Matthew McConaughey and Senate Testimony

With the holidays quickly approaching, Team Cityfi looks forward to celebrations marked by an array of delicious dishes (as we discovered during our inaugural Fantasy Thanksgiving Food Draft) and in good company with family and friends. Filled with gratitude for many people, experiences, and moments, we are especially appreciative of community—both our Cityfi community of impact-driven clients, collaborative partners, and supportive teammates as well as recent opportunities to be in community, sharing spaces and dialogue with leaders, innovators, and colleagues.

Last week, our team cheered on Partner Karina Ricks as she delivered testimony before the U.S. Senate, advocating for greater federal investment in small-scale roadway safety measures. Be sure to check out an excerpt of her powerful oral testimony and call to action on our blog.

We are excited to share our hot-off-the-press Autonomous Vehicles: A Guide for Cities, supported by the Knight Foundation and Urbanism Next. The report presents actionable learnings and considerations from six years of local government pilots and demonstrations around autonomous technology.

Furthermore in the mobility and civic innovation arenas, Cityfi had a blast convening with public, private, and nonprofit thought leaders, not to mention headliner Matthew McConaughey, at events this November in Barcelona, Los Angeles, Bentonville, and D.C. If our team’s takeaways and reflections spark an idea in your mind or leave you curious about something, we would love to know and share more with you.

Did you miss any of our newsletters over the past year or wish you could revisit any of Cityfi’s insights, project recaps, or What We’re Reading articles? Look no further than our newsletter archive with over 25 editions for you and your colleagues, friends, and family to peruse. Thank YOU for being part of our community, and we wish you a delightful, yummy, and fulfilling Thanksgiving!

Safety First: Streamlining Small Scale Improvements

By Karina Ricks

There are tens of thousands of roadway deaths on American streets each year. Over 2 million people have been killed in a traffic crash in my lifetime. Nearly every adult personally knows someone who died traveling a U.S. street. These are shocking and appalling facts - and frankly NOT the case in wealthy nations.

As I said in testimony before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, “saying that safety is our highest priority is quite simply dishonest.” We need to move with greater urgency and make it significantly easier to both fund and build small scale, but hugely impactful, proven safety improvements like sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes and street lighting.

Globally, we are falling embarrassingly behind. The traffic-related death rate in the U.S. is 12.4 per 100,000 residents - putting us in the same class with Indonesia, Turkey, and Mexico. Other auto-oriented peer nations like Canada (5.8) and Australia (5.6) have half our rate - and it certainly is NOT because Canadians don’t text or Australians don’t drink. They DO have more sensible street design policies that recognize that speed kills and people make mistakes.

We can correct this. The newly introduced Building Safer Streets Act, if adopted, will grant design exceptions to proven safety countermeasures making it faster and easier to implement these small scale/big impact improvements. Additionally, the Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) discretionary grant program allows and encourages these small scale improvements as demonstrations in the (undersubscribed!) planning set aside. Cityfi would love to help communities, MPOs, transit agencies and other eligible sponsors gear up now to take advantage of the FY24 planning set aside and help communities large and small in their regions rapidly implement these lifesaving improvements.

An Autonomous Vehicle Guidebook for Cities

By Erin Clark

Cityfi is thrilled to announce the release of Autonomous Vehicles: A Guide for Cities. Funded by the Knight Foundation and developed in collaboration with Urbanism Next, this resource responds to local governments seeking to manage and influence autonomous vehicle (AV) pilots and deployments happening on their streets, as well as cities trying to prepare for these pilots.

The AV Guidebook is the result of years of research, piloting, and collaboration in communities across the US, but particularly Detroit, Miami-Dade County, Pittsburgh, and San Jose. The AV Guidebook offers considerations, tools, and examples of various ways to effectively manage AV deployments.

Especially in light of the recent revocation of Cruise's permit to operate AVs in San Francisco, we believe this resource will provide significant value to cities looking to manage and influence future AV testing and deployments, as well as helping state and federal regulators better partner and collaborate with local governments around AV policy.

After years of working on this project, AVs are yet another reminder of the power of cohorts and collaboration. I’ve loved watching cities and counties across the country share information and experiences around AV testing and pilots, brainstorm policy solutions, advocate together, and provide general support to each other as they all navigate this still nascent technology.

Check out the AV Guidebook and reach out to us if your community is looking for additional support preparing for or responding to AVs!

In Motion at CoMotion LA

By Karina Ricks

CoMotion LA is in the books and was another inspiring gathering of new mobility innovators, public sector leaders and global thinkers. Cityfi was well represented as a partner of the event. The event kicked off with the Open Mobility Summit panel on civic innovation and co-creating with the private sector. Karina Ricks moderated a timely panel on autonomous vehicles and a roadmap to help cities lead with their values. Other panels explored transportation needs around major events such as the upcoming World Cup and 2028 Olympic games, the continuing evolution of advanced air mobility (AAM), progress and accomplishments of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (just 2-years old this week!) and so many more topics.

Our key takeaways:

The new mobility frenzy is maturing. There are still flashy new entrants (looking at you AAM!) but also a more grounded approach (no pun intended!) to mobility.
Tech seems to be moving away from “move fast and break things” and toward more collaboration and coordination with cities and communities, and that is truly encouraging to see.
Payments are key - figuring out how to ease (equitably!) electronic payments is the cornerstone to system integration, leveraging opportunities of the ecosystem, and supporting needs based pricing approaches.
Honesty is still the best policy. Don’t over promise - cities want to co-create with emerging technologies and match them to real needs. They understand the development cycle and can help if technology partners are clear about the limitations.

Meeting in the Middle with Matthew McConaughey

By Brandon Pollak

On November 8th and 9th I joined 350 other policymakers, investors, business and thought leaders and entrepreneurs from across the country at the Heartland Summit in Bentonville, Arkansas. The summit is the signature event for Heartland Forward, a non-partisan think-and-do tank that develops policies and programs to unleash economic growth in the middle of the country. Focusing on priority growth areas for the region such as advanced mobility, health and wellness, outdoor recreation economy, and entrepreneurship, the summit allowed for candid conversations and development of actionable solutions to major challenges in these areas.

Actor, activist, and die hard Texas Longhorns fan Matthew McConaughey stole the show speaking of the power of action with his Just Keep Livin Foundation’s Greenlights Grant Initiative which helps school districts nationwide access billions of dollars of available federal funding to create safer school environments. In the aftermath of the school shooting in his hometown of Uvalde, TX, McConaughey has devoted his activism to eliminating barriers to accessing grants available through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. While the conversations were compelling and thought provoking, and the amazing Onyx Coffee was flowing, it was Matthew McConaughey who showed how we can leverage the available federal resources out there to strive for change.

Traveling to the Future

By Brandon Pollak

The U.S. Travel Association hosted its 3rd annual The Future of Travel Mobility Summit, which convenes policymakers, global travel and tourism leaders, industry CEOs, and mobility experts for deep dives into emerging tech and innovations, sustainable travel, and security. Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves, House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Garret Graves (R-LA), American Airlines Chief Sustainability Officer Jill Blickstein, and Archer Aviation COO Tom Anderson were just some of the featured speakers.

While many of the conversation topics ranged from electrification to the new frontier of urban air mobility, I took the stage with Carlos Cruz-Casas, Miami-Dade County’s Chief Innovation Officer in the Office of Innovation & Mobility Services, and Emeka Moneme, President of the Capitol Riverfront BID in DC to discuss how mobility innovation hubs can be leveraged to fuel economic growth based on models established in DC and Miami. Taking a 360 lens for the influencers in the room, Emeka highlighted DC’s Mobility Innovation District and its unique vision connecting technology testbeds with economic development, and public policy. This combination can bolster both the neighborhood, including small businesses, create immersive experiences for tourists visiting the Nation’s Capital, and to educate business and political leaders frequently in DC on emerging mobility policy.

Carlos took a forward-looking view on establishing an “innovation architecture” for cities using new mobility solutions as the connective tissue between priority growth areas of Miami. Through Miami-Dade’s Thrive 305 Action Plan and initiatives such as the Metro Connect rideshare service. Miami is home to major sports and cultural events such as the Super Bowl, F1, and Art Basel, but the city will have even more global attention with the 2026 World Cup. As a washed up soccer player myself (Emeka was much better) I was excited to hear how the Messi craze and upcoming World Cup can be leveraged to activate mobility innovations and planning to become a new model for global events.

Talking “City” at the Smart Cities Expo World Congress

By Evan Costagliola

Cityfi was invited to speak at the 12th Smart Cities Expo World Congress in Barcelona, as well as the Smart City Business Forum–a precursor event organized by the Dutch and Scandinavian innovation cleantech delegations. Evan Costagliola led the charge for Cityfi at both events, building the case for city-led innovation, policy and investment pipelines between Europe and the United States and holding conversations with leading innovation hubs, savvy government leaders, economic development agencies, incumbent industry leaders, and leading startups on the mobility, cleantech, govtech, and digital technology spaces.

Evan spoke on a panel with Forum Virium Helsinki, Imec, and Railgrup asking the fundamental question: why should cities care about autonomous mobility? This was a fascinating conversation discussing the wide spectrum of technologies, business models, and operating models that represent automation in mobility systems and why cities need to be deeply engaged in ongoing shifts toward automation. The panel asserted that the image of a robotaxi often comes to mind when cities hear or even talk about “autonomous mobility”. But there is so much more to consider and learn about. Automated transit drones, freight, delivery bots, EV charging bots, and more are not a distant future. These technologies are being built and tested now.

Cities need to be central figures in the roll out and testing of disruptive technologies, like automation. But even more importantly, cities need to assert a point of view and vision for automation on public streets so that they can build outcome-centered platforms for experimentation, policy testing and public engagement. The panel broadly agreed that cities are not doing enough to prepare for these changes. Knowledge about these technologies and business models are generally low within city halls and resources are even lower.

So, what can cities do now to better prepare for an increasingly autonomous future? Evan and his fellow panelists agreed that cities need to think bigger about the spectrum of automation, focus on what they control, better understand the risks that need to be managed, and collaborate with their city peers. Cities need common frameworks for testing, deployment, learning, and policy development. They also need to lean on each other to exchange knowledge, build cross-city capacity, and iterate on policy concepts. Cityfi’s work with the Knight Foundation’s AV Initiative and the recently released Autonomous Vehicles: A Guide for Cities is a clear model for cities across the globe to replicate and adapt.

But there is so much that can be done beyond the framework level. Cities today are focusing on transit integration and mobility hubs, urban delivery, curb management, coding their curbs, and implementing the curb and mobility data specifications necessary to manage the public realm (check out the Open Mobility Foundation's work). All of these efforts are critical to get the best out of automation. Cities should also work with industry to build govtech pipelines designed to manage customer experiences and known safety and operational issues. We look forward to engaging cities and industry players to advance these conversations.