NYC Mobility & Delivery Tech Happy Hour - Join Us 6/10
BATWorks Heads to Brooklyn, end of the line for DC Streetcar
It’s an East Coast — West Coast team-up for the ages! Curbivore and Electric Avenue are hosting a mobility & delivery tech happy hour. Join us on Tuesday, June 10th, from 5 to 8 PM, at Threes Brewing in Brooklyn, NY.
As anyone that’s attended our mixers before can attest, these are always a fun way to meet your fellow technologists, entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and journalists shaping the future of urban movement.
HOT INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
A BAT signal for new mobility startups! NYCEDC has just unveiled plans to open BATWorks, repurposing the old Brooklyn Army Terminal into a new hub for piloting, tenanting, and programming new mobility and cleantech ventures. The LA Cleantech Incubator team that’s leading this project is top-notch; we can’t wait to see what they, plus Cambridge Innovation Center, pull off in this historic 200,000 square foot campus. (While I wish I could find my photos of the interior of this complex from a decade ago, these NYT shots are almost as good.)
The wheels fall off: DC Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said the city will be killing off its dinky streetcar line in the next few years, replacing it with an electric bus. It’s a fitting demise for the short (in both senses: opened in 2016 and only about two miles long) and rather inglorious life of the train. It didn’t actually quite connect Union Station or Anacostia, it got stuck in traffic, and ridership was just a couple thousand per day. While this project was largely locally funded, it’s arguably exemplar of the Ray LaHood era of the FTA, which at times emphasized flashy “economic catalysts” over functional transit.
New curb use alert! It’s not that often we get to celebrate that a city has rolled out a new classification for curb space. So kudos to Seattle for creating “Music Venue Zones” — meant to give permitted, touring musicians 24/7 access to select loading, unloading and parking areas. Rock on.
Building reform is bipartisan: Three cheers for Texas’ Senate Bill 840, which would allow apartments and mixed-use communities to be built on commercial corridors that currently only allow office buildings. While it’s got a silly carve-out that exempts many ‘burbs, it would still go a long way to injecting life to a number of dreary office parks, while improving housing affordability.
Across the pond… Startup funding is picking up in Europe, with VCs looking especially interested in aerospace, defense and dual-use tech. On a city rivalry basis, Paris has now overtaken London as the continent’s top tech hub. And up in Helsinki, Way Data Technologies just raised a €2.6 million pre-seed for its fleet intelligence platform.
Standing up for good causes isn’t always easy… Sad news out of San Francisco, where Supervisor Joel Engardio looks likely to face a tough recall election. A loud contingent of motorists in SF’s suburban Sunset District are mad that Engardio spearheaded the campaign to turn a dilapidated highway into a lively park and public promenade. (And in true SF fashion, the recall campaign is full of local political intrigue.)
Funding tailored for Swiftly: Transit data platform Swiftly just closed on a new funding round (unspecified, but likely Series B) by Cove Hill Partners and previous investor JMI Equity. The SF-based startup now counts 190 transit agencies as clients, offering real time vehicle data and improving on-time performance.
Frau driver? Uber’s launched its “woman driver preference” feature in Germany, allowing women drivers to exclusively carry women passengers, and women riders to set a preference for female drivers. Uber and Lyft have been rolling out similar versions of this concept across different geographies for a few years now… curious to see if we’ll see any new launches in the U.S. while the DOJ has weaponized the concept of “discrimination” to mean anything that doesn’t exclusively make life easier for white men…
A few good links: NYC congestion pricing has now generated $216M in revenue — with more set to roll in now that a court has temporarily halted the Feds’ ability to kill the program by withholding other funds. The slow death of public space — new research shows Americans “linger” less in parks, promenades and other open civic areas. Interesting data showing that many anti-littering techniques are ineffective. You hate to see it — NYC Mayor Adams looks to crack down on bicyclists. Voltpost opens first curbside, lamppost-based EV charger. RIVR’s new wheeled + legged delivery dog-bot is absolutely terrifying. Santa Monica residents angered by Waymo beeping. A detailed look at auto tariffs, which may now be moot anyway? Autonomous Vehicle Acceleration Act of 2025 seeks to accelerate AV deployments. Port of LA okays $120M of clean truck funding through 2027. Walmart.com adds digital service for Medicare Advantage users.
See you at the happy hour!
- Jonah Bliss & The Curbivore Crew