MOVE Culver City: Complete Streets Spur Transit Use + Downtown Businesses
MOVE Culver City: Complete Streets Spur Transit Use + Downtown Businesses
COMOTION TICKETS, GHOST KITCHEN LAYOFFS
Equitable mobility, sustainable transit, micromobility, EVs, AVs, AAM, delivery, data management and much more. It's all at CoMotion LA, this Nov. 15-17!
Join our partners in the City of Angels for three magical days of:
Priceless networking
Interactive talks from thought leaders
Hot startup pitches
Fun demos
Immersive workshops from leading mobility innovators
Register now with code CURBIVORE30OFF to save 30% on admission.
New Data on How Complete Streets Spur Transit Use and Help Downtown Businesses
Culver City just released a report highlighting the effectiveness of its MOVE program - which reshaped its burgeoning downtown with new bus and bike lanes, plus related amenities. By utilizing a quick-build approach (enabled by State Senator Wiener’s SB288) the city was able to avoid years of paralyzing studies to quickly take a neighborhood that was defined by overly wide, pedestrian-hostile streets, and turn it into a multi-modal community that has helped nearby businesses bounce back from the pandemic.
From a transit standpoint, the benefits are obvious: bus ridership is up 52%; cycling is up 32%; pedestrian activity is up 18%; and micromobility usage is up a whopping 95%. And to naysayers, this has come at almost no cost to drivers: PM travel time has only inched up by two minutes, while in the mornings drive times actually decreased.
Unlike the program in New York we recently analyzed, MOVE Culver City was more about transportation than outdoor dining / shopping; its implementation actually necessitated some restaurants giving back curb space that they had taken over in the early days of the pandemic. So it’s all the more encouraging that this program still had spillover effects that helped local businesses. 39% of respondents reported an increase in time spent in the city’s Arts District (on the east end of the corridor) while 64% said they were spending more time in the downtown core, where the corridor intersects with a Metro station. That’s a whole lot more patronage for local businesses!
Kudos to Culver City’s brave leadership for championing this bold project. You may recall Mayor Fisch extolling the virtues of repurposing streets at Curbivore 2022, as well as remarks from former Mayor Sahli-Wells in 2020, before the project was kicked off. One other thing to like about this report is that it suggests the city has been continuing to monitor the program and make improvements as necessary. If were to suggest a few of our own: extend the shuttle a few blocks east to the Washington Fairfax transit hub; consider combining the shuttle route with the overlapping CC1 bus to improve frequencies and increase route legibility; and show the same boldness when fighting for MOVE’s expansion on Sepulveda and Jefferson boulevards, as those plans seem to be languishing.
Data & The Multimodal City: Designing MDS 2.0
Join us next Tuesday for a Curbivore Coffee Break webinar on how this improved data standard can mean new use cases around delivery robots, free-floating car share, taxis, and more. Register now.
HOT INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
New data proves micromobility reduces automotive trips: There’s been a long debate over whether scooters and shared bikes discourage car use, or if they’re merely shifting trips that would have otherwise happened on transit or by foot. A new paper in Nature proves that micromobility does indeed replace auto usage; when service is discontinued, car congestion increases by 9 to 11%.
Layoffs! Ghost kitchens took a beating in Indonesia, with Grab shuttering its entire division after four years of operations. Things aren’t looking so hot stateside either, with Cloud Kitchens reportedly cutting back as well. Rumors are swirling around Delivery Hero as well… And while not exactly food related, Lyft workers weren’t exactly tickled pink today either: the company is cutting 13% of staff.
Instacart vs Amazon: With Instacart’s IPO on pause, the company is giving its first org-wide cash bonus to reward and retain workers. Besides the war for talent, there’s also always the ol’ battle for marketshare against players like Amazon: the ecommerce giant just announced a delivery partnership with West Coast supermarket chain Save Mart.
Uber’s big Q3: On Tuesday, Uber reported $8.3 billion in quarterly revenue, a 73% increase YoY. Ridesharing has fully recovered from Covid, with 21 million trips per day besting any pre-pandemic records. Eats continues to grow as well, increasing 24% from the prior year.
MBTA tees up a new leader: The embattled boss of Boston’s transit provider steps down in January, as the agency deals with the fallout from numerous safety incidents. He will at least get to cut the ribbon on a few new Green Line stations, which are supposed to open by year’s end. In other transit news, DC’s reeeaalllly loooong Silver Line extension opens next Tuesday, and Miami drops plans to build a monorail to the beach.
Bike repair by truck? If you’re not familiar with Bike Hero, it operates a fleet of trucks that serve as mobile bicycle repair shops, all across Britain. The company just announced a new Commercial Director - Evans Rees-French - who comes to the company with nearly two decades of industry experience.
Cruise swallows SF: Self-driver Cruise announced expanded service in San Francisco, with its AVs now covering almost the entire city. The expansion doesn’t yet serve the city’s downtown (too many pedestrians?) nor Twin Peaks (too… mysterious???)
A few more links: Who is responsible for fixing a broken EV charger? Buyk’s instant delivery assets available for bid. Did someone say “weird pod metro”? Food trucks to watch in 2023. ZIKI expands in Downtown Austin, while Facebook pulls back. Mobility Fund’s Sam Baker discusses investing in B2B SaaS for micromobility. CEQA takes another bite out of California’s housing ambitions. NYC building commissioner resigns amid criminal investigation.
Don’t forget to snag your $99 Curbivore tickets while you still can; and keep your eyes peeled for our next happy hour announcement!
- Jonah Bliss & The Curbivore Crew