Movements | November 20th, 2018
Issue #24 — Brought to you by Michal Naka and Adam Feldman. If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox every week, you can subscribe here. Follow movements on Twitter.
New Products and Features
Transit App adds native purchasing of transit passes in their mobile apps and it’s a pretty big deal “ creating an integrated, multi-modal experience that lets you plan + track + pay for trips has been The Mobility Holy Grail® for years. No more talk. Now it really exists.”| Transit App
Bolt Scooters (not to be confused with Bolt scooters from Taxify of course!) quietly launched in Fort Lauderdale last week. The company appears to be using a custom scooter by Electisan/Okai with an interesting floorboard design. If you are wondering why the handlebars and front fender look familiar, it’s because they are the same parts used by Bird and Lime. | Bolt
SafeGraph launches OpenCensus, a nicely standardized set of open, government supplied demographic data. | SafeGraph
Mastercard expands its touchless transit payments network to 150 cities worldwide. Next up: NYC and Boston. | Smart Cities Dive
Micromobility
VOI Technology, the e-scooter startup from Sweden, raises $50M led by Balderton Capital. European investors don’t want to miss out on the “Uber of Europe” again. | TechCrunch
The San Francisco scooter wars: a great profile on how Skip and Scoot won the SFMTA scooter permits. “As an advocate, chaos is not a bad thing,” he argued. “Some chaos is good, it makes people slow down.” | Modern Luxury
Are dockless scooter parking complaints overblown? A San Jose State University study explores the extent to which shared scooters pose a problem to others on streets, sidewalks and public spaces. “Are scooters well-parked? The answer appears to be a clear “yes” in downtown San Jose. Fewer than 2% of scooters blocked access for the disabled, and even fewer failed to meet the city’s standards for bicycle parking (parked bicycles may not block doors or more than half the sidewalk).” | MTI
JUMP launched in Seattle and San Diego with a new version of their eBike that includes field swappable batteries, a phone holder, and a new unlocking mechanism. The company plans to launch 5,000 eBikes in Seattle by March of 2019. | Curbed
More and more companies are emerging at different parts of the micromobility “stack”. Here is Perch Mobility, a micromobility charging-as-a-service company who is working with operators and contractors. | Michal Naka
Some hard won lessons from operating Scoot’s kick scooters in San Francisco. | Scoot
TNCs
Lyft will be adding a default tipping and in-ride tipping feature in order to keep drivers happy. “Ride-hailing companies like Lyft and Uber have to attract and retain human drivers if they hope to sustain their businesses.” | Tech Crunch
Uber launched a Ride Pass in Los Angeles for $24.99 a month that includes 30 minutes of free daily eBike and scooter rides. | Jonno Boyer-Dry
Beijing is investigating the merger between Didi Chuxing and Uber China regarding potential monopoly charges. “Didi Chuxing, after the merger, was dominating the ride-hailing market with more than 90% market share.” | TechNode
TNCs have reduced parking revenue at airports by 10%+. It’s almost as if we need another way of metering road usage and generating revenue from vehicles… hmmm | The Economist
Grab is using its reach to move into travel services “When Singapore residents open their Grab app, it also now features “10 Irresistible Places in Indonesia.” A click on “Wonderful Indonesia Website” opens the ministry’s website where they can get pretty comprehensive and interesting content on the country’s destinations, attractions, events & festivals, and book a trip on the app, with flights, hotels, packages and activities powered by Expedia… Keen to go to an event or festival? By this month’s end, customers will be able to buy the ticket or book a ride to the event or festival on the app.” They’re also working on a service in Jakarta that lets you book a guide + car for the day called Rent a GrabCar. | Skift
Cities and Policy
Deliveroo examined data from their fleet and found that cyclists are faster in cities than cars and motorbikes. | Forbes
The Netherlands plans to introduce a 19 cents / kilometer incentive to get people to cycle to work| MoTiV
A common objection to adding bike lanes and removing on-street parking in cities is that it will hurt local businesses. There’s nothing like some good data from TfL to refute that claim — “people walking, cycling and using public transport spend the most in their local shops, spending 40 per cent more each month than car drivers.” Furthermore, retail vacancies decreased and office and retail rents increase by 4% and 7.5% respectively.| road.cc
In Vancouver, 50% of trips are by foot, bike, or transit. How’d they do it? Great transit service, an extensive network of protected bike lanes, and a many decade head start.| Vox
Do mobility data standards excite you? Then you’re definitely reading the right newsletter. Also, you’ll enjoy this piece from Remix breaking down GBFS, MDS, and the different ways that cities get data from micromobility service providers.| Remix
A great thread on curb use data. Worth a read in its entirety but here’s a highlight: “Favorite part of the discussion was hearing @DonaldShoup make the case for linking “curb productivity” with equity and emerging forms of mobility. The more space we take from cars the cheaper it becomes for people to move, whether on transit or micromobility.”| Kevin Webb
A couple of different takes on how DC’s dockless pilot is serving the city:
- Populus.ai — DC is growing its dockless bike and scooter program: We partnered with them to evaluate how it’s expanding access in underserved communities
- Coord — DC’s dockless mobility program is expanding, but is it serving everyone?
Disclaimer: all views are our own.
