Curbside thoughts on the mobility transition

The curb, the area adjacent to roads and walkways, is set for a transformation in the next era of mobility. Expect to see parking meters, shop fronts, EV chargers, outdoor dining, transit stations, and delivery robots. Drawing inspiration from the Curbivore newsletters, I've compiled some of my thoughts on the deliberate planning companies must do to shape the upcoming era of curbside mobility.

The curb serves as one of the purest melting pots for stakeholder involvement, and understanding the dynamics involved will inevitably help communities and organizations make the most of it.

·         Stakeholders include developers, businesses, municipalities, drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, mobility companies, and other service providers.

·         Their interactions form a microcosm, around which organizations can optimize for their resources for example, the governance required for traffic lights, parking meters, and corresponding fines must be built around community needs (i.e., traffic flow, congestion considerations, and appropriate enforcement) to function properly.

·         A base understanding of the stakeholder needs will allow service and infrastructure providers to develop sustainable solutions (e.g., lasting impact, profitability).

It may not always seem possible to address all the dynamics all the time, but that doesn't permit ignorance to be an excuse for negligence. You need to have thought thru the risks, even though your best path forward is the one you're already on.

·         Community considerations are often mixed in with governance, but the neighborhood level fidelity of insights can be tough to prioritize (e.g., prioritizing between local business needs and citizen concerns).

·         Off the curb, there are other considerations for service providers that may not always be apparent – e.g, talent acquisition, technology infrastructure, data privacy.

·         Each of these has a different priority level at a given time, but the winners on the curb must address all of them appropriately. Better to be proactive than reactive.

Great execution looks like vehicle share programs that bring in a mix of community goodwill, positive climate impacts, and preferable economics (e.g., LA’s carshare, Zipcar, Turo, Chicago’s Divvy bikes).

·         The early days of connectivity enabled ride share, and provided an example of what collaborative execution looks like (maybe because that’s what the model relied on), where companies like Zipcar partnered with communities & universities to make shared vehicles available.

·         The mutual benefits where exalted by all parties involved, allowing similar programs to become part of the transport infrastructure in major cities around the world (e.g., bike shares, LA city car share).

Poor execution brings friction to stakeholders that cannot always be overcome with brute force.

·         Ride-hailing, with Uber leading the way, truly disrupted the way a lot of the world thinks about everyday travel today. They enabled our fingertips to do that which used to be the domain of dispatchers, patience, and luck.

·         However, key municipal and community stakeholders weren’t always considered as true partners which made marginal growth come at a much higher cost than it had to be. They were known to prioritize growth and customer acquisition above all else, often resulting in confrontations with municipalities which can be pricey.

·         Granted, disruption often requires unorthodox actions, but now they are working through a litany of lawsuits, as any web search will show, and transitioning to more sustainable business operations.

Across the curb, there are evolving industries around air mobility, robo-delivery, and V2X infrastructure that needs to evolve with the right stakeholders lest it lead to unfavorable outcomes.

·         Urban air mobility solutions (drone delivery, passenger travel) may still be a few years away from widespread adoption, but companies at the forefront, are making progress through close collaboration with regulators, and consumers along the curb. On the unseen side of things, they need to support the development of industry communities (e.g., educational institutions and industry groups collaborating to develop talent pipeline), and secure their supply chain in order to ensure they do not run out of steam.

·         The early reviews for robodelivery has been mixed. There’s a proof of concept with millions of deliveries by now, and projected demand backed up by pilot partnerships(e.g., between Nuro & Dominos). However, there remains lack of clarity around the regulation and community acceptance, especially with regard to incidents like thefts.

·         V2X solutions have the potential to transform a lot of tedious interactions across the curb. Contactless toll payments have been in place for years, but advanced interactions enabled by the vehicle or mobile device are now becoming more common place E.g., parking, charging, grid support, traffic flow management, etc. Even though a lot of the technology has been demonstrated, continuing to reduce friction will rely on behavior change management with consumers, while ensuring other risks (e.g., data security, infrastructure reliability, etc.) do not derail progress.

‍