labs team traveled to the Magic City to share our experience as a nonprofit deploying transportation technology. First, our Executive Director Sam Morrissey moderated a panel discussing the integration of urban air mobility into urban environments, highlighting L.A.'s leadership. Then, board member, Lilly Shoup, facilitated a discussion on how new mobility & innovative partnerships can play a role in creating a multi-modal network. Finally, another of our board members, Henry L Greenidge, led a panel on how to work towards a safe autonomous future. We congratulate the CoMotion team for the herculean effort to organize this fantastic event. See you at CoMotion LA this November!
Integrating the Sky with the Streets at APA’s National Planning Conference 2022
After two years of virtual-only conferences, planners finally met in real life in San Diego, California, for APA's National Planning Conference. Our Urban Air Mobility Fellow, Clint Harper, participated in the "Planning for Advanced Air Mobility" panel. He communicated the importance of planning these emerging flying modes of transportation hand-in-hand with the communities toward safe, sustainable, and equitable solutions for a multimodal future.
New Mobility Workshop at East Los Angeles Renaissance High School
Our friends of Public Matters invited us to share our work with High School students. Our Program Director, Rogelio Pardo, and our Communications Associate, Jorge Cañez, led a workshop where students expressed how to build safer streets with the help of new mobility. The participants designed an imaginary multimodal hub in an interaction in East Los Angeles and included new mobility devices such as shared micromobility vehicles.
Walk the Walk: Los Angeles Walks Fundraising Event
This past April 30th, we were happy to sponsor Los Angeles Walk’s Spring, Forward Community Walk + Fundraiser. We firmly believe that new mobility technologies must help build walkable cities and integrate our transportation systems.
In Case You Missed It
Curb management could be chaotic. If cities have access to digitized curb data, it would be easy to visualize and evaluate options when changing regulations. Watch the recording of our recent Digitizing the Curb Webinar to learn more. This webinar, Moderated by our Program Director, Rogelio Pardo, shows how technology can help us digitize the curb and plan better cities. Learn more here about our pilot project on the streets of Los Angeles using the CurbIQ tool.
How Can New Mobility Help Build Bike Friendly Cities?
We want to express our deepest gratitude to the California Bicycle Coalition for inviting us to be part of the steering committee of their fantastic summit in Oakland and letting us organize the panel "The Future of Mobility." Our Communications Associate, Jorge Canez, moderated that panel and explored answers to the following questions with the fantastic panelists: Will shared mobility help end car ownership? How do electric bicycles and other micromobility devices reduce car dependency? Will autonomous vehicles reduce traffic fatalities? How can curb management help us to design more bike infrastructure?
Our UAM Partnership is Flying Higher with these New Allies
We are thrilled to see the expansion of the Urban Air Mobility Partnership thanks to our two newest partners, Helinet and Skyroads. Specifically, Helinet will help us explore how aviation operators may integrate new eVTOL technology into their operations to reduce community impacts while enhancing safety. Skyroads will share how intelligent systems can scale advanced air mobility efficiently. So what comes next to our UAM Partnership? The sky is no longer the limit.
We Are Part of NUMO’s Alliance
We are delighted to be part of the New Urban Mobility Alliance (NUMO) and endorse the shared mobility principles for livable cities. The future of transportation will be sustainable and equitable if we design shareable systems.
We Have Endorsed OMF’s Mobility Data Privacy Principles
It's official! We are excited to endorse the Mobility Data Privacy Principles and be part of this fantastic global community led by the Open Mobility Foundation (OMF). The responsible use of mobility data is essential to plan hand-in-hand with communities the future of urban transportation.
What We're Attending
Event: ITS California
Location: San Francisco
Organizers: ITS CA
Date: May 16 - 18, 2022
Details: Connect with the ITS community in San Francisco, learn from industry leaders, and meet and hear from transportation specialists in government, industry, and academic organizations. Our Executive Director, Sam Morrissey, will be speaking about our curb management pilots at the “Get the #!&! Off of My Curb” panel.
Event: Shared Mobility Summit 2022
Location: Chicago
Organizers: Shared-Use Mobility Center
Date: May 17-18, 2022
Details: Together—public agencies, private companies, nonprofits, community groups, and advocates—we will explore the values, interests, and goals we have in common. At speeches, workshops, panels, and field trips, we will try to break down silos and bridge gaps. Our Program Director, Rogelio Pardo, will be a speaker at the “Innovations in Goods Delivery” panel.
Event: ASCE International Conference on Transportation & Development
Location: Seattle
Organizers: ASCE
Date: May 31 - June 3, 2022
Details: Jointly organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), ICTD 2022 offers a unique opportunity for public agencies, private industry, and research institutes to share their vision. Together, we will showcase practical solutions on intelligent and integrated mobility solutions. Our Executive Director, Sam Morrissey, will be a part of the “Intermodal Infrastructure for Emerging Urban Air Mobility” panel.
Event: Micromobility Europe
Location: Amsterdam
Organizers: Micromobility Industries
Date: June 1-2, 2022
Details: Join micromobility’s top global builders, thinkers, and leaders in the world capital of car independence. Our Board Member, Julia Thayne, will be the MC, and she will welcome the global micromobility movement with introductory remarks.
Event: Smart Driving Cars Summit
Location: Princeton, NJ
Organizers: CARTS
Date: June 2 -4
Details: The Princeton SmartDrivingCars Summit gathers leading global voices from the industry, academia, public sector, and local communities every year. They facilitate the scalable deployment of autonomous mobility of people and goods for safer streets, stronger communities, and more opportunities. Our Board Member, Henry Greenidge, will be a speaker.
Event: MOVE
Location: London
Organizers: MOVE
Date: June 15-16, 2022
Details: Automotive OEMs, transport operators, tech companies, fleet, energy companies, fast-growing startups, and policymakers gather every year to discover next-generation technologies being brought into the marketplace. Our Executive Director, Sam Morrissey, will be a speaker on the panel “How do we integrate Advanced Air Mobility into connected transport.”
Event: EAA AirVenture
Locaion: Oshkosh
Organizers: EAA
Date: July 25-31, 2022
Details: EAA members and aviation enthusiasts totaling more than 500,000 from 80 countries attend EAA AirVenture at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. They rekindle friendships and celebrate the past, present, and future in the world of flight.
What We're Reading
Riding Together: Introducing the 2022 Lyft Multimodal Report The second annual | Lyft |Lyft Multimodal Report highlights shared micromobility trends across race, gender, and socioeconomic status. The report draws on local operating data and survey responses from thousands of riders who used Lyft-operated shared micromobility systems during 2021. https://www.lyft.com/impact/multimodal-report.
Why ‘Vision Zero’ Hit a Wall | Bloomberg CityLab | Learn about why Vision Zero is struggling in the U.S. in this article by David Zipper. The traffic safety movement has saved lives across the European countries that adopted its principles. But in the U.S., deaths in participating cities have continued to rise.
‘First in the air’: Intermountain Healthcare poised to launch Utah’s first drone delivery system | Deseret News | The future of moving prescriptions through the air from a provider to patients is here. Intermountain Healthcare, a medical organization in Utah, is launching a drone delivery system this summer.
Can A.I. All but End Car Crashes? The Potential is There | The New York Times | Before self-driving cars become a reality, A.I. can help us tackle severe road crashes. This article by Tanya Mohn shows how intelligent speed assistance and "intelligent eyes" can improve road safety.
Riding a Bike in America Should Not Be This Dangerous | The New York Times | In this story, Farhad Manjoo, recaps the massive problem of road crashes in the U.S. Making cars smaller, slowing them down, & stopping car-focused road design are some solutions.
Biden Bets For More Electric Vehicles, But About Those Charging Stations | LAist | In his State of the Union speech, Biden mentioned his plan to build a national network of 500K electric vehicle charging stations to combat climate change.
The US government finally realizes that cars kill people outside the vehicle, too | The Verge | In 2020, pedestrian deaths increased by 4% across the US. As a result, the Federal Government wants to regulate car manufacturers with safety measures such as automatic emergency braking and blind-spot detection.
Buckle up, autonomous vehicles finally get federal safety standards | The Verge | Federal safety standards for autonomous vehicles are here! With the proper regulations, will autonomous vehicles be safer than humans driving? Are there other ways to enhance roadway safety without generating more car trips? Check this article by Rebecca Bellan.
New mobility program will make transportation more accessible to South LA residents | abc 7 | LADOT announced a new program that aims to help with more affordable, accessible, and sustainable public transit options; Universal Basic Mobility. EV car-sharing, electric charging facilities, shuttles, and e-bikes will help residents in South Los Angeles save money and access more destinations.