Mobility COE October 3, 2024 Municipal Workshop Summary

Juan Matute | Kate Burns

A summary of proceedings, lessons learned, conclusions, and next steps from a gathering of approximately 50 transportation professionals gathered in Washington, DC on October 3rd, 2024 to discuss local perspectives on new mobility and automated vehicles.

Lessons Learned:

1. Several federal funding programs can support new mobility
2. Local governments are the first to have on-the-ground experience with new mobility. However, new mobility companies do not launch in partnership with cities and local governments lack data to understand the impacts of new mobility services.
3. Emergencies and major events accentuate the public safety need for real-time data and communications between local governments and new mobility providers.
4. As general purpose governments, local governments are more oriented toward comprehensive public safety needs than statewide transportation departments or regulators. A mutual interest in public safety can be a foundation for new mobility and automated vehicle providers to work together as these mobility services are more widely adopted in cities.

Conclusions:

1. The introduction of new mobility services into cities has historically followed a pattern of initial confrontation, followed by an equilibrium.
2. New mobility companies and local governments understand that they have different missions and interests, but companies liaising exclusively through public or governmental affairs staff may delay the resolution of issues that impact public safety.
3. Local, state, and federal government agencies have different purviews, perspectives, and research needs on new mobility and automated vehicles.

Next Steps:

1. Participants discussed a number of new mobility and automated vehicle research needs that will be shared with COE partners and incorporated into future COE research planning
2. All researchers should consider the role of universities and third parties in brokering data collection, analysis, and sharing between new mobility providers and government entities.
3. Researchers should collect data and conduct interviews from local governments which are early to experience new mobility and automated vehicle services. This knowledge will be informative for cities, regions, and states experiencing successive waves of new mobility and automated vehicle adoption.