What’s Now: New York

Traffic congestion in New York City is bad, but it soon could be much better. Really. Take it from Robin Chase, the co-founder of Zipcar who now leads NUMo, the New Urban Mobility Alliance, our featured guest at September’s What’s Now: New York. One way to understand the current urban mobility problem in New York City and many cities around the world is to see our transportation system trapped between two paradigms. The old paradigm was organized for the last century around personal cars, while the new paradigm that’s emerging will be based on shared modalities, newly easy and convenient because of technology. Ranging from so-called TNCs (Transportation Network Companies) like Uber to autonomous vehicles and even electric scooters, Chase argues that we’re still trapped in the old paradigm’s infrastructure of things like curb-side parking and have not shifted our sights to the infrastructure that will be needed to make the new paradigm work much better for everyone, including more sustainable and livable cities. This impending transportation shift will have huge implications not only for those who live and work in cities, but also whole sectors like real estate, retail, and government taxation. For example, cities currently devote roughly one-third of all space to cars or places to park them. What happens when much of that space gets liberated?