Downtown Columbus, Ohio: A case study in the mobility revolution

It’s an exciting time for those of us dealing with the inner workings of downtowns and addressing questions such as how people move around, how technology can improve our urban cores, and how cities can adapt to a rapidly changing mobility landscape. One city working hard on those questions is Columbus, Ohio, thanks to its selection from among 78 cities as the winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Smart City Challenge. That distinction brought $40 million in funding for testing ways to blend data and technology to “help people and goods move more quickly, cheaply, and efficiently.”

Columbus also happens to be my hometown. Its downtown has changed substantially over the past 20 years, adding housing and new retail, dining, and open space options that have attracted many new people. On a recent visit, I tried two emerging forms of mobility that recently debuted downtown and got a hint of what they might mean for Columbus—and downtowns generally.

The scooters are coming! The scooters are coming!

E-scooters were a hot topic in 2018. After companies like Lime and Bird unleashed scores of them unexpectedly in various downtowns, it seemed that people either loved them or hated them—which often happens with any technology disrupting the norm. Self-driving cars had already been making a splash, and predictions about them—when they’ll enter mass production and how they’ll impact cities—are rampant. Together with ride sharing (Uber and Lyft), bike sharing, and car sharing (Zipcar), emerging technologies have the potential to transform how people get around growing downtowns like Columbus.

My visit started in the Short North, a hip neighborhood of galleries, local shops, bars, restaurants, and active construction sites. After exploring a bit, my wife and I started walking toward downtown when we saw two Lime scooters sitting on the sidewalk. We downloaded the app and within minutes hopped on for our first ride. We quickly got the hang of them and zipped downtown toward Columbus Commons.

The scooters effectively extended our walking range. Without them, we’d have faced either a long walk in the cold or going back to our car, driving 1.5 miles, and finding another parking spot. Using the scooters reduced our greenhouse gas emissions, encouraged us to explore, and kept us more active.

But cities can’t reap those benefits without paying attention to regulation and rider etiquette. People complain about users riding on sidewalks or leaving scooters where they block pedestrians. Scooter riders have been seriously injured and even killed in the past year.

What’s a city to do?

Transportation for America, an alliance of elected business and civic leaders from communities across the country, recently released the Shared Micromobility Playbook to explore a comprehensive policy for local governments. One key component is street design. While it makes sense to separate pedestrians from faster scooter riders, it doesn’t necessarily make sense to put scooters in the road where even faster (and much bigger) cars endanger them. For scooter riders to feel comfortable and be safe, Columbus (and all cities) will need to add more infrastructure like bicycle lanes—and soon.

Next, we scootered over to the Scioto Mile, a beautiful new public space reclaiming land along the Scioto River. We parked near a bike rack and waited a few minutes to hop on May Mobility’s Smart Circuit, a new self-driving shuttle that connects multiple destinations around the river. Our ride smoothly navigated traffic while the operator explained the technology refinement and testing under way. The four-seat vehicle was low-speed and mostly self-driving, although the operator took control at a couple of intersections to ensure safety.