Aarian Marshall notes that American cities have their work cut out for them to catch up to the many exciting new mobility trends and ways people are demanding to move around.
Some choice bits from the article include:
A recent McKinsey report estimated that dense, high-income cities like Chicago, London, or Singapore could save $7,400 per resident if they managed to build electric, on-demand transportation options, with a strong public transit system as the whole thing’s backbone.
“Cities need to get a better handle on their data,” says Ashley Hand, a former strategist with LA’s Department of Transportation who now works for the transportation and tech consulting firm CityFi. Boston is ahead on the curve on this one.
Curb space is the new urban ground zero, the place where parked cars, public buses, ride hailing services, delivery trucks, and cyclists all compete for real estate often reserved for private citizens parking private cars for extended periods of time.
The good news: Cities and their citizens have shown themselves increasingly willing to throw down cash for their own projects. Witness big 2016 transit funding wins in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Rhode Island.
cities also need to be wary about letting private services do the work of a public transit system, only to drop the route when it’s no longer profitable. “The private sector coming into this space and providing a service is, in many ways, very valuable,” says Sam Zimbabwe, who oversees major projects at Washington, DC’s Department of Transportation. “But there’s this risk that it could erode a public service, and they’re not as accountable to the public in serving everyone.”
Be careful, be more fun, build some stuff: all great advice for cities going into 2018. But experts say to not be afraid to screw up, either.
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