Andy Ambrosius’ Post

wow! loved this chat with Washington State Department of Transportation's Barb Chamberlain a few *years!* in the making. It's a long read but did you know you can *listen* to it on the Substack app? remember to: 👍🏻 LIKE the post on LinkedIn and on my website. ♻️ SHARE it with your networks. know anyone who's interested in cycling or walking? this is a perfect primer on the policy questions we ask as #transportation professionals to help guide the planning. 🗣️ COMMENT -- disagree? agree? have any of your thoughts you think could help contextualize our conversation for YOUR community? let us know! https://lnkd.in/gRT_8bc2 >>Would that be the outcome in some places? If you said, “What's your challenge here?” The challenge is: that delivery trucks clog this street at this time of day. One answer is: let's make a bigger street and then everybody can get around the delivery trucks. A different answer might be: let's ask all of the businesses to talk to their delivery services and tell them to come before 6 a.m. and after 7 p.m. And then we're not going to be clogged and we're going to get our delivery stuff. Now everybody there has to shift how they deal with deliveries. But we also don't need a wider street. So we solved a problem without building a thing. #activetransportation #washingtonstate #urbanplanning #interview #smart #walkbikeroll #safety

👻If there's something strange Buses disappearing in your neighbourhood Who you gonna call? Ghost bus-ters 🚌 👻If there's something weird And your bus doesn’t appear Who you gonna call? Ghost bus-ters 🚌 👻I ain't 'fraid of no ghost (bus) 🚌 👻I ain't 'fraid of no ghost (bus) 🚌 Ever been ghosted at a bus stop? One minute, the bus is on your app, then suddenly it’s vanished, and your wait time has gone back up. Ghost buses might not haunt houses, but they sure spook your schedule. So, this Halloween, NEC is busting the myth of ghost buses once and for all! 👻🚌 NEC’s Head of Smart Transport ANZ + Global Centre of Excellence Lead, Mark Messenger, shares how our tech can banish these transit phantoms for a smoother, less eerie commute: https://lnkd.in/gies6a68 #Halloween #GhostBuses #SmartTransport #TechSolutions #TransportInnovation #TransportSolutions #PublicTransport

The last mile to public transit. When the Governor of New Jersey filed a lawsuit to delay New York City’s new congestion pricing fees, I couldn’t help thinking how the Roam™ marketplace will help to solve many aspects of transportation, both public and private. Ridership is one key to efficiency – but first, let’s recap. New York City has been in the news for their planned congestion pricing policy, which will require fees to travel through parts of Manhattan that are especially impacted by frequent standstill traffic delays. The plan is estimated to put $15B of revenue into subway repairs, additional train cars, and a Second Avenue line extension into East Harlem. But these legal challenges will put at risk this major funding source, which is meant to keep all of New York City’s subway working. Transit authority officials say that losing it will mean a “return to the bad old days” and “service decline.” But why do we care? The Roam™ mission includes a commitment to support public transit, which we see as crucial to our well-functioning “built environment” and which is made stronger when it is in greater use by more riders. One way the Roam™ community will support public transit is by being a “last mile” solution for those who need to reach their public transit hub. By offering riders a cost that’s as low as 1/10th of a taxi, Uber, or Lyft ride, our mobile app can help achieve this at scale. So while we’ll fill up the back seats of cars with our local, community-based carpooling solution, we’ll also endeavor to fill public transit seats. Join us. We envision a future driven by you.  www.roam-marketplace.com #community, #transportation, #ridesharing, #socialcapital, #efficiency, #uniteconomics, #climatechangemitigation

What happened to transportation equity in this case? We see neighborhoods with multimillion dollar homes, get free (state of art) public transportation services that are greatly needed in low income communities for last minute mile and to replace infrequent buses.

This post might just save your life. What side of the road do you walk on? It amazes (and scares) me that so many people who walk on rural pavement-less roads do so with their back to traffic! I was taught as a very young child that you face oncoming traffic. In the UK that means being on the right hand side, in single file and wearing bright clothing (at least the guy in the photo is doing that*). There are exceptions, to quote the Highway Code "It may be safer to cross the road well before a sharp right-hand bend so that oncoming traffic has a better chance of seeing you. Cross back after the bend." I spend a lot of time in National Parks and other rural places and the vast, and I mean vast, majority of walkers I see opt to walk on the left hand side of roads. Don't! How can you see a vehicle approaching without having to keep twisting round (with the added risk of losing your balance)? It's plain bonkers. And it's not just a younger demographic. I see plenty of people my age, and older, doing it. One of my kids recently had an argument with a group of friends who all believed you should walk on the left. Walking is an actively encouraged pastime and I assume most people have literally no idea they're doing it all wrong. It's dangerous for drivers too. Maybe the statistics don't support my bugbear but surely it's just an accident waiting to happen. Have you spotted this too? It is getting worse? Or did you not know you should walk on the right until you read this? We're all friends here, fess up. Maybe I've just saved your life. Should there be more education to make people more aware about this? * ok, so this is actually a photo from Europe. They are walking on the right (sorry correct) side of the road but forgive me, I was using it for dramatic effect 😉 #highwaycode #room101 #roadwalking Sustrans

Last week, RideCo invited Tyler Means, AICP, Chief Mobility and Strategy Officer at Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA), and Terry O'Toole, President of Kansas City Operations at zTrip, to discuss the agency's journey with on-demand transportation, and how the partnership with RideCo On-Demand Transit and zTrip has enabled KCATA to successfully deliver efficient #microtransit and #paratransit service with high rider reviews. During the session, Means shared their recent achievements and KPIs from the programs, including: ⭐ 60%+ trips are shared rides for both microtransit and paratransit ⭐ 95% of microtransit trips are booked through the mobile app ⭐ Cost per trip is less than $23 for the microtransit program ⭐ Reduced staff workload and improved work satisfaction through automated Eligibility Management workflows for paratransit Watch the full webinar session to hear more insights and learn the agency's vision for the future of on-demand transportation: https://lnkd.in/gZMf3wr9

Interstate 85 has become a major economic engine for the Southeast, fueling growth from Alabama to Virginia. It’s driving industrial and commercial development, with big projects like Meta's $840 million data center in Montgomery and IONNA's EV charging hub in Durham. Along the I-85 corridor, industries like automotive, e-commerce, and tech are booming, creating jobs and sparking real estate development. Interesting read here: https://bit.ly/3TtZbB9.

10 years ago, I was back in grad school in the midst of a career pivot away from finance and towards urban tech. An ongoing argument amongst our ragtag class of wannabe wonks & nerds was to debate the dramatic rise of Uber, at the time a few years into (semi-legally) operating in NYC and symbolic of my generation's imperative to "disrupt" legacy systems. A few of us pondered why New York City wasn't more capable of anticipating or creating Uber like services - by then a straightforward implementation of location tracking, online payments, and rating. 10 years prior to that debate, in 2004, NYC had committed to upgrading its fleet of 13,000 yellow cabs with location tracking, touch-screen displays, and accept credit cards. These upgrades came with a fare increase of 26% which also led to wage increases for cabbies from ~$10 to ~$15/hour. This 2005 press release announcing the RFP contains a powerful passage that captures the sentiments of these well intentioned reformers. "This RFP allows the City to bring all of its knowledge, experience and buying power to bear on behalf of both the taxicab industry and the riding public. The way it was structured will allow this project to culminate in improvements in customer service that are light years ahead of anything taxicab riders have ever seen anywhere in the world." By the time these upgrades were fully rolled out (late 2008) and after awarding contracts worth over $50 million, much of the yellow cab riding public owned smartphones. Between March '09 when Uber was founded and Nov 2011, it had raised a similar sized pile of cash and launched in NYC rendering the yellow cab service and the tech inside it almost obsolete. Reforming Taxi service using technology amidst the rise of the app / gig economy required carefully threading several needles and balancing the needs of multiple onstituencies that included taxi medallion owners, cabbies, and the cab riding public. Rapid technological change bulldozed through all of that. Many well intentioned reform efforts inside city government involve rolling out tech that are at a risk of being "Uber-ized". 10 years after grad school as the waves of AI and electrification come crashing into all aspects of urban life, I find myself again asking a more general question. How do well intentioned reformers who want to serve the public interest avoid being blindsided by a rapacious tech replacement cycle?

Whatup doe! Last week, before and after the lions game, there was severe gridlock. In an area that hadn't seen 65,000 people in a long time, the issue was cars. This city is heavily car-focused, a topic for another discussion. I'd like to offer advice to anyone planning to be in the area this Sunday for the game. Here's what I'd do if I didn't live 15 blocks away from the stadium: If you're commuting from Ann Arbor or nearby cities, park your car downtown - it's free on Sundays. Then, board the D2A2, a motorcar that travels from Ann Arbor to Detroit every 30 minutes. It's a pleasant ride, getting you into the area of the stadium or local bars within 5 minutes. If you're commuting from the metro Detroit area, consider car sharing. Park in non-downtown areas and use public transit to get into the city. While Sunday parking is free, many people arrive the day before the game. If you're commuting into the city, you may have to pay high parking rates or face traffic congestion. I'd suggest parking on Fort Street and Trumbull, then taking the 29 bus. Get off at Rosa Park, hop onto the People Mover (Times Square), and enjoy a ride around the city. Disembark at Broadway and walk to the stadium or nearby bars. If you prefer, you can also walk from Rosa Park Transit. Other cost-effective alternatives to driving and facing traffic include using The Woodward FAST provided by SMART, The DDOT 4, The Qline, or any bus that gets you to either Rosa Park Transit or onto Woodward. Now is the time to use public transit and dispel its myths. It's not just for the poor, and it's not as bad as some make it sound. Furthermore, saying it will never change is counterproductive. Change happens when we actively advocate for it. I write this to push for change and to enlighten people about more convenient ways to get into the city. If you have any questions about getting into Detroit from within the city or the suburbs via bus, feel free to reach out. I'm here to help. Let’s share this with our network! Road & Transport Authority - RTA, Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, Office of Mobility Innovation at The City of Detroit, City of Detroit, Qline.