Shauna Brail

Cities lead the charge on the coronavirus front lines: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 14:42:56 +0000

Cities lead the charge on the coronavirus front lines: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen Fri, 04/03/2020 - 10:42

Cutline

A crew works on building a 68-bed emergency field hospital specially equipped with a respiratory unit in New York’s Central Park (photo by Mary Altaffer/AP Photo)

Shauna Brail

Topic

Our Community

Coronavirus

School of Cities

Cities

Global

Innis College

The Conversation

Urban Studies

How many times have we heard over the past few weeks that we have entered an unprecedented era?

The rapid spread of COVID-19 has upended lives and livelihoods. In cities around the world, the repercussions of scaling back as a result of physical distancing measures have had exceptionally damaging impacts.

And at the same time, observers marvel at the ways in which urban life continues.

Cities appear to be on the front lines of coronavirus outbreaks and hot spots. In fact, researchers from the University of Chicago show that larger cities are susceptible to relatively larger outbreaks of COVID-19.

More contacts, more spread

This is due to the increased number of contacts that individuals residing in larger centres tend to have. One of the key responses to containing the pandemic – stringent physical distancing measures – acts to disconnect social interactions.

Some scholars and pundits are pointing to COVID-19 pandemic as evidence that cities should no longer be sites of concentration for jobs, culture and people.

But the history of declaring the death of cities is well-documented – and also widely disproven.

With workplaces and social spaces largely shuttered, and messages from public health agencies to stay home, the economic and social impacts of recommendations to physically isolate are difficult to bear. In city after city, as public health experts call on citizens to isolate and stay at home, images display the shutdown of urban life.

A city police officer walks by the deserted Trevi fountain, in Rome, on March 14, 2020 (photo by Karl Ritter/AP Photo)

Empty office buildings, closed shops, vacant restaurants, transit without passengers, streets without cars and squares without people.

And yet despite the radical, though temporary, disconnection of physical proximity, cities and citizens have found ways to support resilience, to prop up the value of urban living without the customary interactions of city life.

The role of government

The coronavirus pandemic has made it clear that governments are more important than ever. The ability of national governments to enforce public health rulings, commit to massive stimulus packages, close borders and lend expertise to international efforts is unparalleled.

City governments are less powerful, and are subject to being overridden by more senior levels of government. However, a common refrain about city governments is that they are the level of government that is closest to the people.

In this regard, it should come as no surprise that municipal government leaders continue to be the first to act in response to the spread of the coronavirus.

On March 6, the mayor of San Jose, Calif., Sam Liccardo, proposed a measure to temporarily prevent evictions for renters whose incomes declined as a result of coronavirus shutdowns.

The San Jose moratorium went into effect on March 11. By the end of the month, a range of cities across the state, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, had also enacted eviction moratoriums.

Newsom discusses California’s response to the coronavirus on March 24 in Rancho Cordova, Calif (Photo by Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo)

On March 27, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a statewide moratorium on evictions for renters.

Similarly, in Toronto, Mayor John Tory announced a series of tax relief measures to assist Torontonians. On March 16, the city introduced a 30-day grace period for businesses on property tax, water and solid waste bills.

The grace period was extended to 60 days, and expanded to cover businesses and residents later that week.

Presumably, municipal-led measures will continue to evolve as the reality of the pandemic, and timelines for getting back to some version of normal, remain uncertain.

Streets and public life

Admonitions for people to stay home have translated into rapid and significant declines in vehicle traffic on city streets around the world. Streets comprise, on average, about 30 per cent of land in cities and represent about 80 per cent of a city’s total public space.

In Chinese cities, images of streets and highways empty of vehicles depicted the initial, stark results of lockdowns. Vehicle traffic declined sharply.

In this Jan. 28, 2020 photo, people wearing face masks walk down a deserted street in Wuhan in central China (photo by Arek Rataj/AP Photo)

As efforts to physically distance take shape, residents in cities like New York have taken to cycling at the expense of public transit use.

The coronavirus has also led cities to reconsider street spaces dedicated to vehicles. Both New York and Bogotá have added temporary bike lanes to safely accommodate increases in cycling traffic.

Cyclists ride past a deactivated employee turnstile at Boeing Co.‘s manufacturing facility in Renton, Wash. on the first day of a shutdown due to the spread of the new coronavirus (photo by Ted S. Warren/AP Photo)

Cities are also experiencing increased pedestrian activity as people cooped up indoors head outside for a walk. Calls for cities to create pedestrian-only streets, where people can get fresh air, exercise and maintain physical distance, have ensued.

Calgary and Philadelphia are examples of urban centres that have temporarily opened some streets to pedestrians, while similar discussions are underway in numerous other cities.

In Italian cities, videos depicting neighbourhood balcony concerts give hope to residents, while entertaining viewers around the world.

Balcony concerts in Italy.

In Mallorca, Spain, police well-being checks have also presented opportunities for streetside music.

And, nightly at 7 p.m. in Vancouver, residents emerge to bang their pots and pans in support of health-care workers.

The impacts of the coronavirus on cities are extraordinarily difficult. There is tremendous uncertainty as to how long the virus and its impacts will endure, and how devastating it will be. Yet around the world, cities are responding rapidly and decisively to the crisis and its implications for urban life.

Shauna Brail, an associate professor, is the director of the urban studies program at Innis College and associate director, partnerships and outreach at the School of Cities at the ��Ƶ.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Cities need to innovate to improve transportation and reduce emissions: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 13:56:55 +0000

Cities need to innovate to improve transportation and reduce emissions: U of T expert

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 11/25/2019 - 08:56

Cutline

Singapore is touted as an example of forward-thinking urban transit planning; vehicle ownership permits are limited and available by lottery (photo via Shutterstock)

Topic

Public Transportation

Sustainability

The Conversation

Urban Studies

Mobility is essential to urban life. It contributes to people’s ability to access work, food, education, leisure and more. It also contributes to climate change.

According to C40 Cities, cities are both a significant contributor to the climate crisis, responsible for 70 per cent of the world’s CO2 emissions, and the place where actions can make the greatest difference.

Transportation is one of the leading contributors of greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution worldwide. Given the role that cities play in climate change, we need to re-think and plan for a future in which cities work intentionally to direct change.

Sixty-four per cent of all vehicle kilometres travelled on a global basis are in cities, and this is anticipated to grow exponentially.

Finding alternatives

To address the stubborn challenge of reducing transportation-based emissions, cities need to lean on car-free alternatives such as public transit and active transportation. They also need to effectively engage with private firms to leverage disruptive transportation technologies, such as ride-hailing apps. Amongst urban pundits, there is tension between these two.

My research on ride-hailing, regulation and cities suggests, however, that both strategies are necessary.

Car-free or car-lite?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

In Paris, Mayor Ana María Hidalgo successfully eliminated cars from the Seine’s quayside. The strategy is enabled by extensive investment in public transit, improved features for pedestrians and significant political will.

In Singapore, the government is moving towards a “car-lite” society. In this unique city-state, the right to purchase a private automobile is granted by lottery and the government caps the total number of vehicles permitted to operate. In addition, Singapore boasts a globally admired public transit system, with continuous building of transit stations, integrated bus networks and strong transit connections to mixed-use neighbourhoods.

Vancouver has implemented a strategy to encourage active transport – walking and biking – by investing in public realm improvements and protected bike lanes. The Greenest City Action Plan established a goal of having 50 per cent of trips by walking, bicycle and transit by 2020, representing a 10 per cent increase from 2008. The city exceeded this goal, reaching 53 per cent in 2018.

Sidewalk Labs is proposing that private automobiles be prohibited in Toronto’s Quayside neighbourhood. If the city approves, active transportation, public transit and a system of shared vehicles would be the primary mobility options in this proposed community.

Cities approach the wicked challenge of reducing transportation-based greenhouse gas emissions in different ways. There are, however, three strategic directions in which many places have found success in changing transportation options, travel behaviour and, ultimately, transportation-based emissions.

1. Conducting pilot studies

Pilot studies (also known as trials) are an increasingly popular way for governments to test out whether and how an idea might work in practice. Pilots can be limited in terms of geography, and also can have a limited period of time in which testing is conducted.

The King Street Pilot in Toronto is an outstanding example of a transportation pilot developed by the city. Initially implemented as a trial in fall 2017, the initiative prioritized transit on a 2.6-kilometre stretch of a congested downtown thoroughfare. As the city’s busiest surface transit route, limiting cars and privileging transit sped up commute times and made the street more appealing to cyclists while keeping pedestrian volume essentially the same.

Establishing the transit priority of the route resulted in a 16 per cent increase in ridership overall. In a fall 2018 survey, seven of every 100 riders indicated that they had switched from travelling by car to travelling on the King Street streetcar. On April 16, 2019, the King Street Pilot was made permanent.

Transit agencies are also experimenting with innovative technologies to increase ridership and efficiency. On-demand bus hailing essentially uses the algorithms and technologies that underlie ride-hailing apps and applies it to public transit routes. In September 2017, Belleville, Ont. replaced its nighttime bus service on some low ridership routes with an on-demand bus-hailing system. The pilot saw an increase of 300 per cent in ridership, while the number of kilometres driven per vehicle declined by 30 per cent.

2. Looking for work-arounds

Sometimes, firms make decisions to look for work-arounds in order to test emerging transportation options. For example, autonomous vehicles are not allowed on public streets in New York. However, private streets have private rules. An autonomous vehicle pilot running on private roads in the Brooklyn Navy Yards is an opportunity to test the technology, build public trust in driverless cars and prepare for a possible future in which self-driving cars are permitted to operate on public streets.

Taking a page out of the work-arounds playbook, Bird Scooters launched a trial in Toronto’s Distillery District in September 2019. Though roundly criticized for testing scooters on the Distillery District’s cobblestone streets, the firm was attracted by the fact that the Distillery is private property. They thereby evaded government regulations. While the firm may have been hoping to help encourage the city to permit scooters on Toronto’s streets, the city elected to do the opposite – unlike Edmonton, where the scooters are in use. Shortly after the scooter trial, council voted to prohibit scooters on city streets and sidewalks until further study.

3. Partnerships

Innovation in transportation requires significant and concerted effort, investment, specialized expertise and the participation of people from different sectors.

One common thread running through all of the above examples is partnerships with universities. From the King Street Pilot to Belleville’s on-demand bus hailing system, Brooklyn’s autonomous vehicles and – most likely – the City of Toronto’s upcoming study on scooters, universities and university researchers are involved. University partnerships span the full spectrum of transportation innovation – from development of autonomous technology, software and algorithms to the study of travel behaviour, air quality, efficiency and best practices in regulation.

Only with intentional and strategic effort can we hope to move the needle on transportation-based emissions while also ensuring that people have access to the mobility resources they need.

Shauna Brail is an associate professor of urban studies at the ��Ƶ.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Canada left behind as ride-hailing services go global

noreen.rasbach — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 15:42:54 +0000

Canada left behind as ride-hailing services go global

noreen.rasbach Tue, 09/11/2018 - 11:42

Cutline

Women in Saudi Arabia – only recently given the right to drive – are getting involved in the global trend of ride-sharing services. A female driver for Careem, a regional Uber competitor, is seen behind the wheel (photo by Nariman El-Mofty/AP)

Topic

Like it or not, ride-hailing has become an established, regulated and accepted form of transportation in most of Canada’s largest cities.

Canadian cities aren’t unique in this regard. Ride-hailing is now a mobility option in 89 countries, serving more than 2,600 cities around the world.

By adopting a global outlook, Canada can better understand, manage and benefit from the integration of ride-hailing as a component of urban mobility.

Global scale

In Toronto and in many North American cities, ride-hailing was initially seen as a disruption to the taxi industry, a heavily licensed and regulated municipal sector. But ride-hailing is maturing, and firms continue to innovate and expand through a variety of modifications to ride-hailing services such as pooling and subscriptions.

Ride-hailing companies are also investing in other mobility services including bikes and scooters. And they’re leveraging their network of drivers to provide other logistics services like food delivery.

Globally, ride-hailing firms abide by place and city-specific regulations and policies while simultaneously catering their services to appeal to local markets and cultural practices. In Canada, the United States, the U.K. and Singapore, ride-hailing means travelling by car.

Ride-hailing services around the globe even include tuk-tuks in India (photo by Shutterstock)

However, in places like Indonesia, Vietnam and Uganda, hailing a ride can mean riding on the back of a motorcycle. Jakarta is a city of more than 10 million people known for crushing congestion and a dearth of reliable public transit. The arrival of ride-hailing firms has been credited for offering a work-around to congestion.

This is because ride-hailing is bringing products and services directly to customers. In India, passengers can even hail a tuk-tuk.

The unicorns of ride-hailing

As ride-hailing becomes an increasingly accepted mode of transportation with relatively low barriers to entry and expansion, ride-hailing firms have gone global.

Uber, with operations in more than 60 countries, exemplifies the global reach of ride-hailing. But Uber is hardly alone.

There are now 12 ride-hailing firms that have reached what’s known as “unicorn” status. This means that they are startup firms with a market valuation of $1 billion or more. These ride-hailing unicorns are Uber, Didi-Chuxing, Lyft, Grab, Ola, Go-Jek, Yandex, Cabify, Gett, Careem, 99 and Taxify.

Their headquarter locations range from San Francisco to Sao Paulo, Dubai to Beijing, exemplifying the global reach of ride-hailing. They are also the recipients of significant venture capital investments. Based on an examination of venture capital investment in urban tech, ride-hailing and mobility service firms attracted more than 60 per cent – or greater than $40 billion – of all urban tech investments between 2016 and 2018.

These firms also lead as innovators by building new mobility services. Others combine products and services in new ways, taking advantage of technology, algorithms, networks and concentrations of people.

In Indonesia, for example, credit card adoption rates are below seven per cent, and most people don’t have bank accounts. Therefore, local startup Go-Jek is not just a ride-hailing company, but also a financial services firm offering a cashless payment system woven into its app.

In Singapore, local ride-hailing unicorn Grab invested $6 million in an artificial intelligence centre and partnership with the National University of Singapore. The centre will focus on using data collected by Grab to address mobility challenges faced across Southeast Asia.

And in India, Ola has partnered with government agencies, civic organizations and private sector firms on social entrepreneurship initiatives that train drivers, promote female entrepreneurship and emphasize sustainability through fuel choices.

Tiny Estonia has a ride-hailing unicorn

There are no ride-hailing unicorns headquartered in Canada. While Canada may represent a relatively small market in global terms, the most recent entrant to the ride-hailing unicorns club is Taxify.

A Taxify ride-hailing car is seen in downtown Tallinn, Estonia in July (photo by Shutterstock)

Taxify is headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia, a former member of the Soviet Union with a population of just 1.3 million. Tallinn is a city that was pretty much on nobody’s map of global cities. The city, and Taxify, are emblematic of a new global economic geography of innovative firms and cities. Taxify currently operates in 28 countries, including Australia, Nigeria and Canada.

The rapid globalization of local ground transportation services was unexpected. But thanks to what’s known as the “platform economy,” many local services have been reconfigured into global ones with consequences for markets, firms and places.

The platform economy is comprised of big data, algorithms and cloud computing. These come together to create new digital infrastructure on which entire new markets and ecosystems operate.

This digital infrastructure has created new value for its owners and is an essential part of a reconfigured globalization. The global economy is being reorganized so that the owners and operators of these platforms are also the owners of the data and power. This power may be even more formidable than that held by the factory-owners of the early Industrial Revolution.

A Grab rider and driver are seen in Jakarta, Indonesia in December (photo by Shutterstock)

Ground transportation has until recently been a local concern and deeply rooted in place. For instance, public transit agencies like the Toronto Transit Commission or Vancouver’s TransLink are operated locally or regionally. Taxi brokerages also tend to operate locally.

Ride-hailing, however, is part of the platform economy infrastructure. This unique form of digitization allowed firms to expand rapidly to multiple markets, multiple languages and multiple sets of regulations and guidelines.

Ride-hailing depends on mobilizing local citizens to contribute, but it’s also profoundly global, with powerful consequences for the platform owners and those cities that house them.

The challenge for Canada

Canada is facing challenges because it’s simply become a consumer of platform ride-hailing products. We do not house any of the ride-hailing headquarters. We are not developing our own stand-alone mobility solutions for the world stage.

As multinational ride-hailing platforms firms take the lead on ground transportation services in Canadian cities, they also gain exclusive access to a treasure chest of data on people and places.

Our future economy depends on our public agencies having the knowledge and power to make informed policy choices around mobility investments. As our largest cities struggle with congestion, it’s now more important than ever to step up and invest in our urban mobility futures.

The sort of economy and society we create in this transition to digital platforms will be determined by the social, political and business choices we make. Canada needs to lead, not follow, in the global race for better mobility.

Shauna Brail is an associate professor of urban studies at the ��Ƶ. Betsy Donald is a professor at Queen's University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.