At Urban Movement Labs (UML), we are excited to announce our new Interim Executive Director. Justine Johnson will provide leadership and overall management of the organization while the Board conducts a nationwide search for a permanent Executive Director. In addition, we extend many thanks and well wishes to Sam Morrissey, who stepped down as our Executive Director and will be joining LA28, the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the 2028 Olympic & Paralympic Games, as Vice President of Transport. Our Board of Directors is working hard to ensure a seamless transition and looking forward to beginning the search for a new Executive Director to guide UML through its next chapter. Qualified candidates should contact jobs@urbanmovementlabs.com regarding this opportunity.
Now, it’s been an interesting couple of weeks for new mobility:
The Uber files exposed the relationship between world leaders and the ride-hailing tech giant.
A study discovered that ride-sharing and e-scooters are growing twice as fast as mass transit.
In the AV space, while Cruise started to offer fared rides in San Francisco, Peter Norton, the author of Autonorama, presents a critique of autonomous vehicles in this podcast.
In the EV sector, Walmart aims to purchase 4,500 Canoo Electric Delivery vehicles, Tesla plans to begin opening its Supercharger network to other electric vehicles by the end of the year, and the USDOT announces new plants for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI).
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the City cut the ribbon of the new massive bridge connecting Boyle Heights and the Arts District through the L.A. River. Then, the open streets program CicLAvia is back, and the next event will take place in Hollywood. Last but not least, CoMotion announced its next L.A. edition called "The Multimodal City: Here, There, Everywhere." See you there?
In Case You Missed It!
The podcast #WomenTalkMobility hosted Justine Johnson, our Interim Executive Director, and Julia Thayne and LillyShoup, founders of Urban Movement Labs. Listen here to this great conversation
Integrated Mobility
🌉🌴L.A.’s massive new bridge is designed for 23 million pounds of people [Fast Company]. With ten swooping arches along its 3,500 feet, the Sixth Street Viaduct is as visually striking as it is massive. So how could this bridge welcome new mobility technologies? A micromobility protected-lane? EV charging stations? Shared-bike stations?
🚙 🗂️ The Uber Files [ICIJ] The secret story of how the tech giant won access to world leaders, cozied up to oligarchs, and dodged taxes amid chaotic global expansion.
👨💼️ 🚌 Public transit governing boards don’t look like their riders. A new state study could be a fix [Virginia Mercury]. After examining the public transportation systems of 11 regions across America, Jessica Crua program manager at Transit Center, kept witnessing the same pattern repeat itself again and again: “Transit riders tend to be women and people of color who live in urban areas, but transit agencies’ leadership teams are predominantly suburban White men,” she said.
🚙 ⚖️ Uber and Lyft drivers claim price-fixing in a lawsuit against companies [CNN]. A group of drivers for Uber and Lyft on Tuesday accused the companies of unfairly controlling how much passengers are charged for rides in an antitrust lawsuit in California state court.
⛽ 🛢️ A Gas Tax Holiday is a Gift to Oil Companies, Not Americans [NACTO]. The dramatically increasing cost of vehicles, insurance, and gas underscores the urgency of shifting our transportation system away from one mode–private cars–to one where Americans have choices about how they get around.
🛴 🚆 Ride-sharing and e-scooters are growing twice as fast as mass transit [AXIOS]. A new study finds that alternative mobility services, from ride-sharing to e-scooters, will grow twice as fast as traditional public transit annually through 2030.
Mobility Safety
🇺🇳 🚲 United Nations to act for global road safety [UN]. Along with a 50 per cent reduction target in road traffic fatalities and injuries by 2030, the Global Plan calls on governments and all stakeholders to take a new path – one that not only saves lives and prevents injuries, but also positively impacts child health, the environment, gender, poverty, equity, innovation and transport.
🚶🏾♀️🚗 The false claims made for autonomous vehicles – an interview with Peter Norton [TTI]. In this interview Peter Norton talks about his recent book Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving.
🤖 🚗 Will Autonomous Vehicles Be Safe Within Our Lifetime? Researchers Sound Off [LX News]. In order to build safer driving systems, we have to solve a list of first-and-last-mile problems — issues that drivers face off highways, on smaller neighborhood roads crowded with parked vehicles and people.
Digitizing Assets & Operations
💰 🚗 Cruise’s driverless autonomous cars start giving rides to paying passengers [Tech Crunch]. The era of commercial autonomous robotaxi service is here — Cruise officially became the first company to offer fared rides to the general public in a major city.
🅿️ 🚌 Parking Fee Hike Will Fund Low-Income Transit Rides [WWeek]. The Portland Bureau of Transportation says it’s a “climate fee” intended to remind people of “the externalized costs of driving (including greenhouse gas emissions, traffic congestion, and use of roadway space).”
💸 🚙 Could Bogota’s Model for Congestion Pricing Work in the U.S.? [GovTech]. The smartphone-based congestion-pricing technology being tested in Bogota, Colombia, is showing promise. Some major U.S. cities are also looking at solutions to better manage their own crowded roadways.
Goods Movement
🚐 ⚡ Walmart To Purchase 4,500 Canoo Electric Delivery Vehicles To Be Used for Last Mile [Walmart] The retailer will be the first to receive Canoo’s Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle, which is anticipated to begin hitting the road for Walmart deliveries in 2023.
📦🗽 New York City is drowning in packages [MIT Technology Review] Online orders, which ramped up with the start of the pandemic, are still clogging city streets.
EV Infrastructure
🚙 ⚡Hyundai Quietly Climbs the EV Sales Charts and Elon Musk Notices [Bloomberg]. The hottest electric cars in the US market aren’t coming from Tesla factories. Instead, all eyes are on Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 and the Kia EV6.
🏛️ ⚡White House: Tesla to expand its US Supercharger network to other EVs in late 2022. [Tech Crunch] Tesla plans to begin opening its Supercharger network to other electric vehicles by the end of the year, according to a White House memo that shared the automaker’s plans.
🚲 ⚡ E-Bikes are charged up [Deloitte]. This Deloitte sector briefing looks at the utilization rates, reasons, and purposes of e-bikes, as well as at the associated average distances covered by e-bikes compared to other e-mobility means such as e-cars and e-scooters.
⚡🛣️ USDOT Announces All 50 States, DC, and Puerto Rico Now Have Alternative Fuel Corridor Designations, Which Will Help Build Out National Electric Vehicle Charging Network [USDOT]. Under the new National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program established by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, funding is directed to designated EV Alternative Fuel Corridors to serve as the backbone for the national electric vehicle charging network.
Urban Air Mobility
🚁 ▶️ Maker eVTOL Test Flight Recap [Archer]. Here's an inside look at one of Archer's recent flight test events with a short recap of Maker's performance and next steps.
🚁 📈 Urban Air Mobility Market is Booming with Strong Growth Prospects | The Brainy Insights [Newswire]. Urban air mobility report studies the current state of the market to analyze the future opportunities and risks.
✈️ 🗼Airbus Joins Forces With Munich Airport In Advanced Air Mobility Drive [Simple Flying]. Airbus is expanding its partnership with Munich Airport for its futuristic electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, which will see the project reach a wider consumer base around the world.
🚁 🇸🇬 Volocopter Opens Air Taxi Exhibition [Flying] Singapore facility will offer tours of VoloCity two-seat prototype and 3D scale vertiport model.