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Two barriers that keep pop culture from embracing public transportation
HBO’s hit Big Little Lies is set in affluent Monterey, where much of the show’s action takes place in glamorous vehicles. The lawyers in The Good Wife glide through traffic-free Chicago in shiny new...
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Changing our bad habits to make transportation options easy
On one reading, bike riding makes Copenhagen one of the healthiest cities in the world. But Danes do not ride their bicycles everywhere because they are health nuts. Rather, they ride because they...
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20 or more ideas to make mobility extraordinary for all
When people are stuck in traffic, they have a lot of time to go over in their minds how they want to complain about being stuck in traffic. And they usually have plenty of source material, noted...
View ArticleHow to reverse LA’s declining transit ridership? Target particular riders
Public transportation is having a renaissance in Los Angeles. A region that in the postwar era had its once-extensive streetcar system dismantled has re-constructed a rail and BRT system. Ballot...
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Stories from youth summit display a bright future for bicycling
This article was originally published at PeopleForBikes. Eight years ago, Pasqualina Azzarello attended the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C., along with two interns from Recycle-A-Bicycle in...
View ArticleHow BART used social media to turn crisis into opportunity (and how WMATA...
March 16, 2016 was a very bad day for transit riders. Two major transit agencies – Washington DC’s WMATA and San Francisco’s BART – both stopped service. Unexplained voltage spikes on BART’s longest...
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We blame pedestrians for dying even when drivers are at fault
Let me paint you a picture of a hypothetical situation. I’m a large man – I’m over 6 feet tall, and nobody has ever mistaken me for a sprinter. Linebacker is a more apt comparison. So imagine that I’m...
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Amtrak’s advantage? Social connections made during rail trips
When one thinks of transportation from the nation’s capital to South Florida, Air Force One flights to Mar-a-Lago are probably the first thing that comes to mind. But a few weeks ago, I used a much...
View ArticleConsistent branding can increase transit ridership
Some transit systems are iconic for their fonts. New York’s Helvetica, London’s Johnston – these fonts hold a special place in each city’s ethos. But they also exist for practicality: whenever you see...
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Can transportation demand management beat TV? Maybe with good marketing
Welcome to our 12 Days of Mobility series, which celebrates the launch of our Transportation Cost-Savings Calculator, a tool that measures the return of investment from transportation demand...
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Transit should go all in on marketing a subscription model
An ad for “comfort protection” when buying a car in India employs a celebrity to show just how pleasurable and hassle-free the experience of car ownership and mobility will be. Even more seductive, the...
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Austin’s transit marketing focused on “fun” trips instead of commuting (and...
It’s one thing to provide a new transit service, and another to get people to use it. Last year, Austin, Texas launched two express bus routes with a new marketing campaign. Starting in late 2016, the...
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Transit could learn how to do signage from restaurants
Have you ever wondered why transit signage is so boring and, well, standardized? Does it have to be that way? One thing transit should seek to do better is creativity, and signage presents a great...
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How Germany standardizes signage and fare payment across separate transit...
The customer experience of transit starts before you ever board a bus, train, tram, or ferry. For transit to compete effectively with driving, it needs to be easy for a person to make the informed...
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How a Portland university uses marketing to stop commuters from driving alone
Located on steep hills interrupted by a river, Oregon Health & Science University is a kind of American Shangri La, accessible by only two main roads. So if everybody drove alone to the campus, no...
View ArticleClimate change doesn’t stop people from driving alone. But behavior modeling...
Getting people to stop driving alone takes more than just building better infrastructure. When you wake up in the morning, you probably don’t assess every transportation option available to you. Many...
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Introducing the astrological signs of commuting (without pseudoscience)
It’s a universal truth of marketing that not all people will be receptive to the same message. Just like how a speaker tailors their presentation depending on the audience, marketers change their...
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Jarrett Walker on why transit advocates should study literature
Credit: Jarrett Walker & Associates If you spend a lot of time in the transportation blogosphere, you probably know of Jarrett Walker, public transportation’s most eloquent advocate. But you might...
View ArticleHow to convince drivers that flying, autonomous cars won’t end traffic
Every holiday season, I travel to Chicago’s auto-dependent suburbs, where my relatives are fascinated by my transportation habits. From my traditional arrival by overnight train to my long walks to...
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The best place for public transportation ads? Highway billboards
This article is adapted from a shorter op-ed in our latest Express newsletter. To Keep up with The Mobility Lab-ians, subscribe to the Express. Tying extreme weather events to climate change might be...
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