Mobility+Everything
The ongoing story of transportation, lifestyle, business, and social mobility. Connect with us daily at Mobility.plus
Don’t Boo… Vote
Obviously there’s a lot at stake in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, and its reasonable to think about it in terms of race, gender, class, etc., but another interesting way to look at the whole election is as a referendum on mobility.
Donald Trump has famously promised to turn political borders into physical boundaries, ban visas to millions of people, and deny support to refugees and asylum seekers. These policies would be, well, not great for mobility. Admittedly there would be a net increase in the movement of people if he made good on his threat to deport 11 million people ( “…in a very humane fashion. Believe me. I have a bigger heart than you do…”) but unfortunately forced movement is not the same as mobility. It’s… the opposite.
Hillary Clinton, for her part, has called for immigration reform that offers a path to full and equal opportunity as well as a $275 billion investment in transport, connectivity, and energy infrastructure. She also likes to cite studies whose “findings about segregation reinforce the idea that social mobility and geographic mobility are intimately linked.”
That is… pretty much the underlying thesis of this whole Mobility+ project.
Mobi-bonds
Anyway, if you’re fed up with representative democracy and want to vote for mobility directly on the ballot, you might consider moving to Austin, TX, which is poised to float a $720 million mobility bond.
“We have two big problems in this city: mobility and affordability. They are tied to each other,” Mayor Steve Adler said. “Our community wants us to do something.”
What they are doing is building lots of roads, bike paths, sidewalks, urban trails, and traffic control systems. But mostly roads.
I like the idea of mobility bonds and am rooting for this one to pass. But just as I hope that the term “mobility” doesn’t become a quick substitute for “transportation”, I also hope that “mobility bonds” don’t just become another word for “municipal bonds” or “highway financing”. There’s a lot more to mobility than getting cars from A to B. It’s about integrating transport with social inclusivity, sustainable urban planning, access to employment and public/private services, and accommodating the emergence of new technologies, business models, and organizational structures.
Angry Bikers
Meanwhile over in Los Angeles County:
The Mobility Plan 2035 is a blueprint to guide policy decisions on transportation over the next three decades. The proposal spurred multiple lawsuits, hours of public comment and more than a year’s worth of back and forth at the City Council.
A particularly traumatic episode is reported under the title LA City Council Wimps Out … Kills Bike Lanes in LA’s Mobility Plan:
On Wednesday, the council decided once and for all to strike the two controversial bike lanes from the busy arteries. Instead, the bike lanes have been moved to parallel streets, Gayley Avenue and Avalon Boulevard, which critics say won’t disrupt traffic as much.
The decision was a blow to bike advocates who showed up by the dozens at meetings on the proposed plan over the last year.
Okay, so it seems like the bike lanes weren’t so much “killed” as they were “moved to parallel streets.” I am naturally sympathetic to bicyclists, locked as they are in their eternal battle with automobiles, but headlines about the “wimps” that “kill” bike lanes seem maybe a bit hyperbolic? Then again, it is Los Angeles, a city whose entire culture and economy is more or less built on hyperbole.
Oh, and September is Sustainable Mobility Month! In Ljubljana.
Mobility Plus (or Minus) Education
Parents and educators always talk about “expanding horizons” as the crux of a child’s schooling and growth. One way to expand those horizons is to home-school your kids without the constraints of an actual home:
“A family has ditched the education system to take their children on a trip around the world for a lesson in ‘global unschooling’.”
Yes, taking your kids on a 26-country learning tour does seem like an engaging alternative to the ole’ textbook and classroom model. They even designed the itinerary to jive with their family-run imports business, which is a neat way to integrate work-life mobility, alternative education, tourism, and family bonding. Kids can learn a lot on a factory visit!
On the flip side, “at least 3.5 million refugee children around the world are currently out of school”, and its not because their parents worry that the classroom environment will stifle their creativity.
Mobility Companies
It’s been a busy month for Ford, “one of the most aggressive [automakers] to move from primarily producing vehicles to promoting a panoply of mobility solutions”. They acquired Chariot, a commuter ride-sharing startup, to fold into their Ford Smart Mobility business, and announced a partnership with Motivate to increase the number of shared bicycles in the SF Bay area from 700 to 7000 (and renamed the program Ford GoBike in the process).
Speaking of shared bikes, I’m absolutely in love with MoBike, the unabashed “Uber of Bicycles” (its founder is a former Uber China executive). You find and unlock the bikes with your phone, park them anywhere in the city (not just at designated racks) and pay just $0.15 per hour. I assume the business model is to collect a service provision fee from local governments on a public-private partnership model. It’s the killer mobility app, integrating technology, urban planning, and business model innovation. Currently only available in Beijing and Shanghai, there is very sparse info on these guys in English — can’t wait for Jon Kaiman to report on it.
Just the Tip of the Month
The APEC Business Travelers Card (ABTC) is one of my favorite secret mobility weapons for frequent fliers in and out of Asia-Pacific. It also seems to be the only useful thing to ever have come out of the APEC forum.
Basically, the deal is you apply for a little card, pay a little fee, and get to use the diplomats’ lane at airports in 20+ participating countries.
The ROI in time is enormous: I estimate I spent just under one hour getting the card and have saved over 30 hours of waiting in immigration lines over the past two years. Game changer.
Gear of the Month
Map-hats and Scratch-maps from Landmass Goods.
Join Mobility+
The world of mobility is getting more interesting every day! Connect with us at Mobility.plus and let us know what socioeconomic trends, technologies, business models, and lifestyles are on your radar, and how they fit in to the larger mobility puzzle!
