Financing models

A new law in California makes it harder for companies to classify workers as contractors. Companies like Uber, Lyft, and Postmates are pushing back, refusing to comply and filing lawsuits. Workers have mixed opinions on whether they agree with the new law. Some appreciate the flexibility of working as a contractor, while others want better wages and the ability to bargain collectively.

Didi, a ride-hailing company in China, lost $1.6 billion in 2018 and is facing a multitude of challenges that will make reducing losses difficult in the upcoming years.

Lyft announces that 2019 should be its peak loss year. Partnership with Waymo self-driving vehicles may help drive down losses next year.

Lyft is turning their focus to profitability rather than growth. The company claims that operating profitability is within its sights for 2021. This change may be a reaction to growing skepticism of companies like Uber, Lyft and WeWork after previously high valuations by private investors.

Uber's business model of focusing on growth over profits may be beginning to unravel. They are experiencing slowing growth, which financial experts explain is a problem when there are also no profits.

Uber was banned from London in 2019 due to concerns about customer safety after it was discovered that the Uber app let drivers fake their identity in thousands of rides. Pressure to create more safety regulations for ride-hailing companies makes them more vulnerable to increased costs. As these companies regularly operate at a loss, new regulations could put them at higher risk for financial trouble. Regulators have been unapologetic, saying they must prioritize public safety.

Self-driving cars will be first available to robotaxi-fleet operators, not private owners. This availability restriction comes from the expensive nature of LIDAR sensors that make the sensors themselves more expensive than the rest of the vehicle. The safety and reliability of automated vehicles also impacts their ability to be privately owned, at least at first. Safe and reliable vehicle operation is easier to achieve when the vehicles operate within a geographic range that has been mapped in detail, meaning automated vehicles will mainly operate in city centers in their early stages of adoption. These considerations driving automated vehicles toward fleet ownership will have impacts on many areas of the automotive industry.

Ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft are changing how travelers get to the airport. This trend is negatively affecting airports, which depend on parking, rental car, and taxi fees as a primary source of revenue.

Policy Guidebook for urban transportation and land use decision makers.

The Option Generator allows users to create a list of ranked policy instruments based on individual search criteria.

Decision-makers guidebook for strategy development, process in planning, procuring and operating policy decisions in transportation.

La Fabrique aims to maximize the chances of success of mobility innovations without providing direct financial support to projects. La Fabrique provides organized resources and partnership opportunities to entrepreneurs.

Open-access scenario planning package that allows users to analyze how their community's current growth pattern and future decisions impacting growth will impact a range of measures from public health, fiscal resiliency and environmental sustainability.

Free, open source tool that can support presenting budget flows in transport in a particular city through a sankey visualization.

This document includes the interests of most, if not all, major issues surrounding the impact AVs will have on our communities, government, and environment once they land.

Is Paris in the position to be able to offer free transit to all? This article breaks down the barriers and examines how it has become reality in other cities.

Nashville faces one of the biggest votes to date, a plan to approve or deny a $5.4 billion plan to overhaul the current transit system.

This info-graph and write-up display the costs that parking spaces incur and how they are bundled into our lives.

It is no secret that transit systems are chronically short in funding and increases to their budgets are tough to nail down. This article describes the common way that this funding is being sourced and why it may not be the best way.

"In the United States, road infrastructure funding is declining due to an increase in fuel efficiency and the non-adjustment of fuel taxes to inflation. Legislation to tax plug-in vehicles has been proposed or implemented in several states. This paper assesses (1) the magnitude of the decline in federal fuel tax revenue caused by plug-in vehicles and (2) quantifies the revenue that could be generated from a federal plug in vehicle registration fee.

"This paper presents a comprehensive discussion of the value capture mechanisms that cities can and do use to help finance their public transport systems. It highlights the most important findings from the literature and adds to it with new insights gained through case studies of public transit finance in six European and American cities. The objective is to inform a lively and productive dialogue on non-fare sources of public transport finance, and ultimately to find the best ways to finance the maintenance and extension of transit service in cities around the world."

"The purpose of this research is to help cities mitigate these issues and answer any questions related to scooter implementation with a thorough understanding of scooter regulations. This research is designed to provide cities a range of practices for scooter regulations without elevating any regulatory practice as best. Ultimately, this research can be used as a guide for cities when signing an agreement with a scooter company."

This article outlines the changing numbers Uber has experienced this year and the sharp declining revenue. Chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, weighs in on the changes.

This article examines the burgeoning future of electric buses and the possible impacts it may have on society.

NYC Transit and MTA bus have a combined fleet of about 5,700 buses for public transportation in New York City. The fleet currently consists of a mix of diesel, hybrid diesel and CNG (compressed natural gas) buses. Electric buses have vastly lower greenhouse gas(GHG) emissions than the current fleet. The MTA will have challenges associated with a changeover to electric buses, but effective planning can make the change nearly invisible to customers. The recommendation of this analysis is that New York City should begin taking steps to convert the bus fleet to all electric.

This article explores the history of Amazon's attempts to get into the fresh grocery game, and looks at potential future methods the company may use as it continues to do so.

Food delivery apps are reshaping the restaurant industry—and how we eat—by inspiring digital-only establishments that don’t need a dining room or waiters.

A first-of-its-kind law will give New York City data on small businesses fleeing the city as retail rents skyrocket. But skeptics fear that won’t be enough.

Meow Wolf started as a loose group of penniless punks coming together as an art collective. Now it’s a multimillion-dollar dream factory thriving in creating installations for the experience economy.

The Mayor’s Proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2018-19 and 2019-20 Budget for the City and County of San Francisco (the City) contains citywide budgetary and fiscal policy information as well as detailed departmental budgets for General Fund and Enterprise Departments.

We are on the cusp of one of the fastest, deepest, most consequential disruptions of transportation in history. By 2030, within 10 years of regulatory approval of autonomous vehicles (AVs), 95% of U.S. passenger miles traveled will be served by on-demand autonomous electric vehicles owned by fleets, not individuals, in a new business model we call “transportas-a-service” (TaaS). The TaaS disruption will have enormous implications across the transportation and oil industries, decimating entire portions of their value chains, causing oil demand and prices to plummet, and destroying trillions of dollars in investor value — but also creating trillions of dollars in new business opportunities, consumer surplus and GDP growth.

A year after shutting all its U.S. stores, Toys R Us is making a comeback. The international chain, which filed for bankruptcy in 2017, is opening two mall stores this holiday season and bringing back its website. But don’t expect the Toys R Us you’re used to. 'We’re reinventing Toys R Us to make it fun and interactive for kids and parents.'

Summary of consumer expenditure data including the expenditures and income of consumers, as well as the demographic characteristics of those consumers.