L.A.’s Quest For Transportation Fixes Pulls Waymo, Lyft And Verizon Into ‘Urban Movement Labs’ Alliance

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has a new approach to jump-start transportation innovation in the most traffic-clogged metropolis in the U.S.: a public-private alliance that opens up the city to mobility startups and experiments, backed by a range of partners initially including self-driving tech leader Waymo, ride-share operator Lyft, the Avis Budget Group and 5G service provider Verizon.   

The city says its “Urban Movement Labs” is a first-of-its-kind alliance involving tech and transportation companies, along with the operator of Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles’ Department of Transportation, the sprawling Port of Los Angeles and the L.A. Cleantech Incubator, which has been a big source of jobs for a range of clean-energy and sustainable business startups. Participants are contributing to the initiative’s “seven-figure” budget, Garcetti said, without elaborating. Input from L.A.’s diverse neighborhoods, nonprofits and academics from UCLA, the University of Southern California and Caltech will also help guide the effort. 

“You’ve got everything you want here and all we ask for is to come here and partner with us,” Garcetti tells Forbes. “My very modest ambition is to make L.A. the transportation technology capital of the world, a crown yet unclaimed by any city, and I think we’re just perfectly positioned for it.”

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Garcetti detailed the project Thursday at CoMotion LA 2019, an annual conference highlighting the latest developments in technology and services geared toward improving urban mobility.

Like most big cities, Los Angeles is struggling to provide alternatives to single-passenger car use and reverse a drop in transit ridership–even though it has one of the most well-funded construction programs to expand light rail and subway service in the U.S. At the same time, it’s trying to manage explosive growth in the use of ride-share services that have brought convenience but also contributed to congestion, and the surge in micromobility scooter and bike services that eliminate some car trips but can also clog sidewalks. Reducing the impact of massive volumes of freight trucked out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the country’s biggest, will also be a focus of the new effort.

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Chelsea McCullough