POLICYSMART

Autonomous vehicles have to navigate more than just the roads. They have to make their way through Congress, too. There's been some twists and turns...and maybe a dead end on the horizon.

We recently spoke with Tanya Snyder, a transportation reporter for Politico, about the ups and downs of AV policy on Capitol Hill. What is Congress doing now? Anything? Who are AV companies turning to now?

LINKS:

• Tanya Snyder
• "AV industry turns away from Congress"
• Politico
• Politico Morning Transportation newsletter

• Sasha Lekach, Tech Reporter for Transportation, Mashable
• "Lyft self-driving cars offer tactile maps, diagrams for blind riders" by Sasha Lekach

Is your city interested in testing autonomous vehicles? Has it been asked to test them in the future? Jason JonMichael, the City of Austin's Assistant Director for Smart Mobility, shares with you the considerations to think through.

Is your city built to support the test? Can it meet enough of the needs of the AV company to enter into this type of public-private partnership? What about the taxpayer?

Tune in to this episode to hear Jason's experience. He left a private sector career to work on these big projects in Austin.

LINKS:

Jason JonMichael

Austin's Smart Mobility Road Map

Google's Waymo in Austin

Ford AV expanding to Austin

• STUDY: Why cities with high bicycling rates are safer for all road users by Wesley Marshall (University of Colorado Denver) and Nicholas Ferenchak (University of New Mexico)
• Protected Bike Lanes Are Safer for Drivers, Too by Laura Bliss, The Atlantic's CityLab

Handling both technology and telecom as CTO of New York City DOT, Cordell Schachter has seen it all. In an effort to make travel safer for all NYC travelers, no matter their chosen mode of transportation, Cordell has helped initiate and manage efforts across the transportation board and talks with us about congestion pricing, 5G deployment, connected vehicle pilot projects and other ideas to help move the biggest city in the US.

Scooters and e-bikes are everywhere—and they seem to have appeared overnight. You've probably tripped over a scooter before...or ridden one to work. You've probably also gone on an e-bike joyride while touring a city.

Our guest, Rasheq Zarif, speaks with us about how these small wheels actually help fill a big need in our cities. He is a managing director at Deloitte and leads the tech sector for the Future of Mobility.

No one can argue that micromobility is disrupting America's cities (and abroad!). How can we work these micro-machines into our cities? What benefits can we get from them?

Rasheq is also the lead author of a new report, "Small is beautiful: Making micromobility work for citizens, cities, and service providers."

Long haul. Regional, local and logistical delivery. Truck drivers and the general public.  Autonomous, connected, and new mobility platforms are taking center stage in trucking companies large and small. Ross Froat, Director of Engineering and Information Technology at the American Trucking Associations, talks about how these new technologies are front-and-center for an industry that brings us just about everything we use every day.

Upending the status quo. That's a given with new mobility. So how do local and state governments work with manufacturers and product and service providers in helping the public both understand and become engaged in the promises of change? We spoke with Claudia Bilotto, WSP USA's transportation and infrastructure area manager for the city of Atlanta at this year's Transportation Research Board's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. As an advisor to both government and private industry, she shares some of her best practices and ideas in this edition of POLICYSMART.