Mayor Garcetti launches America’s first public-private partnership for transportation innovation

 
11/19/2019

Urban Movement Labs will unite government, business, experts, communities around new mobility solutions for L.A. residents

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced the creation of Urban Movement Labs, a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership that will work to accelerate transportation innovation across Los Angeles. This unprecedented venture will focus on creating more ways for Angelenos to get around — by bringing stakeholders to the table to develop new ideas, safely testing them on L.A.’s streets, and rolling them out in close partnership with local communities.

“Angelenos don’t wait for the future — we guide it,” said Mayor Garcetti. “Urban Movement Labs will secure L.A.’s standing as the transportation innovation capital of the world — a place where new technologies are tested, proven, and brought to life, and people in every community have a seat at the table today as we think about what our city will look like tomorrow.”

Urban Movement Labs (UML) is the latest initiative led by Mayor Eric Garcetti to ensure a sustainable, equitable, and accessible future for transportation in Los Angeles. It will empower a coalition of public and private sector partners, non-profit organizations, academic experts, and local residents to design and deploy creative solutions to the city’s critical transportation challenges.

In its first year, UML will work with local communities across L.A. to confront major issues affecting daily life. That includes providing better transportation options to L.A.’s residents and 50 million annual visitors; easing commutes across the region; and converting underused transportation assets into affordable housing.

Beyond working with residents to tackle these immediate challenges, UML will be built around three core initiatives:

  1. The Ideas Accelerator: UML will identify current challenges, match solutions to each of them, then develop pilot programs to test ideas on L.A.’s streets.
  2. The Economic and Workforce Development Initiative: UML will be laser-focused on one of Mayor Garcetti’s top priorities: developing a pipeline of businesses and good-paying jobs for the local workforce.
  3. The Urban Proving Grounds Initiative — UML leaders, partners and community members will identify and vet a network of L.A. neighborhoods where solutions can be tested, evaluated, scaled to size, and eventually deployed. 

Founding partners of UML include Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Office of Economic Development, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, Los Angeles World Airports, the Port of Los Angeles, Avis Budget Group, the L.A. Cleantech Incubator (LACI), Lyft, Verizon, and Waymo.

“Through our rental car and Zipcar brands, we operate at the intersection of urban mobility and travel and tourism and know the importance of convenient, efficient and sustainable movement of people in, out and around cities,” said Arthur Orduna, Chief Innovation Officer, Avis Budget Group. “It’s a unique opportunity to be part of this deep public-private partnership and we’re excited to leverage UML as the platform to put real transportation solutions into place with the City of Los Angeles as a global stage for mobility innovation.”

“LACI is pleased to be a founding partner of UML — working together both through UML and our landmark Transportation Electrification Partnership, we are grateful for the Mayor's leadership to move towards zero emissions transportation and invite innovation to our streets,” said Matt Petersen, CEO, LACI. “LACI looks forward to continuing to partner with communities on zero emissions mobility pilots, while releasing the Zero Emissions 2028 Roadmap 2.0 with bold goals to accelerate transportation electrification for cars and trucks to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution by the time the world arrives for the Olympics.”

“Lyft is committed to expanding transportation access and opportunity. That includes working with public, private and nonprofit leaders to help find the best solutions to every transportation  challenge,” said Lilly Shoup, Lyft Senior Director of Transportation Policy. “We are thrilled to be a founding member of UML and look forward to working collaboratively with so many stakeholders toward our shared goals of sustainable, equitable and enhanced mobility for all communities.”

“Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network applications and solutions are expected to power the transportation revolution,” said Stefano Landi, Director, sales and business development, Verizon Smart Communities. “By investing in organizations such as the UML, Verizon will help the City of Los Angeles and communities everywhere — including those that have been traditionally underserved — to accelerate the delivery of next-generation technologies that transform the way we live, work and play.”

“At Waymo, we’re building the world’s most experienced driver, and our mission is to make it safe and easy for people and things to move around,” said Ellie Casson, Head of Local Public Policy at Waymo. “We’re proud to be a founding member of Urban Mobility Labs, which will further innovative, accessible mobility solutions for Angelenos.”

Mayor Eric Garcetti has led Los Angeles to become a global platform for mobility innovation, encouraging new transportation choices and public-private partnerships to bring bold ideas to the streets in record time.

Since taking office, Mayor Garcetti has launched BlueLA, the country's first 100% electric vehicle car sharing program designed to serve low-income communities, directed the largest deployment of micro mobility vehicles of any U.S. city through the pilot Dockless Mobility Program, integrated more than 1,000 shared bicycles into the L.A. region's public transit network with Metro Bike Share, and allocated resources to digitize the City's expansive curb assets to more efficiently manage curb access. Mayor Garcetti also led the coalition to pass Measure M to invest $120 billion in expanding our rail transit system, fixing streets and freeways, and putting more than 777,800 people to work over the next 40 years.

For more information on Urban Movement Labs, visit urbanmovementlabs.com.

SOURCE: https://www.lamayor.org/mayor-garcetti-launches-america%E2%80%99s-first-public-private-partnership-transportation-innovation



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