Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
Brandon Donnelly
Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly.
Fred Wilson wrote a great post on his blog today about New York City’s “transit mess.”
In it he talks about congestion pricing (which, as you all know, I support); the mess that is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA); and this 37-page report on how to improve the MTA.
Here is an excerpt from his post that I liked, but that won’t be popular with everyone:
That is an idea [congestion pricing] that has been proposed a number of times over the years, most notably by Mayor Bloomberg during his tenure. It is a good idea and long overdue. A dense urban environment should have excellent mass transit and incentives to use it and should have disincentives to drive cars. Taxing cars in Manhattan and using the revenues to maintain and improve our subways seems like an obvious thing to do.
I would encourage you to give his post a read. The New York Times also reported on this topic (and the above recommendations) this week. They called it, 7 ways to fix the MTA (which needs a $60 billion overhaul).
Last week, Mary Meeker of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers published her annual internet trends report. You can find it here, if for whatever reason it is not showing up below. Also, here is last year’s Internet Trends 2017 presentation in case you’re curious.
[slideshare id=fFLWra0S1mrGLB&w=595&h=485&fb=0&mw=0&mh=0&style=border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;&sc=no]
Internet Trends Report 2018 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
One slide that stood out for me is the one below. It shows the global demand for transportation trips booked through smartphone apps. The numbers include on-demand taxis, private for-hire vehicles, as well as on-demand motorbikes and bicycles.
A couple of months ago I wrote about Bird, the electric scooter sharing company that is trying to solve the last-mile problem. They are expanding across the US and it is seemingly wildly popular.
But its popularity is also leading some people to call them a public nuisance. Perhaps the biggest contributor to that is the fact that the system is dockless. That is, when you get to your destination you can park the Bird wherever you want.
That’s obviously a great feature for users (who wants to look around for a docking station?), but it’s also causing a proliferation of “Bird litter” in the cities and neighborhoods where they are widely used.
I am sure this will eventually get resolved.
The other thing about going dockless is that you now have a charging problem. Where and when do these scooters get charged and by whom? Bird solves this problem through decentralized contract workers called “Bird hunters.”
You register to be one and then Bird pays you $5 to $20 for every scooter charged, depending on how difficult the Bird is to find. And as you can expect, these scooters are getting left all over the place.
I thought this was a clever solution. And apparently it is popular with high school students looking to earn extra cash. Some are making several hundred dollars a day by spending their evenings picking up and dropping off Birds.
Fred Wilson wrote a great post on his blog today about New York City’s “transit mess.”
In it he talks about congestion pricing (which, as you all know, I support); the mess that is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA); and this 37-page report on how to improve the MTA.
Here is an excerpt from his post that I liked, but that won’t be popular with everyone:
That is an idea [congestion pricing] that has been proposed a number of times over the years, most notably by Mayor Bloomberg during his tenure. It is a good idea and long overdue. A dense urban environment should have excellent mass transit and incentives to use it and should have disincentives to drive cars. Taxing cars in Manhattan and using the revenues to maintain and improve our subways seems like an obvious thing to do.
I would encourage you to give his post a read. The New York Times also reported on this topic (and the above recommendations) this week. They called it, 7 ways to fix the MTA (which needs a $60 billion overhaul).
Last week, Mary Meeker of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers published her annual internet trends report. You can find it here, if for whatever reason it is not showing up below. Also, here is last year’s Internet Trends 2017 presentation in case you’re curious.
[slideshare id=fFLWra0S1mrGLB&w=595&h=485&fb=0&mw=0&mh=0&style=border:1px solid #CCC; border-width:1px; margin-bottom:5px; max-width: 100%;&sc=no]
Internet Trends Report 2018 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
One slide that stood out for me is the one below. It shows the global demand for transportation trips booked through smartphone apps. The numbers include on-demand taxis, private for-hire vehicles, as well as on-demand motorbikes and bicycles.
A couple of months ago I wrote about Bird, the electric scooter sharing company that is trying to solve the last-mile problem. They are expanding across the US and it is seemingly wildly popular.
But its popularity is also leading some people to call them a public nuisance. Perhaps the biggest contributor to that is the fact that the system is dockless. That is, when you get to your destination you can park the Bird wherever you want.
That’s obviously a great feature for users (who wants to look around for a docking station?), but it’s also causing a proliferation of “Bird litter” in the cities and neighborhoods where they are widely used.
I am sure this will eventually get resolved.
The other thing about going dockless is that you now have a charging problem. Where and when do these scooters get charged and by whom? Bird solves this problem through decentralized contract workers called “Bird hunters.”
You register to be one and then Bird pays you $5 to $20 for every scooter charged, depending on how difficult the Bird is to find. And as you can expect, these scooters are getting left all over the place.
I thought this was a clever solution. And apparently it is popular with high school students looking to earn extra cash. Some are making several hundred dollars a day by spending their evenings picking up and dropping off Birds.
China, through a combination of cars and bicycles, makes up 68% of the global share. It looks to be over 5 billion completed trips in Q1 2018. A staggering number. At the same time, look at how much of that is a result of growth in the number of bicycle trips.
China, through a combination of cars and bicycles, makes up 68% of the global share. It looks to be over 5 billion completed trips in Q1 2018. A staggering number. At the same time, look at how much of that is a result of growth in the number of bicycle trips.
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog