Cities Designed to Shape and Enable New Mobility Experimentation at the Interface of Urban Design and Mobility
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M OUN KY T C A I O N R I N E STIT U T CITIES DESIGNED TO SHAPE AND ENABLE NEW MOBILITY EXPERIMENTATION AT THE INTERFACE OF URBAN DESIGN AND MOBILITY GREG RUCKS AND BEN HOLLAND AUTHORS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AUTHORS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Ben Holland and Greg Rucks The authors thank the following individuals/ organizations for offering their insights and * Authors listed alphabetically. perspectives on this work. Shin-pei Tsay, Gehl Institute ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTORS Jeff Risom, Gehl Institute Robert Hutchinson, Rocky Mountain Institute Nico Larco, Urbanism Next Laurie Stone, Rocky Mountain Institute Meg Merritt, Nelson\Nygaard Anand Babu, Sidewalk Labs, Google AI/Brain CONTACTS Support for this work was provided by the Robert Greg Rucks, [email protected] Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here Ben Holland, [email protected] do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation. SUGGESTED CITATION Rucks, Greg and Ben Holland, New Mobility in Cities Designed to Shape and Enable It: Experimentation at the Interface of Urban Design and New Mobility . Rocky Mountain Institute, 2018. www.info.rmi.org/Urban- Design-and-New-Mobility Images courtesy of iStock unless otherwise noted. ABOUT US M OUN KY T C A I O N R I N E STIT U T ABOUT ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)—an independent nonprofit founded in 1982—transforms global energy use to create a clean, prosperous, and secure low-carbon future. It engages businesses, communities, institutions, and entrepreneurs to accelerate the adoption of market-based solutions that cost-effectively shift from fossil fuels to efficiency and renewables. RMI has offices in Basalt and Boulder, Colorado; New York City; Washington, D.C.; and Beijing. TABLE OF CONTENTS 01: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 05 02: INTRODUCING MOD CITIES ...................................................................................................................07 03: EMISSIONS, HEALTH, AND EQUITY BENEFITS OF URBAN DESIGN FOR NEW MOBILITY ...............................................................................................................................................13 04: PROMISE OR PERIL? AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE ................................................................................14 05: POTENTIAL IMPACTS .................................................................................................................................18 06: NAVIGATING RISK AND UNCERTAINTY THROUGH EXPERIMENTATION ............................23 07: THE FIRST EXPERIMENTATION ENABLER: METRICS ....................................................................25 08: THE SECOND EXPERIMENTATION ENABLER: FLEXIBILITY .......................................................28 09: THE THIRD EXPERIMENTATION ENABLER: COLLABORATION ................................................38 10: MOD CITIES: KEY ELEMENTS ..................................................................................................................40 11: MOD CITIES: VALUE PROPOSITION BY STAKEHOLDER ...............................................................44 12: MOD CITIES: UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ........................................................................................46 13: RECOMMENDATIONS AND NEXT STEPS ..........................................................................................48 14: APPENDIX: THE EXPERIMENTATION TOOLKIT PATHWAY ...........................................................51 15: ENDNOTES .....................................................................................................................................................58 01 INTRODUCTION CITIES DESIGNED TO SHAPE AND ENABLE NEW MOBILITY | 5 INTRODUCTION The world is moving away from personal gas-powered our cities. However, it remains unclear how best to vehicles and toward automated, electrified mobility realize this potential while avoiding negative and as a service.i These three parallel shifts—automation, unintended consequences. electrification, and mobility as a service—have been characterized as the “three revolutions”1 of new mobility. Market forces driven by consumer demand already appear to be leading the shift to new mobility in key In this paper, we explore the potential to accelerate urban centers. Many expect this shift to accelerate. a fourth revolution that has just begun: the shift from Whether and to what degree the shift to new mobility a largely fixed and planned built environment to one delivers on its potential will largely be determined by that is much more flexible and demand-responsive, the degree to which the built environment actively particularly when it comes to temporary use of vacant shapes and enables it. Short-term experimentation buildings and land; adaptable street design and use; is the key to giving the built environment the buildings designed to accommodate an adjustable adaptability and nimbleness it needs to allow new combination of commercial, residential, and public uses mobility to reach its potential. in response to seasonal or market changes; and myriad forms of quickly deployable, moveable, and modifiable With this paper, RMI hopes to (1) offer cities and buildings and infrastructure. The “four revolutions” then other mobility and built environment stakeholders an collectively underpin the phrase “new mobility in cities experimentation toolkit that puts them in a position to designed to shape and enable it.” more quickly unlock the full potential of new mobility in cities designed to shape and enable it, and (2) engage This new mobility paradigm has the potential to stakeholders in further codeveloping and exploring mitigate the effects of climate change by dramatically a concept for living, flexible, and collaborative reducing emissions, equitably enhance human experimentation sites we’re calling MOD Cities. health and wellbeing, and improve the livability of i “Mobility as a service”—allowing travelers to get where they want, when they want, how they want—refers to on-demand availability of multimodal mobility options. Often, these options are best discovered, accessed, and paid for through smartphone applications that offer integrated journey planning, booking, and payment capabilities. Walking, biking, and mass transit are integral to mobility as a service. See https://www.rmi.org/insight/interoperable-transit-data/ for more detail. 6 02 INTRODUCING MOD CITIES CITIES DESIGNED TO SHAPE AND ENABLE NEW MOBILITY | 7 INTRODUCING MOD CITIES In collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson features on their behavior, health, and livelihood can Foundation, Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) is exploring be concretely demonstrated and understood. A place and testing industry interest in a concept we’re calling that reduces risk aversion among all stakeholders by MOD Cities, where “MOD” is short for “modular” and providing assurance of customer demand for—and “modifiable” and also stands for “mobility-oriented thus financial viability of—new approaches to urban development.” MOD Cities would be living test sites design and mobility. A place where policymakers from where local municipal governments, developers, across the globe can directly observe the impact of financiers, the vehicle-service industry, and urban enabling flexible and experimental approaches to designers and architects actively collaborate to urban design by revising zoning practices and land co-innovate at the nexus of urban design, vehicles, use codes. A place where innovation timescales can and new mobility services. MOD Cities would put be dramatically accelerated. people first and be seamlessly integrated with the communities and urban fabric at their edges. With sufficient interest, an initial team composed of representatives from key stakeholder groups could Imagine a place—or combination of places—where take the next steps to further define the concept, groundbreaking urban design features can be develop an operating model, and implement MOD complemented by innovative mobility services. A Cities. This report aims to explore the concept of place where the vehicle-service and built environment MOD Cities while providing cities and other mobility industries can experiment in tandem and develop and built environment stakeholders with a toolkit familiarity and ground-tested expertise about the and illustrative case studies for experimentation that relationship between their respective industries. puts them in a position to more quickly unlock the full A place for people to equitably participate in the potential of new mobility in cities designed to shape design process, and where the impact of new design and enable it. 8 INTRODUCING MOD CITIES FIGURE 1 MOD CITIES: HOURLY FLEXIBILITY Traditional City MOD City TraditionalMorning/Evening City-Morning/Evening MOD City Daytime-Morning/Evening`Morning/Evening In the traditional city, traffic peaks during the In MOD City, changes to the urban form have both morning and evening commute. Parking spaces are shaped and enabled introduction of new mobility filling in during the morning and emptying out during services. Underutilized parking space has been the evening. On a typical day, parking utilization will converted to bike (and scooter) lanes, pedestrian peak at less than half of capacity. Space devoted to and social gathering space, and a playground. parking accounts for about one-third of urban land Corrals host dockless bikes and scooters. An use. The