Our Five Key Takeaways from the 2019 National Urbanism Next Conference

Photo by Marsie Surguine

The 2019 National Urbanism Next Conference brought together over 500 people, including a great mix of private sector, public sector, academic and nonprofit representatives from a variety of disciplines. The three day event featured discussions on a wide variety of topics, with a concentrated focus on collaborative solutions for how emerging technologies can be harnessed to achieve desired outcomes. Many important and interesting points were made, but here are a selection of our key takeaways.

“Equity is not a commitment. It’s a practice.” Hana Creger with The Greenlining Institute spoke about racial equity and mobility, outlining the past, present, and the future. To arrive at a more equitable future, we have to start now, in the present, by intentionally building equity into every stage of planning, every pilot project, and every program. That means not only starting with the development of a shared vision, but also identifying meaningful and measurable equity outcomes and everything in between. For more information and guidance, check out The Greenlining Institute’s Autonomous Vehicle Heaven or Hell? Creating a Transportation Revolution That Benefits All and the Mobility Equity Framework. As Hana so eloquently stated, “Equity is not a commitment—it’s a practice.” Let’s make it so.

Photo by Lathen Gorbett

“Transit backbone = Best way to get around town.” Bruce Schaller (Schaller Consulting) reminded us that even with all the new mobility options emerging, we cannot lose sight of transit and what a crucial role it plays. The geometry of our streets is essentially fixed, and we have to focus on maximizing that space by moving people as efficiently as possible—that means more people in fewer vehicles. And it’s not only about geometry. Public transit is linked to density, which is linked to innovation, which is linked to productivity, which is linked to opportunity, as Bruce outlined in his presentation. Transit must be the backbone and all other mobility options should support transit networks. Undertaking assessments of which new mobility options work best in which densities, morphologies, and socioeconomic contexts will help cities figure out how to promote new mobility services in areas where they are most useful and discourage their use in areas where they contribute to increased congestion and greenhouse emissions and compete with transit.

Photo by Marsie Surguine

“Why do we allow the delivery of a box with a single nail clipper during the peak hour? Why do you need to ship a single tomato during rush hour?” Sucharita Kodali with Forrester Research gave an eye-opening presentation on the growth of e-commerce and the ways in which free shipping has distorted the market, resulting in negative externalities along the way—like a box with a single nail clipper being transported during the peak hour. How do we get the most efficiency from the street for both goods and passenger trips? Planners have to incentivize beneficial behavior and disincentivize congestion-inducing deliveries of non-essential items during peak hours.

Photo by Lathen Gorbett

Data, data, data. There is no doubt that data was a still hot topic this year, as it was last year, but the conversation is evolving. Last year, a lot of the discussion centered around the need for data, as well as the impediments to sharing it. In the past year, progress has been made in the development of shared data standards, with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation having taken a lead in this field through the creation of the Mobility Data Specification (MDS). Concerns about data privacy and security are still taking center stage, with lots of related discussions about how fine-grained the data needs to be in order for cities to be able to answer the questions they have to create informed policies. What is usable, what is useful, and what is extraneous? While the details have yet to be worked out—and without a doubt, the upcoming year will see continued developments in this area—coming to a consensus on shared data standards will be critical to the development of public-private partnerships.

Photo by Lathen Gorbett

Collaboration is key. This one is two-fold. The first part is about the need for collaboration between the private and public sectors in the form, of yes, PPPs or public-private partnerships. We also need to be keeping lines of communication open. If anything is certain at this moment in time, it is that the field is incredibly dynamic and constantly evolving. At last year’s conference, e-scooters were barely on the radar and this year, they were featured in multiple sessions. And that relates to the second point—the built environment disciplines need to be working in tandem and learning from each other. One of the most common refrains we heard from attendees was how valuable it was to hear from people working in a variety of fields and how useful it was to attend sessions that featured a mix of panelists, bringing in a cross-sector perspective.

These are our key takeaways for this year’s conference, but there is so much more to be discussed. We hope you all will join us in the keeping the conversations going throughout the upcoming year and working together to achieve desired outcomes in this era of change. Keep an eye out for the Urbanism Next NEXUS (anticipated launch in Fall 2019), a one-stop-shop to get the latest research, thinking, and discussion about how emerging technology is impacting cities. We look forward to seeing you next year!

 

Electrifying (and charging) the Future of Mobility

Summer is almost here, and you know what means: the days are getting longer, the nights are getting warmer—and prime scooting season is upon us. E-scooters were a featured topic of discussion at the 2019 National Urbanism Next Conference, and for good reason. They essentially exploded onto the micromobility scene in 2018, eliciting a mix of reactions ranging from delight to consternation. Cities have been grappling with a host of questions, such as should they even be allowed on city streets? (NYC still says no.) If they are allowed, where should they be ridden? And also, where should they be stored when in not use? The crux of the issue is that the public right-of-way is limited—there’s only so much space to go around—so how does that space get allocated? For obvious reasons, cities don’t want to see sidewalks cluttered by e-scooters or other shared micromobility devices, creating potential obstructions and unsafe conditions for pedestrians.

Source: Swiftmile

In an effort to bring some order to the chaos, cities are experimenting with designated parking corrals like these in Santa Monica. But as we roll into our second summer of e-scooter pilots, some cities are taking it one step further and will be testing out solar-powered docking stations. (Yes, you read that right. The dockless devices will be…docked.) The Washington Post reported that Ann Arbor, MI and Washington, D.C. will each be engaging in a 90-day pilot program with e-scooter company Spin and Swiftmile, the manufacturer of scooter-specific docking stations. It will be interesting to learn about the results of these pilots. Will docked e-scooters see the same levels of ridership as their dockless counterparts? Will the presence of these stations help reduce instances of sidewalk clutter and the number of complaints made? Also, will fully depleted e-scooters be able to get totally recharged in three hours, as Swiftmile suggests? If so, that could mean that scooters spend more time in circulation and less time being hauled on/off streets for charging purposes, which could mean reduced VMT, and perhaps…a more efficient use of that limited public space?

As more and more attention is given to curb management and space allocation, cities are increasingly thinking about curbside and right-of-way charging as well. Range anxiety, which is the fear that an electric vehicle will run out of charge between charging stations, is cited as a top reason why Americans are not buying EVs. The fear of hopping on an e-scooter only to have it run out of juice mid-trip may not be the same kind of deterrent for fans of the micromobility devices, but it’s a bummer nonetheless. If we want to continue to electrify our transportation modes, we need to make our streets more hospitable to electric modes, which includes increasing charging capacity. Our community partners over at Forth will be talking a lot about the future of charging and how we can lead to an increasingly electrified future at Roadmap 12, coming up June 18-19 in Portland. (Use the code URBANISM to get $75 off registration!)

That’s a wrap!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2019 National Urbanism Next Conference and helped make it a success! We could not have done it without the support of our partners and sponsors, without the time and effort given by every single presenter, without the dedication of our volunteers, and of course, without the energy and interest of all the attendees.

Over 500 people joined us in Portland last week, including a mix of academics, private sector, public sector, and nonprofit representatives. The combination of professions and academic disciplines enabled attendees to hear a mix of unique perspectives on a wide variety of issues. We were delighted to have Oregon, Washington, and California well-represented, but we were also very glad to have folks from nineteen other states and the District of Columbia in the room as well. Additionally, it was so great to have 26 international participants representing Canada, The Netherlands, Australia, Austria, Iceland, Turkey, Lebanon, and more, and have an opportunity to get their perspectives on how emerging technologies can be harnessed to achieve the kinds of outcomes we want to see.

Thanks to everyone who helped capture great quotes and interesting insights via social media! Check out our Twitter feed and search #UrbNext2019 for a glimpse at what people were talking about. We will also be sharing more information soon about our key takeaways, as well posting photos, videos and presentation slides from the conference presentations.

We here at Urbanism Next had a great time and are already starting to think about next year, so please stay tuned! As always, we welcome your suggestions so please contact us if you have ideas you’d like to share. Many, many thanks again to everyone involved!