| Connecting The DOTs
by Kirk Steudle
“We’ve seen some
inroads made by CAV
and new ridesharing
services but there’s a lot
more work to be done”
was the result of a collaboration between
the RTC, City of Las Vegas, AAA, and
Keolis North America that leveraged
existing CAV technologies.
Another example is the Workforce
Mobility Program that the RTC, a local
business, and Lyft collaborated on to
specifically solve a problem in providing
FLM mobility for workers to a North Las
Vegas location not served by transit.
These are just a few of the many
examples from the RTC to solve mobility
gaps in its region. I invite you to take
a closer look at their work.
Similarly, Florida DOT is currently
taking this collaborative approach for
future CAV requirements with its Safe
Mobility for Life Program and Coalition.
Safe Mobility for Life takes a well-defined,
integrated, and holistic approach to
leveraging collaborations to solve mobility
challenges. Stay tuned for more on this in
a future column. Until next time, travel safe.
Kirk Steudle is senior vice president of Econolite
and former director of Michigan DOT. He can be
reached at KSteudle@econolite.com
www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com 077
Providing end-to-end
mobility can be met by
greater connectivity
One of the most inspiring
promises of connected
mobility, next to saving
lives, is bridging mobility gaps and
providing access equality. While public
transit has advanced over the last 200 years,
the concept and strategy remain the same:
move people from one point to another,
leaving the first and last portions of the
journey to the individual – a mobility gap
referred to as the “first-and-last mile” (FLM).
I believe we can change this and
leverage connected mobility to solve the
FLM mobility gap. We’ve seen some inroads
made by CAV and new ridesharing services,
but there’s a lot more work to be done.
As I mentioned in my last column,
collaboration is key. It will take publicprivate
collaboration with an eye for
leveraging technology more strategically.
For the public sector, it starts by being
the facilitators of collaboration. We must
first think in terms of bringing together
local resources and assets – not
transportation-only. We have to think
of FLM challenges and solutions as part
of a larger mobility ecosystem, not as
individual silos. Therefore, we must be
willing to seek input from experts in all
areas of the ecosystem, including
communications/networking, automation,
cybersecurity, construction, etc.
Just as importantly, it also requires
a willingness among private sector
participants, including business
competitors, to take on challenges as a
team. And, together, we must look to apply
technology as a means to solve problems –
not technology looking for a problem.
Fortunately, this approach yielded
successful past results in Michigan. The
Benzie Bus service is a public-private
collaboration that solved an FLM challenge
by providing Benzie County residents
mobility to/from remote business locations.
Today, some of the best examples are
at the Regional Transportation Commission
of Southern Nevada (RTC). In 2018, RTC
received a federal grant for the Las Vegas
Medical District Automated Circular and
Connected Pedestrian Safety Project, or
GoMed, to provide FLM service to and from
Las Vegas’ Medical District for some of the
region’s most vulnerable and underserved
citizens from a mobility standpoint. GoMed
September/October 2019 Traffic Technology International
PTV – Booth 367
Left: Pick up and drop off
activity in the Oslo region
Inset: Paul Spiers, PTV Group
outcomes measuring the
best and worst operational
performance results. This allows
cities, mobility operators and
transport planners to
understand the worst and most
optimistic forecasts and to find
confidence in the more likely
outcomes. In short, stakeholder
decisions and business model
risks can be better understood
once the full range of outcomes
is evidentially mapped out.
PTV MaaS Modeller also
identifies benign variables that
have little or no impact on the
business model and also those
variables that can be sensitive
to change. Focus can then be
applied to the variables that
trigger the biggest swing in
the results. This second layer of
business model diligence serves
to improve and increase the
overall confidence levels in
the analysis conclusions.
A solution for everyone
Ultimately, the key challenge is
finding the balance between the
most lucrative operator business
model, providing a high level
of service to the customer and
demonstrating positive effects
on congestion. If cities and
mobility providers test enough
operation combinations and
measure the performance
through an objectively designed
KPI framework, they will find
an optimal solution to support
a business model they can
defend when it comes to smart
decision making.
| Free reader
inquiry service
PTV
To learn more about this advertiser, please
visit: www.magupdate.co.uk/ptti
/www.TrafficTechnologyToday.com
/ptti
link