Business Trend. Car Sharing Making Head Way Post-Hurricane Harvey.

The Business: TURO, a car sharing app, whereby you rent out your vehicle by day

How does insurance work? TURO insures you against damage that may be caused by a renter

How has TURO filled a gap after Hurriance Harvey?  If the type of vehicle you need to rent is not avialbale in traditional car rental, TURO can fill that gap.

KPRC | New car rental trend that made one man $25,000

TREND. Banning Gas Powered Engines.

Business Trend: Volvo says by 2019 it will stop making gas combustion engine cars

Regulatory Trend: California’s chief air-pollution regulator says he’s talking to the California Governor about phasing out combustion engines sometime 10 years in the future. 

Can States phase out combustion engines? States can their own air pollution standards, but they need EPA approval

International Trend: 

  • China has called for combusion engine ban at some myster date in the future.
  • the UK and France set…

Local Trend. Changing Taxi Regulations in Texas. 2 Reasons to Reject Change.

San Antonio City Council rejected a proposal to remove cap on taxi permits and allow an unlimited number of taxi drivers to operate independently of companies and co-ops.

Houston and Dallas have adopted these proposals to remove taxi permit caps & allow unlimited taxi drivers independent of companies and coops.

The supporting rational for not removing caps?

  • The cities that removed the caos and restrictions were said to have had periods of regulatory chaos.
  • It dilutes the opportunities for…

Safety Regulation + Ride Share = No Ride Share. What drove away the sharing economy?

Quebec has a requirement that requires taxi drivers and ride share drivers to complete driver safety courses. 

In addition to 35 hours of driver safety training, ride share would also be required to:

  • annual car inspections
  • background checks done by police officials

Wall Street Journal | Uber Threatens to Leave Quebec Over Driver Rules

 

Local Trend. 2/3 of all Traffic Tickets Go To Ride Share? Revenue Source for Cities?

San Francisco Police Department says that 2/3 of its traffic citations are issued to ride share drivers. 

How can you speed through the Streets of San Francisco? Tickets include:

  • Illegal U-turns
  • blocking traffic (remember loyal informed:intel subscribers SF city ordiance sought dsignated ride share drop offs on side streets)
  • blocking bike lanes

What do the traffic citstion numbers look like?

  • April 1 to June 30 accounted for 2,656 traffic violations
  • 1,723 — or nearly 65 percent— ride…

1 Man. North Texas Self Driving Car Rules. 5 Things to Know.

How is DFW handling self driving vehicles in North Texas? With an automated vehicles department within theNorth Central Texas Council of Governments. It’s a department of 1 man.

What has this Department of 1 employee accomplished for self driving car policy?

  • established an “automated vehicle program,” approved by the Regional Transportation Council
  • secured funding for low-speed automated vehicle pilot programs
  • secured funding to support the use of Interstate 30 between Dallas and Fort Worth…

Local Trend. City Creates Smart Transportation Corridor. What it Means by the Numbers.

  • 2.3 miles of roadway
  • 18 intersections will have advanced technology
  • Goal is to reduce by 25% stop and wait times  without increasing travel speeds
  •  $3 million project came from $150 million in bonds Atlanta voters approved in 2015

Atlanta’s Smart Transportation Corridor will be a partnership with Georgia Tech.

Construction Equipment News | Atlanta creates Smart Corridor to improve traffic, prepare for driverless vehicles

LOCAL TREND. 3 Ways Smart Tech Manages Traffic for Columbus OH & Las Vegas NV

Columbus, Ohio and Las Vegas, Nevada are both toying with smart technology to improve traffic.

Three things to know about the traffic technology testers:

  • Each city had to bolster its tech infrastructure to allow for the massive amount of data needed to handle common traffic issues with technology.
  • After infrastructure comes connectivity. Connected vehicles, autonomous cars, traffic monitoring devices all need to communicate with one another, & the communication must be safe and free of…

4 Unanswered Policy Issues with Hyperloop

Hyperloop does not have the policy foundation of other types of transportation system. This leaves 3 areas of policy wide open:

  • There is no policy framework for implementation
  • There is no policy framework for safty standards
  • There are no policy stnadards for regulation, operation and maintenance of hyperloops
  • Does hyperloop qualify for eminent domain authority?

Dallas Morning News | Meet the Dallas urban planner behind Texas’ pursuit of the hyperloop