InfoHive – Transportation

Where: Massachusetts

What: H1039 (2019 | MA)

What does H1039 do?

• Changes the ride share fee from a flat fee
• to a dynamic percentage fee

Why switch ride share to a dynamic fee? to keep up with costs and the cost of traffic congestion

Does this sound like familiar argument? Yes, it sounds like the gas tax argument

What policy justifications?

• encourage ride sharing
• funding for public transit
• reduce traffic congestion

The Herald News | Bill Looks to Extract More Money from Uber Lyft

Where did this start? Mexico

What are ride share companies in Mexico doing in the financial services regulatory world?

• offering its drivers a debit card
• offering loans
• partnering with major credit card companies

How is this important? Your ride share clients have more opportunities to explore with state legislators and state regulators

TearSheet | Why on-demand transportation companies like Uber and Lyft are embracing financial services

Have a transportation client that is interested in funding? offer a brief or letter brief on this issue

What question will Texas Attorney General Opinion Request 0295-KP answer?

What is the proper allocation formula for distribution of county transportation grant funds appropriated under S.B. 500?

Where is the issue? There’s $125 million at stake in Section 78, and effective September 1, 2019, H.B. 4280, will change the funding formula. So which funding formula is used? Todays funding formula or HB 4280’s funding formula.

Where: Ohio

What? Smart Mobility Advanced Research Test in Logan County Ohio

• 540 acres
• 2/3 size of Central Park
• 6 -lane intersection measures 1.2 miles is the longest in the industry

How was it funded? state-funded facility

• $25 million came from Ohio State University
• $20 million state funding

Cleveland.com | Ohio driverless vehicle test-track, touted as industry’s biggest, now open

Where: Los Angeles, CA

What EV goals did LA set? Emission free by 2050

How will LA accomplish this?

• PHASE IN STANDARDS. increase % of electric and zero emission vehicles in the city to 25% by 2025, 80% by 2035, and 100% by 2050
• EV CHARGER INSTALLATION. 10,000 public EV chargers by 2022 & 28,000 chargers by 2028
• INCLUDE TAXI STANDARDS. 10% of its taxi fleet by 2022 & 100% of its fleet by 2028
• SCHOOL BUS STANDARDS. Zero emission by 2028
• PORT STANDARDS reduce GHG emissions 80% by 2050
• PUBLIC TRANSIT. Metro and LADOT buses by 2030

Electrek | LA’s own ‘Green New Deal’ sets goal of 100% zero emission vehicles by 2050, 20K+ new EV chargers

Where: San Francisco

What EV goal is San Francisco setting? 100% emission-free transportation within city limits by 2040

How did the local government take action?

• Mayor establishes working group, The Mayor’s Electric Vehicle Working Group (EVWG) Electric Mobility Subcommittee
• Report: Proposed Electric Vehicle Roadmap for San Francisco

What local ordinances or actions are will be offered?

• ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2030
• pave the way with “transitional zero-emission vehicles” like plug-in hybrids
• all commercial parking will be required to have EV charging at 10% of its spaces by 2023

Electrek | San Francisco aims for emission-free transportation by 2040, moves to increase EV charging options

Fiscal Notes gives us the run down on TXDOT’s Transportation plan 2040 highlights 5 funding problems:

• aging transportation infrastructure
• inflation is making it more costly to fix
• greater fuel efficiency means less gas tax revenue
• unreliable funding from a federal Highway Trust Fund
• gas tax revenue will peak in 2030

Texas raised its gas tax last in 1991, what have other states done?

• 31 states have raised their gas tax
• including 4 in 2019

Is there a trend in these gas tax changes? Yes, adopting a variable rate that is changed by some combination of population and economic indicators.

Big cities have been partnering with ride share to round out public transit.

Pilot programs are off and running in:

• Philadelphia
• Monrovia, California
• Washington D.C.

The new opportunity for growth: SMALL CITIES

Why are small cities ripe for ride share partnerships?

• public transit is either infrequent or nonexistent
• small cities hands are tied because they can’t increase revenue by increasing bus fare

Name a small city partnership success: Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority and Uber AND Nashville and Lyft

What does the Pinellas agreement look like?

• $3 late night door to door service for low income workers
• $5 ride -hail passes for first and last mile ride sharing service from 24 hour bus stops

What does the Nashville Lyft agreement look like?

• Agree to 200 late-night bar and restaurant workers on rides home from the city’s downtown corridor at 50% cost

Route 50 | Improving Transit Through Lyft and Uber? More Agencies Are Paying for Ride-Hailing Rides

State: Vermont

New incentives for 2019: $1 million

Who gets the incentives?

• households making less than $92,000 
• buy or lease new electric cars
• Cars must be valued below $40,000

WCAX | Vermont ramps up EV incentives; is it enough to meet emissions target?

Where: Maryland

How much in EV incentives was available? $6 Million

How quickly did it go? 

• “depleted before the fiscal year began on July 1st”
• 2019 doubled funding
• But there was a backlog of unpaid EV incentives waiting

What was the max rebate? $3,000 rebate

How many EVs in Maryland? The number has doubled from 2017 to 2018 to 18,000

Maryland’s Goal on EVs? 300,000 EVs by 2025

Engadget | Maryland is already out of EV tax credits for 2019