CTS has secured a one-year grant from the McKnight Foundation to support the Twin Cities Shared Mobility Collaborative (SMC), a regional partnership of stakeholders, local operators, and national experts. CTS will provide organizational, communications, and public engagement support to advance the collaborative’s leadership as a focal point for shared mobility issues and initiatives in the Twin Cities region.
The collaborative is one outcome of the Twin Cities Shared Mobility Action Plan, which was developed in 2017 with support from the McKnight Foundation. “The plan establishes a goal of removing 50,000 cars from Twin Cities roads in 10 years,” says Gina Baas, CTS associate director of engagement and education. The collaborative is united around the action plan’s goals and is guided by staff from Metro Transit and the Metropolitan Council, Move Minnesota, the University of Minnesota, MnDOT, the City of Minneapolis, and the City of Saint Paul, among others.
“SMC has set an ambitious work plan to meet the action plan goals by advancing initiatives at the regional and local levels,” Baas says. Examples include mobility hub location and construction, a framework for addressing equity issues, guidance for policy and agreements development, and support for local implementation.
Chicago’s Shared Use Mobility Center had been supporting the work of the Twin Cities collaborative, but the SMC steering committee decided to transition to local support in order to build more regional capacity and independence. “The collaborative would also like to offer technical assistance and guidance when requested to improve and advance local projects being proposed by shared mobility providers, right-of-way owners, and transit operators,” Baas says.
The work of the SMC also aligns well with the University’s Initiative on the Sharing Economy (see related story), a multidisciplinary research program that was founded to build research capacity and expertise on the sharing economy, with a primary focus on the transportation industry.
