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Next month’s MaaS Market conference in London will host a session dedicated to first/last mile travel within multimodal trips delivered through Mobility as a Service (MaaS) platforms. The provision of first/last mile connections is crucial if MaaS is to provide travellers with a convenient alternative to using private cars for every journey. In the session, Richard Corbett from micro scooter provider Bird, and Katy Medlock of peer-to-peer car share company Drivy, will be joined by Amsterdam-based researc

VeoRide is to launch an electric scooter with a swappable battery in the US – which it says sets the product apart from anything on the market. The company could not resist a dig at commercial rivals, saying that its R&D team designed vehicles “from the ground up for commercial/shared use, rather than sourcing the same Ninebot or Segway scooters that Lime, Bird and others use”. VeoRide claims that its scooter will last four to eight times longer than others – and suggests that it will also improve s

Mobility as a Service firm Moovit has linked up with TomTom and Microsoft’s Azure Maps to launch a multimodal trip planning app. The companies say it offers users their options for driving a car to park at a station, for example, and taking a train before completing the journey using other modes such as bike. “With most jobs still residing in densely populated cities, the typical commute is becoming multimodal, requiring the suburbanite to first drive to a public transit stop and continue their commut

Clean and affordable transportation and zero-emission vehicle infrastructure are at the heart of the US Democrats’ ‘Green New Deal’ package. The proposals seek to move the US away from fossil fuels and other sources of emissions that cause global warming within the next decade. The package says these goals can be reached by reached by a ten-year “national mobilisation” which include an overhaul in transportation systems to eliminate pollution and greenhouse as much as technologically feasible, repai

Connectivity is essential for the development of autonomous, electric and shared technologies, according to international media outlet Bloomberg. “Connectivity is at the heart of this as autonomous cars need high-definition maps that are connected through 4G,” said Phil Robinson, head of research and insight, EMEA Bloomberg Media. “For electric, you need to know where the next charging station is by being connected to the app while Uber users are connected to 4G or Wi-Fi to make it happen.” Robinson a

The UK government is investing more than £6 million in the deployment of chargepoints to support ultra-low emission taxis across the country. The money will be used to install nearly 300 rapid points and 46 fast ones in 17 local authorities, including Greater Manchester, Brighton & Hove and Leicester. Rapid chargepoints are typically able to charge an EV to 80% in 30 minutes depending on the model’s battery capacity while fast charging is expected to deliver more than 60 miles of range in 10-30 minu

New York’s governor has suggested that unless some form of dynamic pricing is imposed on motorists in the city, there will be a 30% hike in public transit fares and tolls. Democrat Andrew Cuomo said the stiff Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) price rise would hit those using subways, buses, tunnels and bridges, Associated Press (AP) reports. He is calling for tolls which charge motorists entering the most congested areas of Manhattan – south of 60th Street – which he believes could raise $1

Two micromobility firms in Latin America have joined forces to create a new outfit, Grow Mobility. Electric scooter company Grin, and dockless bike provider Yellow, have merged and say they plan to double their combined 135,000-strong fleet. Currently in six countries - Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and Chile - Grow will expand into “new markets”, the new entity says. For the moment, the companies are maintaining their separate apps and brands under the Grow holding company, and they hav

The European Start-up Prize for Mobility has whittled down 568 entrants to 150 projects. These will go on to the next stage of the competition – the second year that the accelerator programme for sustainable mobility options has been run – when their number will be reduced to 50 later this month. The organisers say more established start-ups have entered this time, with 58% in business for more than three years, and an average of 14 employees. “This is partly explained by the maturing and expansion

Indra says its Davaq free-flow identification system has scored the highest overall accuracy rate – 88% - in a US trial to detect high-occupancy vehicles. The real-world test was set up by the by the San Francisco Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission to look at automatic detection of such vehicles on the I-880 – a vital precursor to implementing lane restrictions or new dynamic pricing strategies such as smart tolling. Davaq picks up the vehicle type and its front and rear occupants in r

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) could lead to ‘unintended negative consequences’, according to influential figures in the UK parliament. The House of Commons Transport Committee’s report on MaaS suggested that increased road congestion and poorer air quality – as well as ‘social and digital exclusion’ – could be the unwanted outcomes of the widespread adoption of MaaS schemes. “Early research and piloting of MaaS should focus not only on maximising the potential benefits but also on mitigating potential

ITS European Congress 2020 is to take place in Lisbon, bringing together international mobility stakeholders next year in the Portuguese capital. Organised by Ertico – ITS Europe, the Congress will be themed 'ITS - The Game Changer’ and is an opportunity to display Lisbon's latest achievements in the field of intelligent mobility services. The memorandum of understanding was signed by Ertico CEO Jacob Bangsgaard, Rui Camolino, president of ITS Portugal, and Miguel Gaspar, mobility councillor for Lisb

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LAMetro) has partnered with Via to offer a ride-sharing service to and from three metro stations. The one-year pilot, supported by a $1.3 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration, is being trialled at Artesia, El Monte and North Hollywood. Daniel Ramot, CEO and co-founder of Via, says the company’s passenger matching and vehicle routing algorithm will connect customers with the three transit hubs in their communities. Rid

Traffic signal control specialist CT Group is to distribute Miovision’s TrafficLink ITS platformacross the US in a new partnership between the two companies. The exclusive deal will see CT selling the product in 31 states from Alaska to Wyoming. TrafficLink is a turnkey solution for remote traffic signal management, with managed cellular connection and tools for signal monitoring, video streaming, maintenance alerts and traffic data insights. “As more cities aim to become data-driven smart cities,

The only way to reduce car ownership is to stop putting car-sharing vehicles in places where people travel - and start putting them in places where they live. This was one of the main messages from the 'Future of Global Urban Mobility' event, hosted in London last night by global research agency Kadence International. Speaking at the London Transport Museum, Patrick Foster, chief business development officer at car-share marketplace Drivy, says: "OEMs want to give you a car for free if you start sha