Transportation

Who is the new EV delivery van manufacturer? BrightDrop

Is BrightDrop brought to us by a parent manufacturer? Yes, GM

Anything we should think about when we think about GM? Yes, GM has a woman CEO,  Mary Barra

How EV will these delivery vans be?

• Not only are the vehicles EV
• They will also have electric pallets that move parcels from the warehouse to the van and from the van to the lobby

BrightDrop is headed to FedEx like Rivian’s EV delivery vehicle is headed to Amazon.

Motor Trend | Meet BrightDrop, the EV-Based Delivery Business From GM

Welcome to the 1st in the world, self driving water taxi

Who is home to this gem? Knoxville, TN

The company behind self driving water taxis? Buffalo Automation

How does it work? By an app, Mayday, which functions like ride share apps.

What’s the power source for this water taxi? Solar

Knoxville News Sentinel | World’s first self-driving water taxi is ready to ferry passengers in Knoxville

Transportation Network Companies like Uber, Lyft etc. are finding their way into vaccine access in these ways:

• Uber has partnered with Moderna to help get people to vaccines, plus to get Uber drivers vaccinated. Here’s their press release.
• Lyft’s healthcare unit has been working with the Biden administration to solve the logistics problem of vaccination
• Lyft partnered with J.P. Morgan, United Way and Anthem late last year to offer high-risk, low-income, uninsured people transportation to vaccine sites
• Uber offered to assist the Biden administration and to share data with the administration

PYMNTS.com | Uber Teams With Moderna, Joins Lyft In Asking Biden For Part In Vaccine Push

What would be penalized? Empty ride share vehicles “trolling” for riders during rush hour

What is the estimated revenue? $80M per year

Any other touted benefits of trolling penalties?Reduce congestion

Crains Business New York | Trolling penalties for Uber and Lyft could add $80M to city budget

Where: California

What did the one of California’s built train contractors tell California high-speed rail officials was slowing down the project?

• rapid turnover of state officials
• delays in obtaining land for the rail,
• state’s failure to secure agreements with outside parties, including utilities and freight railroads

What does the high speed rail authority say? Disagrees.

Los Angeles Times | Contradicting State, Bullet Train Contractor Reveals Delays

Who: Helping Hands Community

What does Helping Hands Community offer? streamlines how food banks and social service organizations deliver food, medicine and other necessities to senior citizens and those who are immunocompromised

Who is delivering to those in need?

• Volunteers sign up in the app to deliver goods to people in their local communities.
•  The APP also connects service providers to drivers with ride-sharing applications such as Uber and Lyft

How is the app structured? It is a nonprofit platform is completely volunteer-run with about 150 people from companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon

The Bulletin | Bend man creates online platform for those in need during pandemic

San Antonio, TX is home to the largest U.S. wildlife overpass. Studies say wildlife bridges can reduce animal- car accidents by 80%.

The overpass connects 2 sections of the Phil Hardberger Park.

Funding sources for the wildlife bridge:

• $10 million in private funding
• City voters approved a $13 million bond

Similar bridges are planned for Houston and Los Angeles.

Wildlife bridges originated in France in the 1950s .

Route Fifty | The Largest Wildlife Bridge in the U.S. Opens in San Antonio

The city: Spokane, WA

Initial Step: Pilot EV Program for 4 patrol cars plus EV replacements for 2 K-9 units and 2 tahoes

The EV benefits: lower maintenance costs and longer life spans for EVs

Spokesman Review via Governing | Spokane Wants to Switch to Electric Police Vehicles

Where: San Francisco

How will San Francisco Transit Authority transportation plan combat racism?

 90 action steps to root out racism in seven areas — hiring, promotion, discipline, leadership, professional development, organizational culture and boards

Why is the transit agency working to combat racism? A review of agency employee sanctions, it was discovered that harsher sanctions were imposted against black employees for committing the same acts as white employees.

San Francisco Chronicle via Governing | San Francisco Transit Agency Adopts Plan to Combat Racism

SFMTA Racial Equity Plan

If there was a transportation program in 2020, it was a smart something. Smart cities. Smart lamp posts. Smart traffic lights. Bikes that power street lights. Electric Vehicles that could power buildings. Smart roads that generate solar energy.

Smart cars.  Smart Concrete that can power EVs or store solar energy. Smart funding choices showed that  cities save money by switching to EV fleets, especially their police cars. Fewer repairs. Lower fuel costs. To make incentives for EVs smarter, the UK came up with a green license plate. A very smart and savvy partnership in Asia between ride share and telecoms.

The amount of new technology is transportation is mind boggling. This year we talked about flying pod cars, driverless trucks, hyperloops, electric dirt bikes, solar truck beds, and a University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics at Texas A&M.