A Mobility Collective for a Unified Transportation System

Laura Bliss reports on the Pittsburgh Mobility Collective, a consortium of mobility service providers that is working to provide multiple services through one platform. Participants include Spin, Zipcar, Ford Mobility, Waze, Swiftmile, and the Transit app.

Pittsburgh’s transportation department had issued a request for plans that would provide car-free travel alternatives:

[The Mobility Collective’s] winning plan, which was one of five submissions, envisions "mobility hubs" clustered near transit stops throughout Pittsburgh. There, travelers would find some combination of bike-share stations, Zipcar vehicles, Waze carpool pickup spots, and parked and charged e-bikes and scooters from Spin to rent. The Transit app would handle route planning and ticketing services to customers, and Ford Mobility would feed data analytics back to the city.

Bliss reports that the project is bringing together companies that in most other contexts operate as competitors. But Pittsburgh officials particularly wanted bundle services for travelers who might face challenges accessing and using existing individual services.

The city is offering the participating companies some incentives, reports Bliss. "For one, the city is keeping other mobility competitors out of play for the time being, according to [Karina] Ricks. And two, her department will work closely with the collective to remove obstacles to their success on the street."