A New Chapter for Move Forward
Possibilities, Policy, and People
Since 2015, Move Forward has hosted a thoughtful discussion of the technologies and trends that are shaping the future of transportation. It’s been a great run, with hundreds of posts from dozens of authors. But four years into this experiment, it’s time to shake things up.
Today, we’re officially making the move to Medium, allowing us to bring more people into the conversation as we expand our roster of writers to highlight voices from transit agencies, city transportation departments, academic institutions, environmental justice organizations, and the world of research and development. The conversation about the future of our cities is only as rich as the perspectives of the people participating in it. Our goal with Move Forward 2.0 is reveal opportunities to improve transportation for everyone by making connections across fields of expertise and realms of experience.
The content you’ll find here on Move Forward will focus on three core themes:
Evaluating Technology
The rise of new technology and transportation holds great potential for improving safety, reducing traffic, and making it easier to get around without owning a car, but these results are far from guaranteed. To make our cities better places to live, innovation must be tied closely to community values and needs, not just investor interests or market share.
Move Forward will place the new world of transportation technologies under a microscope and consider how they advance, or hinder, cities’ goals for improving safety, ensuring privacy, expanding equity, and reducing pollution.
Expanding Access
As we settle into the 21st century, it’s becoming clear that a transportation network built around personal car ownership is creating a host of problems. Traffic jams and hour-long travel times have become the norm for many commuters and pollution from transportation accounts for 28% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, most of that from cars. Thankfully, there is a growing cadre of public and private sector leaders who prioritize safety, health, and carbon reduction and are actively laying the groundwork for a massive — and necessary — disruption of the transportation industry.
Move Forward will highlight the stories of people who are working to create transportation solutions that make cities more accessible and livable for everyone.
Moving People
At the end of the day, transportation is about creating connections and opportunities for people. Each of us moves around the city differently based on our age, our income and — too often — our gender and the color of our skin. It is important that, as we talk about the potential for technology to offer new mobility options, we recognize the real challenges that our communities face when they step onto the sidewalk and into the street.
Not every problem can be solved by technology. We need to consider the web of rules and regulations that govern transportation in cities, the economic forces that shape our urban environment, and the design of our transportation infrastructure. Move Forward will take a hard look at the societal and political barriers we face and what the next era transportation can look like if we prioritize the human experience.
Have an idea for a topic you’d like to see covered here? Let us know at author@move-forward.com.
Looking for an older Move Forward article? Visit the archives and read about disagreements over data sharing, the outlook for mobility subscriptions, and the potential for blockchain to reduce traffic.
Thanks for reading and joining us as we explore the pitfalls and possibilities that technology presents for the future of our cities.
