Spotted this relatively old (published in Oct 18, 2016) but fascinating podcast story about Uber’s battle with its Chinese’s rival Didi Chuxing for marketshare (via Bloomberg):
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/288743921″ params=”color=ff5500″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Also you can read the related article here.
Sunday, January 8, 2017 • 9 AM – 12 PM • Washington, D.C.
Unsolved Mysteries: Have a hard-to-solve problem that needs to be solved?
We all are faced with difficult, hard-to-solve problems – so we have created an interactive workshop at the 2017 TRB Annual Meeting we hope will address the unsolved mysteries that vex transportation professionals at all levels of the organizations – from planners to modelers to analysts. This workshop will present three intriguing, real-world problems selected from a pool of submissions before the workshop. WE NEED YOUR HELP! We are looking for real-world transportation problems that can be summarized in a case study from the perspective of an individual or project team. The case studies should contain pertinent information on the type of problem presented, geographic context, who was impacted and the impact of not reaching a resolution.
The deadline for submissions is October 1, 2016 and submissions can be made using this on-line form at: http://adb50.github.io/analyze-this/ Those who submit ideas that are selected will be provided the opportunity to present their problem at the TRB Annual Meeting.
Last year, workshop attendees had an opportunity to solve one of three mysteries. Coca Cola was seeking corporate strategies to reduce single occupancy vehicle trips. The City of Boulder asked the group to explore repurposing travel lanes for multimodal projects. Lastly, the City of Edmonton had question about how to incorporate connected and autonomous vehicle technologies into the regional travel demand model.
analyze-this-call-for-workshop-ideas-final-2016-09Not a day passes without us seeing some major headline about global automakers and shared mobility providers working to revolutionize the mobility landscape. Last week Uber dominated the headlines when the company announced that its autonomous cars (souped up Volvo XC90 SUVs) will be available for its ride-hailing customers in Pittsburgh. And in this process, the company announced that it bought the truck automation company Otto, founded by a couple of former Google Car research engineers. This was followed by Ford’s major announcement that it intends to deliver high-volume, fully autonomous vehicles for ride sharing in 2021. In addition, the company announced that it is investing in or collaborating with four startups on autonomous vehicle development and doubling its Silicon Valley team.
This torrid pace of acquisitions, expansions, and investments has created a confusing picture for the consumers about who owns what and who is doing what across the domain. I found this Business Insider graph (seen below), part of a big research report (cost $495) very useful in understanding the ecosystem that covers the auto OEMs, suppliers, startups, shared-mobility service providers, etc. Though it doesn’t capture all the entities, particularly the start-ups, engaged in automated vehicle research/development, it makes a decent attempt to organize them into “bins.”
With heavy influx of venture capital money competing alongside deep pocketed organizations like Ford, GM, Tesla, Google, Uber etc, the race to build the unmanned taxis is now reaching breakneck pace. The traditional OEMs are on a buying spree or making deals with innovative start-ups, in and outside the Silicon Valley. It is safe to say that pretty much all the automotive heavyweights in Detroit and Silicon Valley are vying for a slice of the lucrative yet untapped “autonomous shared-mobility” space. What I’d like to see someone take a stab at capturing/mapping all those entities involved (incl. those in finance, data warehousing, etc) and present that in an infographic. All I can comfortably say today is buckle up for the ride! It will be a while before this ecosystem stabilizes and be assured that there will be a steady stream of headline grabbing news is coming your way.
Just spotted this awesome report from Transport Systems Catapult in the United Kingdom that explores the opportunities offered by Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concept and highlights how transportation policy might support MaaS growth. For the uninformed, the Transport Systems Catapult is one of ten elite technology and innovation centres established and overseen by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.
Mobility-as-a-Service_Exploring-the-Opportunity-for-MaaS-in-the-UK-WebThis chart, via Jennifer Keesmaat, shows the important nexus between the infrastructure design and public health.. As evident from the chart, when it comes to building healthy communities the United States has a long way to go in catching up with their counterparts and the huge (no pun intended) disparity in % of obese people shows how unhealthy we are as a nation.
Health implications of city design: more walking, cycling and transit means less obesity + chronic disease (via @jen_keesmaat on Twitter)
Spurred by this tweet, I went looking for data on healthcare spending in the US vs. other OECD countries. Sigh! The chart below shows how much we spend on health compared to other countries (slightly older data). If we spent a few billion dollars on building more walking/biking/transit infrastructure instead of building more highways and encouraged more people to walk/bike/ride transit, may be we don’t have to incur such an expensive medical bills after all. Despite all the evidence, our lawmakers seems to be favoring the highway lobbies (and the optics of ribbon cutting for new highways) but talk endlessly about healthcare spending every election cycle!
U.S health spending vs. other countries
Here is a snapshot of the US health spending, according to the OECD:
- Health expenditure per capita: $8,713
- Expenditure as a pct. of GDP: 16.4%
- Obesity rate: 35.3%
- Life expectancy: 78.8 yrs
“Health spending in the United States (excluding investment expenditure in the health sector) was 16.4% of GDP in 2013, well above the OECD average of 8.9% and the next highest spenders – the Netherlands (11.1%), Switzerland (11.1%) and Sweden (11.0%). The share of GDP spent on healthcare has remained unchanged since 2009 and health spending growth has matched economic growth. The share of government spending in the United States as a share of total spending on health has increased from around 44% in 2000 to above 48% by 2013. Over this period there has been an increase in health coverage for the population – in 2006, Medicare Part D, a voluntary drug benefit programme for seniors and certain disabled persons was introduced.
A new TRB report, Shared Mobility and the Transformation of Public Transit examines the relationship of public transportation—including paratransit and demand responsive services—to shared modes, including bikesharing, carsharing, microtransit, and ridesourcing services. The research included participation by seven cities: Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC. The report’s conclusion sets out actions that departments, and other local and regional agencies—can take to promote useful cooperation between public and private mobility providers. It also suggests regulatory enhancements, institutional realignments, and forms of public-private engagement that would allow innovation to flourish while still providing mobility as safely, broadly, and equitably as possible (via FHWA)
New TRB report, Shared Mobility and the Transformation of Public TransitFascinating interview and congrats to winning team. Very exciting to see the young engineers take to building radically new transportation systems/concepts like Hyperloop that will transform the future of mobility/transportation! Graduate student Chris Merian, chief engineer for MIT’s Hyperloop team, speaks with Radio Boston’s Meghna Chakrabarti about the team’s success in the recent Hyperloop contest
“…really cool engineering challenge that we are really passionate about, and seeing our hundreds of hours of work rewarded like that was really, really nice”
The latest forecast from McKinsey Consulting on the disruptive trends unfolding in the automotive sector is very much along the lines of what I have been saying for quite a while. It predictions comes packaged in a nice, easy to consume slick video presentation shown below.
Among the major disruptions, the ones I see having direct and tremendous social and roadsafety implications are ridesharing and vehicle automation, both aided by a confluence of technology and consumer aversion for driving/owning automobiles. Of course, the pace of disruption will be dictated by the Federal policies and that means our lawmakers must remain nimble and be willing to set aside their political ideologies to help the industry as it leaps forward.
Scenarios for growth of vehicle automation. Source: McKinsey
Check out the full report here
Transportation for America is hiring a Research Fellow to help produce research and produce reports, identify innovative transportation concepts, and support a mission-based consulting service to produce the best outcomes for clients’ transportation investments.
The fellow will join Transportation for America’s policy team conducting original research that advances local, state and federal policies. This is an opportunity that features a great deal of responsibility, direct collaboration with our partners and valuable hands-on experience with transportation thought-leaders throughout the country.
Description
The ideal fellow is a proactive, savvy researcher with exceptional writing and editing skills and plugged-in to developments surrounding transportation policy at the local, state and federal, levels. The successful candidate will be able to use all these skills to create original research for Transportation for America’s partners and the public.
Fellows should be dependable team players that can perform regular duties when asked, while also being proactive self-starter who can independently research and offer and implement new research areas that support Transportation for America’s policy efforts. Fellows will be conducting research and writing assigned issue briefs and longer reports, but will also be counted upon to support the President of Transportation for America’s newly-created mission-driven consulting service.
Primary responsibilities include:
Requirements
All Transportation for America fellowships require a self-motivated, detail-oriented person with excellent writing, oral communication and organizational skills, as well as the ability to think creatively and work independently with adequate supervision. Candidates should have a strong interest in transportation, economic development, smart growth or related areas.
Specific to the Research Fellow candidate, Transportation for America is looking for those who can fulfill the following requirements:
Recommended candidates include:
The position is full time (40 hours per week) and requires a six-month commitment. Some former fellows have joined our full-time staff. Transportation for America Fellows receive a stipend of $1,500 per month. This position is based in our offices in Washington, DC.
To apply, please send these materials to info@t4america.org with “Research Fellow” in the subject line:
Applications will be accepted immediately on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
Equal opportunity and having a diverse staff are fundamental principles at Transportation for America. Employment and promotional opportunities are based upon individual capabilities and qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation/preference, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status or any other protected characteristic as established under law.
About T4America
T4America is an alliance of elected, business and civic leaders from communities across the country who are united to ensure that states and the federal government step up to invest in smart, homegrown, locally-driven transportation solutions. Learn more at http://t4america.org
These graphs below via Qz.com paint a compelling picture of air quality in India. In most western media discussions/stories about environmental pollution is often China-centric. One would expect China to be topping the charts when it comes to pollution, given the country’s ginormous population, its economic clout and the manufacturing prowess which earned it the “factory of the world” label, . But in reality, #India is the worst offender and it deserves far more scrutiny than China. 14 of the top 20 most polluted cities are in India and a not a single Chinese city made it to this list. Govt. of India should take urgent steps to combat this issue because of the risks it pose to public health.
Image Courtesy: Quartz I Qz.com
Image Courtesy: Quartz I Qz.com
For what it is worth, the transportation sector is one of the major culprits, accounting for a significant portion of the overall emissions. While congestion in major cities continues to grow worse, the vehicle sales continues at a torrid pace and doesn’t show any signs of a slow down. To put this in perspective, I am borrowing the following points from the ICCT fact sheet:
Another major source of pollution in India related to the transportation sector is the noise pollution, which requires a dedicated blog post by itself. So, one of these days I’ll get around to doing some research on that topic and write it up.
