NYC Released Curb Management Action Plan
NYC Released Curb Management Action Plan
HNGRY Summit, CA Speed Cameras, Tokyo's Abundance
Our partners at food tech media platform HNGRY are hosting an all-day summit in LA on October 20th to explore the blurring lines of restaurants, retail, CPG, and supply chain as it relates to the future of food. Expect 1:1 fireside chats with leaders behind brands like Eater, Resy, Blackbird, Goop Kitchen, Anytime Spritz, and Everytable alongside collaborative breakout sessions, and of course, food and drink! Register with code SUMMIT20 for 20% off of early bird tickets.
NYCDOT Releases Curb Management Action Plan
On Tuesday, NYCDOT Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez kicked off a comprehensive reimagining of the city’s streets and curb space. Named the “Curb Management Action Plan,” the key items include:
Piloting NYC’s first “Smart Curbs” neighborhoods, testing new and
innovative curb uses
Prioritizing curb uses to meet neighborhood needs
Making deliveries to businesses and homes safer, sustainable,
and more efficient
Piloting the East Coast’s first low-emission zone
Designating curb space to make passenger pickups and
drop-offs easier
Expanding bike parking to make traveling by bike
more convenient
Providing space for Dining Out NYC, waste containerization, street
furniture, and other public realm improvements
Testing new technologies for remote and flexible curb management
and enforcement
Pricing on-street parking to increase commercial activity
Charging non-transportation users of curb space
Full details on the ambitious framework can be found in the city’s 44 page PDF overview.
HOT INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
SG snags Grab: The Land Transport Authority, Singapore’s taxi and ridehailing regulator, is reviewing the industry in the city-state, as the municipality deals with increased traffic, and consumers grumble about late-night availability and poor service for disabled users. Grab, the local industry ridehail and food delivery leader, saw its shares sip 8% on the news.
Coming soon, safer streets: California’s state senate just approved AB645, which restores speed cameras in the Golden State. This bill and its predecessors took a few different attempts to finally make it out of the legislature, including that this iteration only lasts five years and is limited to Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Glendale, San Francisco and Long Beach.
In other CA legislative news: In a rare bit of bipartisan rule-making, the state senate also approved a bill that would restrict autonomous trucking operations, requiring the use of an onboard safety driver. Unlike the previous bill, this one is less certain to receive Governor Newson’s signature, as he’s shown continued support for AVs in CA.
Learning from Tokyo’s abundance: While cities across the U.S. attempt to preserve themselves in amber, Tokyo continually rebuilds itself anew. In fact, in the past half century alone, Tokyo has built more new housing than the total amount that exists at all in NYC. And of course it keeps reshaping its streets and transit to support that growth, which keeps the housing stock naturally affordable — like any other consumer good. A better world is possible!
Curbs take to the sky! The Open Mobility Foundation welcomed a new members, Eve Air Mobility. Some may recall that the technology behind the OMF’s Mobility Data Specification was originally designed for urban air mobility and AV purposes before being adapted for smaller scale on-street mobility. Perhaps we’re starting to come full circle..
Lime squeezes out a profit: Micromobility leader Lime reports it’s finally eked out a small profit of around $20M. Not much, but still better than many of its competitors, and good enough to have the company mulling an IPO. Things might get sour still, as cities like Rome look to follow Paris’ lead and cut down on scooter operations.
Small cities pouring concrete: Rethinking curb and street space is an enormous opportunity for smaller municipality to harvest some of their past vibrancy. A new project in Kalamazoo, MI not only has the streets looking better, but it’s decreased crashes by 33%. Let’s see this all across the beautiful urban cores of the Upper Midwest!
More Big Apple drama: NYC may be talking a big game about curbs (see opening section) but a few existing plans are still not quite complete… Mayor Adams promised to be a champion for bus riders, but the city has been slow to add new lanes. And a pedestrian and bicyclist friendly redesign of Brooklyn’s busy McGuinness Blvd has gotten bogged down by political interference. The city’s new rules for cargo ebikes are still getting hashed out, but at least here the DOT seems very eager to listen to constituents. And a well-intentioned plan to get delivery workers onto safer ebikes is off to a slow start.
Over in Chicago: The Windy City just scored nearly $2 billion in Federal cash to extend the Red Line to the underserved South Side. If you look at the route though, it’s basically adjacent to existing commuter rail lines. What if those billions went to increasing service and lowering fares — maybe it’s time to learn from how other countries run their railroads…
Can we get these stateside? GM’s Chinese subsidiary SAIC-GM-Wuling rolled out a “Boajun Yep” pickup that would make streets everywhere a whole lot more welcoming. It’s got 67 horsepower, a top speed of 62 MPH, is about the size of a Fiat 500, and costs under $14k. And look at how cute it is! While it’s now available in additional countries, this mini-truck is decidedly not for sale in America.
A few good links: Delivery giants sign bike/scooter road safety pledge in London. Flytrex launches autonomous pickup. Ebike safety advocates neglect to worry about cars. DoorDash bans booze delivery on MA campuses. McDonald’s launches Tesla Cybertruck McFlurry promo — wonder what the build quality is like? After new state bill, Coastal Commission reverses course on killing streateries and parklets near San Diego beach. Mexico’s new train nears launch. UPS drones okayed for beyond visual line of sight operations. Populus seeks CFO. Every American transit agency needs to learn from Montreal’s C$119M/km automated rail build out.
Until next week!
- Jonah Bliss & The Curbivore Crew