Life will feel a lot more normal by spring/summer (Q2). By this time, the various vaccines should be broadly available (at least in the developed world). This is something that never happened during the Spanish Flu. From what I have read, the Spanish Flu lasted… Read More
All posts tagged “public transit”
The global effort to build more bike lanes
I received an email this week from a senior real estate executive who was sharing the fact that, in response to COVID, he had decided to give up driving completely. He was now cycling everywhere — whether for work or for personal errands. And it… Read More
Uber to close 45 of its offices
On Monday it was reported — by the Wall Street Journal, Tech Crunch, and others — that Uber will be laying off another 3,000 employees and closing 45 of its offices around the world. Here is a quote from TechCrunch: “I knew that I had… Read More
Are car tunnels the solution to traffic congestion?
Elon Musk recently posted this Twitter survey asking if we, the people, would like “super safe, Earthquake-proof tunnels under [our] cities to solve traffic.” It was leading in that the “no” response was, “No, I like traffic.” And it was initially vague in that it… Read More
A decentralizing or centralizing force?
I was on two panel discussions over the last week and, as is the case with all real estate panels, the topic of parking invariably came up, as did the impact of autonomous vehicles. There seems to be a general consensus that the advent of… Read More
Transit tech lab launches in NYC
Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and the Partnership for New York City launched a new vertical accelerator dedicated to public transit. The mission is to make the city a global leader in this space. Applications are open until November 30, 2018 and… Read More
Lyft announces subscription plan
Last week, Lyft announced a new subscription plan. It costs $299 every 30 days and you get 30 rides included (up to $15 each). So it represents a possible 1/3 discount on rides. If you go over the 30 rides per month or over $15… Read More
Lyft reveals plans for bikes and scooters
On Monday, John Zimmer and Logan Green, the co-founders of Lyft, published this Medium post announcing their “approach to partnering with cities to introduce bike and scooter sharing” to their platform. “Approach to partnering with cities” is undoubtedly a carefully chosen set of words given… Read More
Global mobility index
Below is a short video that was created by the MIT Senseable City Lab, World Economic Forum and TomTom for a study on how people move in 100 cities around the world. They call it the Global Mobility Index. It shows congestion levels (using real-time… Read More
Shenzhen has just electrified its entire bus fleet
This is impressive: Shenzhen recently finished converting its entire bus fleet to electric vehicles. That’s 16,359 buses and around 8,000 charging stations according to Electrek. It is estimated that this all-electric fleet saves 345,000 tons of fuel per year and reduces carbon emissions by 1.35… Read More