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November 15, 2014 - Issue 50
"Traffic jams occur when demand for our infrastructure exceeds supply. Transportation demand management (TDM) offers fiscally responsible programs that promote better use of our existing infrastructure."
- Lois DeMeester, CEO, Mobility Lab and DS&MG
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Now 50 issues and 2 years into Mobility Lab Express, we have lots to give thanks for, including:
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Tom Fairchild, director,
Mobility Lab
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You: We started the Express e-newsletter with a list of a couple thousand people in our network. We now have triple that number of subscribers with about 30 new ones each week (and almost never any unsubscribes).
Our contributors: Two years ago, only our small staff blogged occasionally. We now
have nearly 100 contributors commenting on
TDM from fields as diverse as health, tech,
 urban planning, and more. Together we are raising the profile of TDM for what we hope will lead to much-deserved and much-needed funding and policy. Our partners: From past projects that are now seeing measurable success, like TransitScreen, to ones we're involved with now - like TransportationCamp, Arlington's Transit Tech Initiative, and the North American Bikeshare Association, to name a few - we are playing in some exciting corners of the transportation world. Happy Thanksgiving, and we hope you enjoy Issue #50!
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The market penetration of wearables is still relatively low, estimated at 17 million to be sold in 2014. If Apple has its way, the release of the Apple Watch in 2015 will improve these numbers, leading to mass-consumer acceptance of these devices.
If any company is up to this task, it's the creator of the iPhone. Says Time magazine, "Apple creates demand for things that there previously was no demand for. It takes products we never wanted and convinces us we can't live without them."
So while Google is taking its chances on computerized glasses (I'll pass, thanks), Apple has its eyes set on a much more transformative technology. The Apple Watch, according to promotional ads for the product, will help people "live a better day and a healthier life."
Add "Influence the creation of more livable, walkable communities" to the list.
- Paul Goddin, Mobility Lab
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INFOGRAPHIC: A graphic representation of our latest report (featured below)
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RESEARCH: New Regional Study Details How Commuters Get To and From Arlington
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Where employed Arlingtonians go to work in the Washington D.C. region. About 75% work in Arlington or D.C.
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Of the 131,300 employed residents of Arlington, Virginia, about 53.3 percent who commute from a home in Arlington usually drive alone, while about 55.3 percent of the 180,300 people who commute to work in Arlington drive alone.
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Stephen Crim, research director, Mobility Lab
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Also, Arlington, like the rest of the region, continues to see big gains in the share of people who telework and bike to work.
Transit use has declined slightly among commuters who live in Arlington, and about a quarter of Arlington residents and people who work in Arlington take transit to work.
We came up with a wealth of findings like these in our new analysis of commuting trends in and around Arlington. We based much of our examination on the five State of the Commute surveys (from 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, and 2013). The 2013 survey, like past surveys, was a random-digit-dialing telephone survey by Commuter Connections of employed individuals in the Metro Washington Council of Governments Region.
See our summary here and the full report here.
 
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POLICY: Public-Transportation Users Can Earn Money By Reading This Article
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The federal pre-tax transportation benefit is unfair to people who don't drive to work.
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Jason Pavluchuk, lobbyist, Association for Commuter Transportation
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If you take public transportation or vanpool, you are eligible for only $130 per month in pre-taxed commuter benefits. But if you drive, you are allowed $250 in pre-tax benefits for parking expenses.
Click here by December 31 to let your member of Congress know to take action on several pending bills that would support transit benefit parity.
And here is a brief message to include in your calls to action to Congress and through channels like direct email, newsletters, blogs, and Twitter.
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PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: Transportation Techies
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Michael Schade started as Mobility Lab's photographer and creator of transit data visualizations a couple of years ago. He is now our full-on tech guru, and one of his major initiatives has been to get people together who share a passion for improving use of public transportation through technological means.
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Michael Schade
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Transportation Techies has grown to 537 members since its founding less than a year ago. Although many in the group are programmers and hackers, the monthly meet-ups are designed to welcome non-technical audiences. Transit geeks, entrepreneurs, computer scientists, urban planners, and students have been active.
Past events like Cool Mobility Apps and OneBusAway Hack Night, and upcoming ones like Capital Bikeshare Hack Night III on December 4 typically feature several show-and-tell presentations of apps and data visualizations.
Mobility Lab's new tech reporter Amy Eagleburger covered the last event and wrote about one presentation that detailed Washington D.C.'s use of data to envision its future bike lanes. Schade continues to refine these sessions, as members are now receiving their first membership surveys to complete. Check it out!
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Please Send Us Your Feedback
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We hope Mobility Lab Express, our events, and the research and case studies at our website will be go-to resources for you. In fact, we invite you to share your stories of how transportation-demand improvements have been made in your communities. How are you "moving people instead of cars?" We may publish your feedback, and together we'll strengthen transportation for all!
Simply respond to this email or click here
with any thoughts or suggestions.
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Mobility Lab is a research-and-development initiative for "transportation demand management
- moving people instead of cars." Based in Arlington, Virginia - which has one of the largest TDM programs in the U.S. and removes 41,000 car trips from the county's roads each work day - Mobility Lab seeks solutions, stories, and partnerships from all over the world.
Please feel free to share this newsletter with those who may be interested. |
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