Join Us For Micromobility Summer Camp

The National Association of City Transportation Officials, in partnership with BBSP, is hosting its third virtual roundtable event from June 6 to June 10, 2022.

In the last five years, the shared micromobility landscape has changed significantly. Operators are dissolving, consolidating, and reorganizing, while cities are taking more proactive approaches to managing and regulating their programs.

The National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), in partnership with BBSP, is launching its third virtual roundtable: the 2022 Micromobility Summer Camp. Taking place from June 6 to June 10, the format will be a NACTO camp or “unconference” where conversations are proposed, programmed, and led by attendees.​ It’s a chance to create a space where we can be hands-on, flexible, candid, and of course, have fun!

City practitioners will have the opportunity to listen to presentations and have open conversations with peers across North America in an informal setting. This is not an open event — any interested non-profit operators or members of community-based organizations working on shared micromobility should email Cary Bearn (cary@nacto.org) for an invitation. Staff at all NACTO member cities will be invited directly.

Denver’s Shared Micromobility Journey: From Legacy to License
Monday, June 6, 2 pm – 3 pm ET / 11 am – 12 pm PT

Learn how the loss of Denver’s legacy docked bike share system spurred a shared micromobility licensed program and ridership boom. This presentation will be led by the Denver Department of Transportation & Infrastructure and moderated by Anthony Rios-Gurrola, a micromobility planner with the Street Transportation Department at the City of Phoenix.

The Future of Regulating (For-Profit) Micromobility
Tuesday, June 7, 2 pm – 3 pm ET / 11 am – 12 pm PT

It’s been five years since cities began regulating dockless shared micromobility. How can cities continue to shape programs to fit their needs? Join an open discussion of how permits, RFPs, and partnerships can address equity goals and other gaps in for-profit models for dockless and station-based shared micromobility. This panel will be led by Meg Young, new mobility manager at the Baltimore City Department of Transportation, and is only open to staff at NACTO member cities. 

Corralling Dockless Shared Micromobility in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Wednesday, June 8, 2 pm – 3 pm ET / 11 am – 12 pm PT

To address concerns about vehicle clutter and barriers to safe and accessible pedestrian passage, the City of Grand Rapids developed an extensive network of designated parking zones for its shared micromobility pilot, installing more than 200 designated parking areas in a very short amount of time. Led by Kristin Bennett, a transportation engineering projects manager with the city, this presentation will discuss what’s worked, what hasn’t worked or could work better, and where the program is headed.

Flexibility as a Tenet of Bikeshare System Design
Thursday, June 9, 2 pm – 3 pm ET / 11 am – 12 pm PT

In this session, we’ll address various challenges in overseeing bike share programs, and examine how cities can move away from a vertically-integrated model toward something more flexible. How do we design to incorporate market competition? What parts should be public? Which should be private? How do e-bikes fit in? What are geographical considerations for system growth and finance? What kind of public funding should we be steering towards? 

This open conversation will be co-led by Adrian Leung, a transportation planner with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and Kim Foltz, a transportation planner with the Boston Department of Transportation. This event is only open to staff at NACTO cities. 

Regulating Bike Share With and as Public Transit: Stories From Austin & Boston
Friday, June 10, 2 pm – 3 pm ET / 11 am – 12 pm PT

For part one of this presentation, Eliza Yu, an associate project manager for the City of Austin, and Nadia Barrera-Ramirez, a manager at the Capital Metro Transportation Agency, will speak about Austin’s work integrating bike share and transit. In 2020, the City of Austin and Capital Metro entered into an Interlocal Agreement (ILA) to form a partnership for the planning, financing, marketing, and deployment of Austin’s shared, docked bicycle program, MetroBike. The goal was to better integrate the program with transit as a first- and last-mile solution. MetroBike is undergoing several long-term bike share service improvements, including providing an all-electric fleet, expanding the number of bikes and stations, integrating with existing and planned Capital Metro transit services, improving services, and reaching communities outside the downtown core.

The second part of the presentation will be led by Kim Foltz, a transportation planner at the Boston Department of Transportation, where bike share is considered a part of public transit. When bike share is framed as public transportation it helps both city leaders and the public understand it to be an essential service rather than a frivolous amenity. But public transportation comes with obligations, including ensuring equity in access, providing fair and affordable pricing, protecting data privacy, and exercising transparency in decision making. Foltz will discuss how the framing of bike share as public transportation has helped the City of Boston set (and achieve!) ambitious goals for system expansion, win over potential detractors, and establish strong requirements around equity, pricing, and data access with its operator.

The Better Bike Share Partnership is funded by The JPB Foundation as a collaboration between the City of Philadelphia, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) and the PeopleForBikes Foundation to build equitable and replicable bike share systems. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or sign up for our weekly newsletter. Got a question or a story idea? Email kiran@peopleforbikes.org.