Safety & Funding Improvements for Pedestrians & E-Bikers
Curbivore ticket prices jump Friday
I can’t believe we’re just four weeks away from the kickoff of Curbivore 2024 — headed to our special curb-campus in the Downtown LA Arts District, March 28 & 29.
I highly recommend you grab tickets FAST, prices jump EOD Friday. For now it’s still just $195 to join amazing leaders from across the mobility, delivery, curb management and restaurant tech landscape. In case you missed it, we’re giving a sneak peak of some of the amazing technologists, regulators, inventors, chefs, and media that’ll be in the mix, including our latest partners.
HOT INDUSTRY NEWS & GOSSIP
Rebate debate: E-bike rebates are all the rage these days, spreading from Europe, to Denver, to Pasadena. David Zipper analyzes a new research paper on their efficacy, finding that point-of-purchase rebates are 30% more effective than tax credits, the buyers most likely to be induced have incomes that lie at 200-300% of poverty levels, and that big rebates for cargo bikes mostly go wasted.
Ped power: After years of marching in the wrong direction, U.S. pedestrian deaths fell in the first half of 2023, coming down a scant 4%. NM and FL continue to be the most dangerous states to walk, for reasons that have nothing to do with gators or chupacabras. Meanwhile, a new study looks at the language used to describe vehicle-pedestrian collisions, and unsurprisingly finds that in car-dominated areas, the pedestrian is usually blamed.
Apple car cancelled: Don’t actually care much about the story, just wanted to make this visual (with no disrespect to the busy world of Richard Scarry.)
An equally small, car-like object: Check out the Microlino Lite, which tops out at 45 km/h (28 mph,) can go 100 km per charge, and because it’s classified as a moped: legally, young teens can drive it in many countries. Available in Europe for about $168 per mo.
Curb management updates! Sourcewell gives its blessing to Umojo and Eleven-x, giving both companies easier pathways to public sector contracts for curb and parking management. And, Arcadis just scored a curb management contract with the City of West Hollywood. A few miles over, Culver City is seeking a Senior Transportation Planner, with pretty good pay!
3PDs’ FY23: With 2023 fully in the rearview mirror, we’ve seen more of the delivery platforms drop off last year’s financial results. DoorDash saw GOV jump 25% to $66.8 billion, while revenue was up even more: nearly 32%. Just Eat Takeaway.com (which owns Grubhub in the U.S.) had a rougher go of it, with GTV down 4% (constant currency) to €28.2 billion, and revenue off 5%.
Curbside charging on the rise: The City of LA has been relatively aggressive about installing EV chargers at the curb. By tapping into the city’s street lighting network, it can avoid the need to build expensive new electric infrastructure, even if it sometimes results in somewhat ungainly wires draping from the sky. Now the city hopes to go from 725 chargers to 4,000+, with an emphasis on lower income neighborhoods. No word yet on if they’ll be retrofitting the iconic Chris Burden piece in front of LACMA. (Think of all the cars it could serve!)
The battle for Seattle: Seattle recently put new pay laws in place for delivery workers, boosting wages to at least $26.40/hour. The 3PDs have implemented new surcharges to defray costs, and both DoorDash and Uber have put out data showing the impact to delivery demand. Workers are split on the bill, but city government looks to be standing strong. As more cities and states wade into this debate, we asked Allen Narcisse, founder of job-finding platform Gigs (and Curbivore 2024 partner) to weigh in; he noted “Our research at Gigs indicates that gig drivers prioritize earnings stability above all else.”
Orange crush? The words “Orange County” may evoke more mental pictures of Lexus SUVs than public transit, but the county of 3.2 million does have a few urban gems, stitched along the remnants of the once-mighty Red Cars and Southern Pacific. (Check out Old Towne Orange if you want to feel like you’re in Mayberry with better Southeast Asian food.) The county’s public transit provider is nearing completion of a new streetcar, which combined with bike infrastructure, will give Santa Ana denizens a decent new way to get around town. Check out the progress below.
For the Midwesterners that never made it to SoCal: St. Louis’ MPO just approved the route for a new light rail line, running straight down Jefferson Ave. While it avoids the slow zig-zags of other options, it now ends up missing most major destinations. Folks heading to either Downtown STL or the secondary-CBD of Clayton will need to transfer, cutting projected ridership to about 5k per day. Either way it beats the situation in Indianapolis, where Republican state legislators are meddling to kill off BRT (after killing light rail years earlier.)
A few good links: Streatery vs. hit-and-run. Food truck kingpin in trouble for taking restaurateur money, not delivering the trucks. Emergency pizzas boost Domino’s sales. Oops - ILJA may actually lead to increased emissions. LA County sues Grubhub over misleading fees. Ebike battery fires on the rise in NYC. Miami Beach sides with racism and gridlock, opposes Metromover expansion. Cartken and Uber Eats launch in Japan, Ottonomy and Sodexo launch at Universidad Europa. Dublin hopes to ban cars from city center. Martie’s Louise Fritjofsson talks grocery delivery. Uber, Lyft threaten to leave Minneapolis if pay ordinance proceeds. Elon’s tunnels are an OSHA nightmare. London looks to boat-based delivery. An AI review of Kernel, the new robotic restaurant from the founder of Chipotle.
P.S. Got your Curbivore ticket yet?
- Jonah Bliss & The Curbivore Crew