The Week in Mobility News — 08 January 2021

Third places and the future of the pavement

BC (Before Covid), we willy nilly enjoyed access to three principle places — 1. Our home — a private, domestic and (ideally) relaxing space. 2. Our work — a structured social experience home to the majority of our waking hours and 3. Our third space, a public setting for frequent and informal gatherings.

In a world of lockdowns, tiers and restrictions, places 1 and 2 have collided. The debris from this collision comprises radical reassessment of the role of the office and proximity to it, as well as the impact of overworking and isolation. The result — the importance of our third space becomes exponentially more important.

In normal circumstances, people are pretty loyal to their third place — a local pub, coffee shop, beauty salon, gym, library or studio. Even though most of those places can be replicated at home with or without the help of zoom, most people need to create a mental distance from both home and work to create authentic connections to people and place.

Without access to indoor spaces, cities are rethinking what it means to be a third place and how they can support the wellbeing of citizens whilst fostering community. According to US sociologist Ray Oldenburg in his 1989 book The Great Good Place, third places must be neutral, levelling, accessible, playful and local.

By that definition, there is no better candidate for a third place than the pavement. “Everyday infrastructures like streets hold the keys to our possible cultures,” Dan Hill of Vinnova says.

Cities in warmer climates have got this nailed — or at least have a more straightforward route to success. Sub out congested routes and insert plazas with outdoor seating, a gentle walk or cycle through newly created vehicle free zones, delightful window displays and urban parks. Job done.

Colder cities have a much larger challenge, and as a result a pressing need to find ways to attract professionals to stay warm within their cold embrace. To address this challenge, Bench Consulting has been working with communities to help plan and implement winter placemaking projects aimed at bringing people back to their commercial districts and main streets in colder climates. The result is this exceptional design guide for cities to generate activations that encourage people to interact with their local community.

Sense of community may not be a fully tangible or measurable metric, but in a future when professionals can and will work from anywhere it’s more important than ever to fully understand our relationship to place and space to reduce as far as possible geographic inequalities.

Digital platforms are human

TaskRabbit may be a digital platform but it’s very much powered by humans. When you select a person for a given task, you are not only handing over cash to a person via the platform, but a vast amount of trust — both in their expertise and presence in your home.

By that notion, the digital aspect serves merely as a facilitator in much the same way as the Yellow Pages phonebook was a means to providing contact details rather than the service that someone was looking for.

Today, it’s easy to talk about Uber and forget that ultimately Uber is not only a tech company but a vast network of drivers enabled by an app. Drivers who are not only highly skilled, but people with livings to make and families to support.

Over the past few years, Uber drivers in Kenya have felt the sting of Uber who have offered margins and financing for vehicles that make little to no sense within the local economy. The equivalent of publishing a Kenyan yellow pages in German and at an extortionate cost to be listed.

The Yellow Pages’ main product development focus was probably not the usability of flicking through its pages to get to “S for Smith” but capturing the details of the businesses and people it needed to connect. Digital platforms’ challenge is no different. Globally renowned digital services are waking up to the local nuances — both economic and cultural, that will be the key to enabling sustained success.

It is no wonder therefore that Uber has elected to launch 500 e-rickshaws in Kolkata and Ola is investing $327 million to set up the world’s largest scooter factory in Tamil Nadu — vehicles that make international gig economy services viable locally.

Elsewhere in the Industry

• Oxford and Coventry to be the first UK cities to operate all electric bus services — Gov.uk
• Best inventions of 2020 — time.com
• Chinese battery cell manufacturer CATL plans to invest five billion US dollars in a battery factory in Indonesia — electrive.com
• TransJakarta wants to operate 10,000 electric buses by 2030 — jakartapost.com
• Motional and Lyft target 2023 for driverless taxi service — techcrunch.com
• The Apple Car is targeting production in 2024 — reuters.com
• Oxbotica raises $47 million to take AV technology global — oxbotica.com
• Rivian is close to raising funds pushing its valuation to $25 billion — bloomberg.com
• Zap Map survey reveals challenges for disabled drivers using EV chargers — forecourttrader.co.uk
• ZapMap’s overview of the UK charging network — ZapMap.com
• Nikola’s garbage truck order has been cancelled — cnn.com
• Bosch takes surprising anti-EV stance — electrek.com
• Tesla reveals current and upcoming Supercharger network and plans to launch in India — Tesla.com/findus, techcrunch.com
• China is building the most advanced Ultra High Voltage Line Network to enable distribution of renewable energy — twitter

Have a wonderful weekend,

Imogen Pierce, Head of Experience Strategy