Curbivore Happy Hour Returns - July 11th
Second ave subway deferred, Montreal plans new neighborhood
Today’s the summer solstice, which can only mean one thing: it’s just about time for our first Curbivore Happy Hour of the season!
So, we’re calling all our SoCal mobility & delivery geeks to get together on Thursday, July 11th (5-7 PM) on the sunny rooftop of Bar Bohemien in Downtown Culver City.
We’re keeping this one extra casual — there’s no official sponsor — but the first 15 people to show up get a free beer on me and Harry. 😎
Hope to see you in three weeks!
HOT INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
Congestion pricing update: Looks like a federal judge dismissed one of the main lawsuits against NYC’s congestion pricing, which was part of the pretext Gov. Hochul used when she killed off the program. But with the plan still DOA by the Governor’s pen, the MTA has already had to halt progress on long-awaited projects like the Phase 2 of the Second Ave Subway, which had been set to begin utility relocation shortly. Salting the wound, commuter rail lines into Manhattan have already failed twice this week.
Now may be as good a time as any for eager readers to revisit a 2019 NYC Planning doc — The Ins and Outs of NYC Commuting — which hammers home the obvious fact that the vast majority of workers in Manhattan get their by public transit, not private auto.
Another slide from that data set reminds us that the New Jersey side of the Tri-State is woefully underserved by transportation links. Governor Chris Christie famously killed off a plan (ARC) that would have added more tracks, although a similar project is now finally back on track, (nyuk nyuk) dubbed the Gateway Program.
Paris keeps shining: The City of Light, on the other hand, shows how great state capacity can get shit done. Parisians just celebrated the opening of a six kilometer (3.7 mi,) six station extension of Line 11, where trains will arrive every 1 minute and 45 seconds at peak, saving commuters from the eastern suburbs up to 20 minutes of travel time. Costs came in at €1.6 billion, including upgrades to the old portions of the line, plus new rolling stock, meaning Americans are paying about 4.6X per mile for a project to bridge over some parking lots and tunnel under single family homes in San Jose. Paris has also done a great job building new bike lanes, now totaling 1,300 km citywide, and pushing cargo onto more sustainable fleets.
Montreal plans car light neighborhood: Maybe there’s just something about speaking French that encourages better planning outcomes? (Perhaps NIMBYism just sounds nicer with an accent aigu…) Montreal, the world’s second most important Franchophone city (sorry Kinshasa) is proceeding with efforts to build a new neighborhood in the formerly industrial Wellington Basin waterfront. Plans call for 2,800 homes, plus cultural zones and office space, over the 21 acre area — with very little room devoted to cars.
Neighborhood circulators: Circuit goes live in Boca Raton, forming a nice last mile connection from the city’s Brightline rail station. Meanwhile, Motor City has turned to May Mobility for an AV shuttle, aimed at elderly and disabled users in the Downtown area.
Europeans behaving badly: Well, hard to say if the Brits are really Europeans these days… but the City of London is undoing some pedestrian safety measures it had rolled out at a major intersection near its financial center. Taxis had been banned from Bank Junction since 2017, after causing a series of injuries and killing two cyclists.
From the Department of Great Names: NYC launches the “Ur In Luck” program, in a bid to improve availability and accessibility of public restrooms. The Adams administration plans to open 46 new bathrooms citywide, unclear if that includes the open sewer that is the Gowanus Canal.
3PD updates: Hybrid delivery startup Cartwheel closes an oversubscribed $1.5M seed plus round as it nears profitability. Save A Lot grocery now live on Uber Eats, Sally Beauty goes live on Instacart, Toy retailer Hamley’s on India’s Instamart.
A few good links: Chinese carpooler Dida Chuxing nears IPO. So much for doomerism — U.S. soaks up one third of total global capital flows since Covid. San Diego to allow homeowners to sell off ADUs separately in bid to improve housing supply. Waabi raises $200M as it readies robo-truck deployment. E-bike brand Fly-E goes public, but watch our for those small cap stocks… Rome suspends micromobility operators for violating rules.
Catch you at next month’s happy hour!
- Jonah Bliss & The Curbivore Crew