703B - Technology and New Mobility: Who's Behind the Wheel?

October 20, 2021

12:15PM - 12:45PM

Technology, through various mobility platforms and the emergence of automotion in passenger travel and goods movement, is transforming our transportation systems at a pace faster than governments, including municipal transportation departments and transit agencies, can match. As professional planners, especailly those of us working in transportation-related roles, how can we repsond proactively and effectively to transportation technologies that seem to change every month?
 
Rather than chasing and trying to catch up with the latest movements in transportaiton — from automoted vehicles to MaaS to curbside management — we propose that transportation providers and managers should instead put resources towards creating governance structures that:
 
          Move with, as opposed to behind, the latest technologies;
          Reframe problems as solutions;
Identify and use technology as a means towards larger goals such as social equity and network optimization; and
Reduce risk (e.g. financial, liability, etc.) by setting, instead of being set back by, operational requirements.
 
If we, as professionals and public agencies, do not shape the emergenece of new transportation technologies they will shape us.
 

Speakers