Cincinnati Mobility Lab Recap
By Chris Pangilinan, Head of Global Public Transportation and Accessibility Policy
Over the last decade, urban transportation has changed rapidly with the advent of on-demand platforms such as Uber. These platforms enabled riders to get a shared car, bike, scooter, or transit directions at the push of a button and ushered in new mobility benefits to riders around the world. To better understand these benefits, and ensure that they would go to as many people as possible in our urban areas, three and a half years ago, Uber launched an ambitious partnership — the Cincinnati Mobility Lab — with the local governments of the Cincinnati, Ohio region.
The goal of this partnership was to demonstrate how Uber and cities could work together to bring on-demand transportation benefits to all. During this partnership, the Lab completed several projects to pilot data sharing methods, study specific Cincinnati transportation issues, and develop regional transit strategic plans. With the official activities of the partnership wrapped up, we would like to share the project outcomes and some of the lessons learned.
Curb Access
Uber commissioned the transportation consulting firm Fehr & Peers, to study several curb locations across Cincinnati and provide recommendations to reduce congestion and improve access to the curb. The Cincinnati Mobility Lab presented the findings and recommendations from that study to mark the first anniversary of its creation, including suggestions on how to ease congestion and increase pedestrian safety.
Public Transportation
Fehr & Peers was also commissioned to develop a transit study with the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA/Metro) and the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK) to use insights derived from a combination of Uber and transit data sets to assist the agencies in developing strategies for the future. The study uncovered where transit, Uber, and the private car are most prevalent in the city, and offered recommendations for how SORTA and TANK can improve transit service in the region while also harnessing the on-demand services on Uber.
Data Sharing
Uber brought its data sharing platform, Movement, to Cincinnati. The City of Cincinnati helped Uber design and develop the tool in its earliest stages and was able to harness Movement’s data to analyze and implement transportation changes in the Cincinnati region. Transportation data sharing continues to evolve and Cincinnati’s experience with Movement has helped to push this forward. One example is that the Movement data tool now forms the backbone of the data platform that transit agencies have access to when partnering with Uber.
Although the official activities of the Cincinnati Mobility Lab have concluded, the learnings from this partnership continue to inspire Uber’s work with cities on the issues such as curb access, public transportation, and data sharing. We thank the Mayor’s Office, SORTA/Metro, TANK, the Department of Transportation and Engineering, the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Council of Regional Governments, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, and numerous others involved for their commitment to the Lab and their work to improve urban mobility for all.
