At TechCrunch, we often spend our time finding and reporting on the next new thing in mobility, from autonomous drones and electric air taxis to self-driving trucks and even paper batteries. While in theory this technology might one day help move people and goods from point A to point B, much of it is just theory. hope. promise. The VCs were impressed by the flashy presentation.
That’s why we’re taking a deep dive into the technologies that help mobility in today’s cities. Some of it is unappealing, but transportation is often a utility.
We’ll take a closer look at the technology that’s helping power two U.S. cities, Miami and New York City, and profile some of the other standout innovations in 2023.
How to use on-demand transportation in Miami
Image Source: Joe Reddell/Getty Images
Since 2020, Miami has partnered with transportation technology company Via to launch an on-demand transportation service. The service, formerly known as GO Connect, was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic as a first- and last-mile solution that fills the gap between locations. People live and major transportation hubs. Three years later, Miami-Dade renamed the service MetroConnect, integrating it into the broader public transportation network and adding four new service areas.
According to Via, within a month of the rebrand and expansion, MetroConnect completed a 69% increase in rides and a 70% increase in ridership. The company also said that since its launch, MetroConnect has created 57% more jobs within a 45-minute commute by connecting riders to transit hubs, with two-thirds of riders saying they don’t own a car.
Carlos Cruz-Casas, chief innovation officer for the Miami Department of Transportation and Public Works, told TechCrunch that MetroConnect has helped increase public transit ridership, which has been at a loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. dropped.
“There is no substitute for a well-operated fixed-route service,” Cruz-Casas said. “We actually realized that the best marketing tool to get people back on public transit was frequency.”
As the city expands MetroConnect’s on-demand microtransit, it’s also working with Via’s planning products to optimize its bus network. The city uses Remix, a transportation planning technology acquired by Via in 2021, to develop plans for a better bus network. The plan, implemented in November, involves realigning 99 bus routes to create a network of high-frequency corridors.
“We went from five frequent corridors to over 20 — which for us means running every seven and a half, 10, 15 minutes. All day, every day,” Cruz-Casa said. Si said. “Miami-Dade County is larger than some states, though. We can’t provide that frequency everywhere. That’s where on-demand transportation comes in.”
Eventually, Via will add vehicles from self-driving technology company May Mobility to its MetroConnect fleet in Miami. May Mobility and Via recently announced a partnership to provide rider-only, on-demand microtransit service at a retirement community in Sun City, Arizona. May’s style so far has been to err on the side of caution, so we don’t expect a widespread rollout in Miami for some time.
Cruz-Casas also noted that Miami is working with Via to develop a complete intermodal travel planning solution between fixed routes and on-demand service. The Miami Transportation Department has been working with a company called Swiftly to provide big data analytics and more accurate real-time information for its GO app.
“I’m a big fan of technology that provides instant feedback because when you have accurate, real-time information, you feel empowered to make decisions and feel more comfortable using public transportation,” Cruz-Casas said.
Bringing New York City’s subway system into the 21st century
Image Source: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images
New York City’s iconic subway system is over 100 years old. Today, much of Metro’s investment is focused on modernization to help the century-old system meet the needs and expectations of customers living in a high-tech age.
Part of that is reducing riding friction. Anyone who has ever ridden the New York City subway will know that frustrating and strangely nostalgic feeling: rushing to catch a train, swiping your MetroCard, and rushing forward through the turnstiles in one motion, only to encounter a motionless piece of metal Great, because you don’t. The card was swiped incorrectly, or worse, the fare was insufficient.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is phasing out MetroCard in favor of the OMNY system, a contactless, open-loop payment system. Passengers can quickly and easily pay their metro fare and pass through the turnstiles using credit and debit cards or their mobile phone (if they have a digital wallet). For those who don’t have a bank account and need to pay with cash, the MTA has launched the OMNY card, which can be used at vending machines across the city.
“More than 50 percent of our subway riders and a significant percentage of our bus riders use one mode or another,” Jamie Torres-Springer, MTA president of construction and development, told TechCrunch. “And it’s actually even better. 70 percent of passengers who are eligible for OMNY are currently using it.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, MTA ridership has dropped to about 5%. According to Torres-Springer, the service is currently operating at about 80% of its pre-COVID-19 capacity.
“It’s very interesting that as we’ve restored ridership over the past year or so, the entire recovery has been with OMNY and MetroCard users have been flat,” he said. “What that means is that through convenience, we are attracting people to come back or attracting new passengers to the system.”
MetroCard will not be fully phased out until all MTA users can easily access the OMNY payment platform.
Another typical New York City subway experience is when you’re riding to work and the train suddenly stops in the tunnel. And it doesn’t move. The conductor’s voice came over the loudspeaker, and you thought you heard a signal glitch. You check your phone, but there’s no signal. You won’t text your boss to let them know you’ll be late. All you can do is exercise in prayer.
The MTA is working to make experiences like this less common, and we’ll get to that in a moment, but in the short term, the agency plans to provide cellphone service to all subway stations and tunnels, which could be a Band-Aid for this situation. . The city signed a deal with Boldyn (formerly Transit Wireless) in 2022 to establish cellphone coverage in all subway tunnels. Nowadays, it can be found at stations across the city and can take you through many tunnels, as long as the tunnels are not too long.
Providing services in the tunnel will aid travel planning and the city is working to ensure better real-time information through Communications Based Train Control (CBTC). CBTC uses telecommunications between trains and track equipment to manage traffic. “Now you always know exactly where the trains are and you can make them run closer and faster,” said Torres-Springer, noting that Line 7’s on-time performance improved from 68 percent to 91 percent and its speed increased from 8 Line increases dropped from % to 14% after implementing this technology.
CBTC is not exactly new technology. It was originally adopted about 30 years ago, but the MTA is ramping up installations. The agency will invest $6.7 billion in CBTC improvements over a five-year plan totaling $55 billion, with five production lines currently being built and two more “substantial long lines” planned. The MTA is working with telecom providers Siemens, Thales and Hitachi to ensure signals work properly.
The city’s operating agency is also working to implement predictive maintenance on New York City’s subways, but Torres-Springer said it’s challenging because there are more than 6 million individual assets within the system.
“We’ve been around for 100 years. A lot of the information about the assets was stuffed into someone’s notebook in some store,” he said. “First we have to get inventory. Once we do that, we can really use predictive maintenance analytics tools.”
Honorable Mention
Image Source: Waymo
Many other companies, some working on cutting-edge technology, are also helping move people and packages from point A to point B in 2023. Here are some companies worth highlighting.
Alphabet’s self-driving car company Waymo has made considerable progress this year, especially in Phoenix. Waymo doubled its Waymo One service area in May, connecting downtown Phoenix to the East Valley and adding Scottsdale. Waymo’s service area in the Phoenix area currently exceeds 225 square miles. Waymo launched an airport curbside pickup service this month, following the launch of its autonomous airport ride-hailing service to the public for the first time in December 2022. In October, Waymo also partnered with Uber to launch Waymo Driver on the ride-hailing app in Phoenix.
Looking beyond the United States, Israeli traffic management startup NoTraffic partnered with Nvidia and Rogers Communications to build a 5G-connected artificial intelligence traffic management solution at the University of British Columbia in 2023. NoTraffic, which raised $50 million earlier this year, provides hardware and software to transform intersections into smart intersections that direct traffic flow based on real-time data.
UBC provides the perfect urban microcosm to test the impact of this combined technology solution on traffic flow. Urban campuses not only have thousands of commuters every day, but also numerous pedestrians and cyclists. NoTraffic said that over the course of a year, wait times for cars and pedestrians were reduced by a thousand days in total. It is estimated that carbon emissions were reduced by several tons and the economic benefit exceeded US$100,000.
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, another Israeli startup – travel planning app Moovit – has partnered with Arriva, which operates train and bus services in the country. Together they launched glimble, a white-label app powered by Moovit that helps users plan, pay and ride with any public transport operator, shared transport or micro-mobility provider nationwide.
Through glimble, Moovit aggregates official and crowdsourced information from all Dutch transport agencies to calculate the best route for each journey, including bus, rail, tram, metro, ferry, taxi, Uber, car sharing, Options such as scooters and bicycles. The app is also available in 45 languages, which also helps tourists and immigrants use it.
Across London, a startup called Route Reports is helping to keep trains running on time and safely by mapping tracks. In the fall and winter, leaves and ice on the railroad can make the tracks slippery, so drivers must drive carefully. Connell McLaughlin, chief executive of Route Reports, said this would ultimately lead to delays and service cancellations, so TfL would end up reducing services during the colder months. In the worst case scenario, the trains encounter unexpected situations and are unable to stop, or even collide.
Network Rail, the infrastructure manager for much of the UK’s rail network, hired Route Reports to instantly map slippery spots around London using data transmitted by passenger trains. Route Reports has also installed sensors on Network Rail’s fleet of special trains, which use high-pressure water jets to remove leaf residue, allowing them to track disposal. McLaughlin said these interventions reduced stick reporting time from four hours to just seconds.
We look forward to another year of technological advancements in action! May your 2024 be filled with on-time trains and buses, first and last mile traffic, dynamic traffic lights, and faster, safer travel.
