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CATES Center for Advanced Transportation and Energy Solutions |
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"Research, Educate, Integrate, and Accelerate" |
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Announcement, November 2022Potential participants in the USDOT Thriving Communities Program, may want to incorporate consideration of a forthcoming common carrier public transit mode now experiencing multi-billion dollar levels of technical vehicle development. By creating new partnerships, the microtransit using vans and cutaways already being deployed across America by public transit agencies can be enhanced and made more sustainable, affordable, and widely available in the future with phased implementation of driverless, automated, electric-powered robotic rides providing point-to-point service 24 hours per day, seven days per week – like private automobiles offer to those who own or have immediate access to them. After working on vehicle automation economics and policy for the past decade, CATES is now offering to provide customized expert assistance to innovative communities seeking a modern universal mobility system operating for citizens and visitors. Such a system begins right away with small vehicle microtransit, now operating across America by a growing number of transit agencies. It’s a good idea that “just got even better” according to a recent report from Mineta Transportation Institute written by transit professionals who led its implementation in Los Angeles. The Universal Mobility Team at Center for Advanced Transportation and Energy Solutions (CATES) is looking forward to providing technical assistance in support of a particular line of development for microtransit that fits well with the USDOT Thriving Communities Program. Our help would be pertinent within all three of the new Communities of Practice (COPs) being funded in 2023 through that new Program. However, Networked Communities is the most pertinent COP to the concept described here. With international expert credentials, CATES has a specific focus on helping communities thrive by implementing a scaled up, more productive form of microtransit: On-demand, anytime-everywhere-all-trips electric-powered ride services that also incorporate a dynamic and creative level of public transit agency preparation for robotic shuttle vehicle types serving all citizens including those requiring personal assistance. Access to affordable, on-demand, point-to-point transportation 24 hours per day seven days per week is a significant Social Determinant of Health (SDOH). A new mobility mode of automated, remotely monitored passenger vehicles is now emerging to supplement existing modes with no traveler requirement to use a car, or wait at a bus stop. Safe, affordable, environmentally friendly, electric-powered passenger mobility on city streets for all residents and visitors is becoming more feasible with every passing month with testing in many innovative jurisdictions by an industry investing billions of dollars. The CATES Universal Mobility Team can assist selected jurisdictions planning participation in the USDOT Thriving Communities Program to achieve the capacity to blaze a clear path to motorized, financially sustainable, equitable, on-demand universal mobility. Now or later, email team@cates.solutions, or call 206-781-4475 to begin a discussion on our capacity for designing new universal mobility formats we can add to your Thriving Community partnership team. Center for Advanced Transportation and Energy Solutions – CATES -- is a think tank and consultancy founded in 2012 and registered as a non-profit organization in Washington State. The principals of CATES blend research-based multidisciplinary expertise with their experience-based project management skills. Our major topic focus has always been carefully designed, sustainable, technology-based solutions for efficient, cost-effective personal travel and freight movement. CATES experts have produced thought-leading concepts supporting the development and deployment of automated electric vehicles. Organizational capabilities that CATES experts have deployed throughout the first quarter of this century include many of those required for the capacity building phase of the USDOT Thriving Communities Program. Specifically and appropriately for your community, the CATES Universal Mobility Team is qualified in seven out of twelve of the DOT-named specialities listed next across the specific technical topics we work in comprehensively, that is, Connected, Automated, Tailored, Electric, Shared vehicles. (another meaning for CATES) vehicles. In the following capability areas, we know we can be helpful to communities that want to go from “Concept to Completion” per the USDOT mantra. Quoting slide 15 of USDOT’s Thriving Communities guidance, here is where CATES is strong:
Our Team Includes Five Deeply Experienced Senior Experts John Niles, co-founder and executive research director of CATES, has lead university research teams as a 20-year non-resident research associate of Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University. He is the co-author of the university graduate-level textbook The End of Driving: Transportation System and Public Policy Planning for Autonomous Vehicles (Elsevier, 2018). He is currently engaged in providing technical assistance to the Government of New Zealand on a new mobility incentive concept called MaaS. John is a graduate of MIT and Carnegie Mellon University and lives in Seattle. Egils Milbergs, executive director for innovation acceleration at CATES, is also Founder and CEO of the Center for Accelerating Innovation. He focuses on geographically targeted economic development through innovative enterprises that collectively yield regional competitiveness, especially in low-income Opportunity Zones. Earlier he was Executive Director of the Washington State Economic Development Commission, implementing 18 Innovation Partnership Zones. He is currently working in Tucson, AZ on Social Determinants of Health, which include the availability of readily available mobility with or without access to a car. Egils is a graduate of Harvard University and lives in Woodbridge, Virginia Steve Marshall, co-founder and executive policy director of CATES, has 30 years of expert experience in energy and transportation issues, focused in recent years on connected, autonomous and electric road mobility. He serves now on the US Department of Energy’s Executive Advisory Board and recently was the Transportation Technology Partnership Manager for City of Bellevue, WA. He served earlier as chief counsel to Puget Sound Energy and then as the top policy manager at Snohomish Public Utility District. Steve is a graduate of Harvard Law School and lives in Olympia, Washington. Richard Mudge, PhD, principal economics associate at CATES, is founder and president of Compass Transportation and Technology. He has multi-decade experience with government, business, and think tank clients planning and implementing better mobility, including systems applications for congestion reduction, sustainable and productive transportation finance, and road vehicle automation. Dick is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and lives in Potomac, Maryland. Bern Grush, principal systems design associate at CATES, is founder and executive director of the Urban Robotics Foundation. He is an innovator, speaker, and author on automated vehicles as well as parking reform and road pricing. He is a thought leader on opportunities to re-think and re-deploy urban transit in the lead-up to vehicle automation. He is the other co-author of The End of Driving. Bern is a graduate of University of Toronto and University of Waterloo and lives in Toronto. Contact the CATES Universal Mobility Team with email to team@cates.solutions, or call 206-781-4475 to begin a discussion on our capacity for designing and implementing new mobility formats to improve your community. |
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CATES Appearances Earlier Publications
Events Completed September 7, 2012 Conference, "Beyond Oil: Transforming Transportation in Century 21" Opening remarks at Beyond Oil Conference from Event Chairman Steve Marshall Video recording of Beyond Oil Conference, thanks to OneToTheWorld.com and Seattle Center Foundation. Access to specific presentations (slides on split screen) available via "Content on Demand" tab below viewing window in the conference video: >>Follow up on Beyond Oil by conservation-minded law firm Graham & Dunn >>Report on Beyond Oil by Mallory Smith in The Futurist Blog Participants in our July 18, 2011 workshop to plan an Electric Mobility Demonstration Project, conducted jointly with Institute for Environmental Research and Education. Other from CATES "Automating Your Ride" by "Expanding Public Transit by Changing Its Definition" Comments of John Niles for the Puget Sound Regional Council General Assembly, April 25, 2013 Letter to Governor Jay Inslee: Steps for the Governor to Transform Transportation CATES presentation April 18, 2011 to HUD Region 10 Administrator Published short essays by Steve Marshall From others Seminal 2010 book from MIT Press: Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Mobility for the 21st Century by William J. Mitchell, Christopher E. Borroni-Bird, and Lawrence D. Burns "Climate Change and
Rice-Stanton Transportation Governance Reform project, 2006
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Above is the cover of the university-level text book by CATES Executive Research Director John Niles and his colleague Bern Grush at Harmonize Mobility, Inc. Click on the picture to reach the order page at https://www.elsevier.com/books/the-end-of-driving/niles/978-0-12-815451-9. This book is well-deployed in the Puget Sound region, including University of Washington Library, Washington State DOT internal library, and Puget Sound Regional Council information center. Free chapter summaries at http://endofdriving.org CATES -- Center for Advanced Transportation and Energy Solutions -- is a non-profit research & development organization based in Western Washington State. Our mantra is "Research, Educate, Integrate, and Accelerate." There are many diverse threads to integrate! New Program of CATES: Assisting transportation organizations plan for practical, cost-effective implementation of battery-electric, vertical take-off and landing, regional urban air mobility services.Autonomous Vehicle Project in SeaTac, Washington City of SeaTac, Washington explored autonomous vehicle applications for community benefit with consulting assistance from CATES Described in the June 2018 issue of Seattle Met magazine! City of SeaTac engaged the Center for Advanced Transportation and Energy Solutions (CATES) in 2017-18 to conduct research on the viability of the City becoming a Center of Municipal Excellence in autonomous, driver-less vehicle deployment for cost-effective public benefit. A primary recommendation of this technology application explored for short-term deployment potential is small, quiet, electric shuttles connecting light rail stations and transit centers with residential neighborhoods. Connections to community facilities such as recreation centers, schools, medical clinics could also be provided. Vehicles such as these have the potential to provide mobility that is safer, less expensive, and non-polluting compared to today's available alternatives. CATES developed an Action Plan document that provides guidance to the City on whether and how to proceed on developing and implementing processes of learning, teaching, fundraising, and procurement of new technology applications for using high-tech autonomous vehicles to provide better mobility in the City of SeaTac. Active engagement and collaboration was sought with citizen and business interests, neighboring jurisdictions, Port of Seattle, King County Metro, Sound Transit, non-governmental technology or mobility providers, and others like members of the ACES Northwest Network who step forward with an interest in this topic. All of the work in this project is consistent with and supportive of the June 7, 2017 State of Washington Executive Order 17-02 on autonomous vehicle testing and technology. Click here for a final presentation on this project to the City of SeaTac. City Council voted resolution wrapping the project is posted here. * * * * Earlier, CATES contributed to an integrated assessment (IA) of the automated, connected electric vehicle's contribution to transportation sustainability. This project was funded by the University of Michigan Graham Environmental Sustainability Institute and carried out in partnership with the Connected Vehicle Proving Center at University of Michigan - Dearborn. The public kick-off for the event was September 7, 2012 at the Beyond Oil Conference at Seattle Center with video recordings made and posted on the left hand side of this page. The final IA report, "Automated, Connected, and Electric Vehicles: An Assessment of Emerging Transportation Technologies and a Policy Roadmap for More Sustainable Transportation" is available by clicking here. The Puget Sound Regional Council, responsible for planning future transportation infrastructure and public services in the greater Seattle-Tacoma-Everett-Bremerton region, reports that about 80% of surface travel in the region is in private motor vehicles, a dominant market share that is forecast to continue despite investing billions in public transit. The importance of public and private policy to make private automobiles be safer and generate lower emissions of carbon and pollution gives impetus to the focus of CATES. We are consistent in all our work with existing approved plans on issues outside of our project scope such as land use pattern/density, non-motorized transportation modes, passenger railroad modes, water ferries, and aviation.
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Contacts John Niles, Steve Marshall, Egils Milbergs, Tony Billera, Senior Fellow Paul Minett, Senior Associate Joseph Rosmann, External Links End of Driving from Grush Niles Associates, Seattle and Toronto Securing America's Future Energy Western Washington Clean Cities Program and presentations from the TRB-AUVSI Road Vehicle Automation Symposium, July 2016 Canadian Automated Vehicles Center of Excellence Electrification Roadmap and Fleet Electrification Roadmap by Electrification Coalition. Video from Google describing its self-driving car:
Insights About Telematics (Daily electronic newsletter crowd-sourced from Twitter) Thurston Regional Planning Council Plan for Sustainable Development The U.S. DOT Transportation and Climate Change Clearinghouse Daily computer-generated compilation of news stories "Noted by CATES" as crowd-sourced from Twitter. The real-time status of road traffic and public transit (mostly running on roads) is available here:
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