Why I Joined Populus To Transform How Cities Integrate New Mobility Services
I am thrilled to share the news that I have joined the Populus team as the Director of Mobility Partnerships. As a veteran of the bikeshare industry from the early days of Motivate (acquired by Lyft in 2018), I’m encouraged and excited about the rapid rise of micromobility. The growth of dockless bikes, electric bikes, and electric scooters over the past 18 months has instilled in many of us an optimism that, today, cities have an unprecedented opportunity to redesign our streets to be more bike-, scooter-, and pedestrian-friendly — before the potential widespread arrival of autonomous vehicles.
At Populus, we are building the industry’s leading platform to help cities ensure that these services are safe and equitable, and to help city planners harness essential data they will need to design bike lanes and scooter parking required to help these services grow.
A Rapidly Changing Mobility Landscape
It is a significant time for transportation around the globe — we have seen more innovation in the transportation sector over the past 10 years than we have over the past century. Rapidly emerging technologies are helping people get around in cities with greater ease, greater satisfaction, and without the need to own a personal vehicle.
It feels as though micromobility, such as shared bikes, electric bikes, and electric scooters, have become dinner-table conversations almost overnight. For many of us, though, the rise of smaller, carbon efficient mobility solutions has been years in the making. While there is clearly more work ahead to help shared bike and scooter services thrive, it is rewarding to experience their rapid growth over the past year.
New Conversations in Cities
The introduction and embrace of e-scooters — now in over 150 cities — has inspired several important conversations about the future of transportation: the allocation of public street space, the safety of the most vulnerable road users, the environmental impacts of cars, and the equitable access to transportation in underserved communities.
Cities have responded quickly to develop new policies and requirements to evaluate dockless scooter and bikeshare systems. The launches of these new services by private companies are, in their own right, a huge achievement — I know, from years of launching bikeshare systems in major cities, including the Bay Area. However, what comes next is more crucial: operational management, assessment of progress towards public goals, and strategic planning.
With multiple operators vying for market share in major cities, a trusted, third party solution is necessary to deliver the key insights cities need for transportation policy and planning. Building on over thirty years of experience developing software for cities, Populus has developed the most advanced platform for cities to plan for the future of sustainable mobility. We are proud partners with leading cities working toward this goal.
By helping cities and private mobility operators succeed together, Populus is playing a critical role that enables both to deliver safe, equitable, and sustainable transportation solutions. I am inspired about the continued growth of micromobility and thrilled with the opportunity to build partnerships required for new mobility solutions to achieve their desired goals of transforming how we move in cities.
Our team is growing! Learn more at www.populus.ai/company/careers or reach out to me directly here.
