Sinopsis
Micromobility explores the disruption to urban transport that comes from new electric, lightweight utility vehicles. Using the history of computing as a framework, we unpack how e-bikes, scooters and more will change how people get around cities.
Episodios
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84: Designing cities for Micromobility with Skye Duncan, Global Designing Cities Initiative at NACTO
06/08/2020 Duración: 01h01minThis week Oliver interviews Skye Duncan, a fellow Kiwi who has gone on to lead the Global Designing Cities Initiative at the National Association of City Transportation Officials. Skye is a wealth of knowledge about how infrastructure and space allocation decisions get made on streets around the world, and how micromobility can impacts those habitats to achieve transport outcomes. It was a great conversation - they both really enjoyed this conversation and hope you do too. Specifically they dig into: * Skye’s background and journey from New Zealand, via Columbia and working with Mayor Bloomberg to heading the Global Designing Cities Initiative at NACTO. * What the Global Design Guide for Cities is trying to achieve. * What micromobility/electric bikes/scooters offer to cities around the world, and how this intersects with he growth in urban populations that we’re seeing. * Why the problem of parking, and parking entitlement, are such a big issue. * What micromobility operators should be thinking about whe
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83: The War On Cars - Talking with Doug Gordon
30/07/2020 Duración: 57minThis week we releasing a recent conversation between Oliver and Doug Gordon from the popular War on Cars podcast that we did as a Micromobility Membership (TripleM) webinar. Philosophically aligned, Oliver and Doug talk about COVID, urbanism and the intersection of infrastructure and technology. This was a fun conversation. Specifically they dig into: - What we’re seeing globally and in NYC in response to the COVID epidemic. - How much (or not) COVID is an opportunity to further the micromobility agenda, both with local and national level programmes for infrastructure - Oliver reveals some of the details of the research he’s been doing on modelling mode shift potential for Micromobility - The impact that Citibike has had on New York - Where the origins of sneakers came from, and how they gained such notoriety during the 1980 transit strike in New York - Why bike parking is the next big opportunity for infrastructure builds - Why micromobility helps in transport deserts that exist, even in places like New
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82: The biggest bikeshare in America - talking with Laura Fox, Lyft's General Manager for Citi Bike in New York
23/07/2020 Duración: 01h07minThis week Oliver interviews Laura Fox, Lyft's General Manager for Citi Bike in New York. Laura has an incredible background with stints in Qatar, working on Mexico cities planning regulations, time at Sidewalk Labs, and as editor for one of the best books on urban planning and economics we’ve found, Order by Design by Alain Bertaud, all of which is discussed, before digging in to the nitty gritty details of Citibike in NYC. This was a great episode - Laura is an amazing thinker and you’ll get a lot out of listening to her. Specifically we dig into: - an explanation of the Citibike setup - its coverage, size (15k bikes!!), characteristics and relationship to the NYC DOT. - How and why they price as the product as affordabiy as they do. - a discussion about the docked system and the benefits/challenges of this vs the more common dockless system ie. bike valets, load balancing with large numbers locked up and how they create ’capacity valves’. - the impact of electrification on the fleet - how the early da
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81: Markets for Trust - why blockchains matter with Horace Dediu and Anders Brownworth
16/07/2020 Duración: 01h15minSomething a bit different this week. Horace and Oliver host Anders Brownworth, co-host of the Critical Path, to talk about crypto, blockchains and markets for trust. Anders’ background working in telecom, finance and then crypto (developing USDC and now working at the Federal Reserve) give him a unique perspective. As Horace, Oliver and he break down what programmable trust can mean for markets, government and society. This came out of a discussion following a Micromobility podcast recording talking about Apple was functioning as an arbiter of trust with all its new key and payment building blocks, and how ‘trust’ carries a market premium, which gave way to a wider conversation about how trust can be priced. For those of you who aren’t that familar with the workings of Bitcoin/blockchain, Anders Brownworth has done a 101 video here (with more than 1 million views!) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_160oMzblY8 Specifically, they dig into: - The history of money, and why trust-minimised stores of value a
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80: Decarbonizing Transport with Andrew Salzberg, Loeb Fellow and former Head of Transportation Policy at Uber
09/07/2020 Duración: 58minThis week Oliver interviews Andrew Salzberg, former head of Transportation Policy at Uber, and now a Loeb Fellow at Harvard about his work in radically decarbonising transport. Oliver worked with Andrew at Uber, and he’s been thinking about the intersection between climate, transportation and technology longer than most. It’s a great conversation touching on the challenge ahead and opportunities that abound. Specifically, they dig into: - his work at TfL, the World Bank and Uber and then now, focussing on decarbonising transport. - the challenges and opportunities for decarbonising the transport sector, and where Micromobility might be able to help - how can these modelling exercises actually get integrated into decision making processes and funded, and who in the US is talking about it. - The intersection of landuse change, PT, EV’s and Micromobility and others, and how the conversation can be ‘unsiloed’ - Why Andrew doesn’t think that decarbonization is inevitable, but how the renewable energy sector of
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79: The agile incumbent: talking e-bikes with Ian Kenny and Chris Yu of Specialized
02/07/2020 Duración: 01h02minThis week, Oliver interviews Chris Yu, Chief Product & Innovation Officer and Ian Kenny, global marketing for the Turbo e-bike brand at Specialized. They talk about how incumbent bike manufacturers are thinking of electrification, how that’s changing how the company is thinking about the job-to-be-done for their customers and what role companies like Specialized can play in the discussion to push Micromobility forward. Specifically, they dig into: - what differentiates the Specialized brand in terms of positioning, company ownership structure and customer type. - how their full stack approach, paired with their scale, compares to the rest of the bike industry. - How Specialized think about the Innovators Dilemma, and what framing they use to encourage self disruption within the firm to ensure that they can meet evolving customer needs and wants. - for design, what are the variables that matter for customers? They talk about the Levo family of bikes, and the learnings that can be ported over to other
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78: Products vs Platforms: the end of the Segway and the start of Apple in Micromobility
25/06/2020 Duración: 01h04minThis week Horace joins Oliver to talk about the news that Segway has ended production of the PT and the new announcements from Apple and how they pertain to Micromobility. They also trial a news segment at the beginning of the show. Specifically they dig into: - What didn’t work about the Segway, and comparable failures in history - The risks of over engineering products without feedback or specifically only asking for feedback from B2B customers when trying to build a general appeal product. - The innovations required to take the promise of the Segway to what we see today - The pathway for adoption, and the risks involved in ‘crossing the chasm’ between early adopters and the early majority. - The new announcements from Apple and how they might be deployed in the Micromobility industry including AppleKey and the forthcoming Apple tile/data network. - How to think about Apple’s efforts in Micromobility from a phone, wearables and accessories perspective - Whether the ‘platform-ization’ of
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77: Talking the future of Mobility-As-A-Service with Jake Sion, COO of Transit
18/06/2020 Duración: 49minThis week Oliver interviews Jake Sion, COO of Transit. We talk micromobility, mobility as a service and the interplay between the two as well as the wider mobility landscape and how software can infuse intelligence into it. After last weeks’ discussion on Adwords, Google maps and mobility, it’s a topical discussion. Specifically, they cover: - Transit - what they do, services they integrate with, number of cities, and who they consider their customers. - How Jake sees the landscape for mobility as a service developing - The Transit UI starts with the question ’where are you going?’. They talk through that design decision and why it isn’t actually the primary use case for Transit. - They talk through data standardisation such as MDS and GBFS, why it matters, why it's such a political battleground and the importance of a non-profit organisation called Mobility Data in setting standards for interoperability. - The state payments and how Jake sees it developing. - Why the forcing function for mobility-as
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76: Ebikes, Maps and Adword Dystopia
12/06/2020 Duración: 01h02minThis week Horace joins Oliver for a discussion about ebikes and the state of micromobility, including which potential other potential players might want to get into the industry. This leads to a discussion about the job-to-be-done of maps, and Horace’s dystopian warning that they will end up as the browser of the mobile era. Specifically they dig into: - How e-bike sales have been doing during COVID - The current structure of the industry for standard bikes and ebikes, including where the margins are - How this mom-and-pop style industry parallels the early days of the PC industry - A discussion about the Taiwanese ‘golden book’ for bikes - Why distribution is one of the great unsolved aspects of e-bikes - Whether micromobility best parallels the computer industry or the early auto industry, and what implications are there for either framing - Which players are likely to get into building the next generation of e-bikes, and why Amazon, Google or Apple are all potential contenders. - Why maps are so importa
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75: A trip down memory lane with Jump founder, Ryan Rzepecki
05/06/2020 Duración: 01h06minThis week we share a recent TripleM webinar where Oliver interviews Ryan Rzepecki. Ryan was the founder of Jump which sold to Uber and as of a few weeks ago, was sold to Lime. Ryan is a wealth of knowledge and understands this space inside and out. It’s a great discussion. Specifically, they dig into: - The Social Bike / Jump journey story including how it started, pivoted and what Ryan learnt along the way - The behind the scenes story - the highlights, lowlights and things people were not so privy to. - A discussion of why design was so important and how that came through in the scooters and bikes. - What Ryan thinks of the industry today, and why he believes it still so early. - What his favourite Micromobility products are. - His opinion of blitzscaling and the impact that had on Jump. - A discussion of how the fundraising environment changed over time. - Where he’s bullish on the industry overall, and their next steps. - Why the Jump hardware team was the best in the business. If you like this, yo
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74: Vanmoof Again! - Talking S3/X3 with CEO Taco Carlier
28/05/2020 Duración: 58minToday Oliver interviews Taco Carlier, CEO of Vanmoof, about the recently released S3/X3 bikes and the company’s recent venture fundraise. They’re one of the largest and fastest growing urban bike manufacturers globally, and this was a great discussion about the state of the industry in these tough COVID times. Specifically they dig into: - A summary of Vanmoof for those that haven't had a chance to listen to the last podcast, including their brand and design strategy, as well as basic facts about the company. - How they’re looking at COVID, including a discussion about sales, supply chains, how they’re seeing cities react, and how ridership has been changing. - An extensive discussion on the new S3/X3 which has been reviewed exceptionally well, including deep dives on the components, the pricing, the design, end-to-end service packages, sales channels, powertrain and theft protection, and what the driving considerations were for each. - A discussion on the venture capital market vis-a-vis their recent 12.5
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73: A Slow and Steady Approach to Micromobility - Ben Bear from Spin
21/05/2020 Duración: 40minThis week Oliver interviews Ben Bear, Chief Business Officer at Spin, the micromobility company backed by Ford and which operate in 65 markets across the US. They dig into their service and how they’re different from others in the industry. It’s a great discussion - Spin really come across as a the tortoise in an industry of hares. With micromobility adoption being a long term prospect their focus on sustainability for what will inevitably be a decades long play is an interesting counter to others in the industry. Specifically: * Spin’s approach in COVID-19 * The difference that Spin has in market, including: * Their use of Swiftmile charging stations (Swiftmile) from a tendering and business operations perspective. * the efforts to integrate into MaaS * Why being backed by Ford makes them more resilient and able to focus on longer-term planning and outcomes, and why this is attractive to cities. * How has he seen the regulatory environment change in the time that they’ve been operating. * How do
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72: Micromobility, pricing, politics and Friedrich Hayek
14/05/2020 Duración: 52minHorace and Oliver have a great discussion on the philosophical underpinnings of price signals going back to Freidrich Hayek and how price works to coordinate activity in society. They discuss how micromobility suffers from market manipulation for its infrastructure and manufacturing and how road space allocation is currently misaligned to how it’s valued as real estate. It’s Horace at his best - philosophical, paring theory to reality, and giving us all new frameworks to think about how the world works and will change. Specifically, they dig into: - The concept of using price signals to allocate resources in society proposed by Freidrich Hayek, where that came from as a concept, where it has been applied (free market vs. centrally planned economies), and why it’s interesting in the context of oil prices. - Why black/grey markets exist everywhere - Where it has and hasn’t used for road space allocation, and why that matters - What the impact on micromobility would be if road space could be more effectively
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71: Recode's Kara Swisher being interviewed by Felix Salmon on post-car travel/micromobility
08/05/2020 Duración: 58minOn this episode of the Micromobility Podcast, we publish an episode from the recent Micromobility Membership call where we had Axios Reporter Felix Salmon interview Kara Swisher, Editor at Recode about her pledge to go car-free for a year, and her thoughts about the development of the micromobility space. It’s a great discussion. Specifically, they dig into: - Her choice to get rid of a car, and how that’s gone over the last year. - The challenges of using Micromobility with a young child, and what options she’s considering - ‘I like to write about directional stuff and I think car ownership is over eventually.’ And how she thinks about autonomy and micromobility in that context. - The inevitability of new urban transport modes as cities evolve and grow. - Why e-bikes are attractive in the suburbs. - In the discussion about COVID-induced changes to urban design how much does it happen at a local level vs. state vs. national? - The technology of security for bikes and other mic
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70: Micromobility operations with industry veteran Tarani Duncan - ex-Citibike, Jump and Mapbox
30/04/2020 Duración: 54minThis week, Oliver interviews micromobility industry veteran Tarani Duncan about her journey and views on the development of the micromobility industry. She’s a fount of knowledge, and this was a really fun discussion on the history of the space. Specifically we dig into: - Her childhood and study in New Orleans, and how that led her to studying transport - Her early days in operations fixing the early NYC Citibike system - Joining the team at Social Bicycles, which became Jump, including a discussion about social incentives and the acquisition by Uber. - Her experience at Mapbox building routing software for some of the largest delivery companies in the world - Joining Shared as the first operations lead - A discussion about the wide range of companies she’s advising in the space, including OurStreets, Tortoise, Karmic and DataContours - Why she’s the first member of the Human Scooting Association - The low hanging fruit for the shared industry - Why micromobility matters to her, and why she’s still very b
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69: The largest micromobility manufacturer in the world - Tony Ho of Segway/Ninebot
24/04/2020 Duración: 47minThis week Oliver interviews Tony Ho, VP of Global Business Development for Segway/Ninebot. As the largest Micromobility hardware player globally across a whole heap of different verticals, Tony has a unique perspective on the space and how it’s developing. He’s a Clayton Christensen disciple as well - having studied at Harvard under him, so we get to unpack the theory against the practice of disruptive innovation and why Tony is excited about this space. It’s a great discussion. Specifically, we dig into: - Segway’s wide range of products, and how it conforms to our thesis that micromobility is not just scooters, but a whole range of sub-500kg vehicles. - We talk through how their operations have been affected by Coronavirus in the last 3 months - We talk about how the collapse of the international shared Micromobility industry has impacted the company strategy? - Why Tony sees micromobility as disruptive vs. other modes of transport, and how it conforms to disruptive innovation theory per Clay Christen
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68: The connection between antifragility, disuptive innovation and micromobility
16/04/2020 Duración: 01h01minThis week Horace joins Oliver to talk about the work of Nassim Taleb - namely, antifragility and asymmetric risk - and what connections there are to disruptive innovation theory and Micromobility. Oliver has wanted to record this episode for a while and it doesn’t disappoint. Specifically we dig into: - Taleb’s work and background, explaining concepts such as Black Swans, antifragility, Fat Tony, Skin in the Game, Extremistan vs Mediocristan and intellectual-yet-idiots - The attraction and danger of polemical thinking - The importance of understanding if you’re dealing with bounded or unbounded risk probabilities - How traditional MBA education has increased fragility in enterprises, right at the same time that they’re increasingly trapped by the innovators dilemma, how these two concepts are tied and why Apple’s paranoia from it’s near death experience parallel the investment strategy outlined by Taleb. - The role of job-to-be-done and the anti-fragility of the restaurant space. - The connections between
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67: Micromobility Infrastructure - challenges and opportunities with The Transportist, Professor David Levinson
10/04/2020 Duración: 58minThis week Oliver interviews David Levinson, professor at the University of Sydney and popular blogger at transportist.org. David is not new to the world of talking about transport and disruptive innovation, having joined Horace on Asymcar many years ago. He brings a tempered view to the benefits and challenges of micromobility, including around infrastructure and the decision making timeframes that it typically has. Specifically, we dig into: - David’s background and research into toll roads, travel behaviour and urban form. - Whether David considers micromobilty a substantial new innovation in transport. - Constraints around deployment of larger vehicle fleets. - The challenges around parking, NIMBY-ism and political will in reallocating street space. - Comparable histories of new vehicle technologies making it into cities. - The intersection of political capital/structures and the likelihood of rollouts of specific transport infrastructure - The fundamental challenges with micromobility infrastruct
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66: Exploding demand for Delivery Worker Micromobility - Mina Nada of Bolt Bikes
02/04/2020 Duración: 47minThis week Oliver interviews Mina Nada, CEO of Bolt Bikes, about their business leasing ebikes to delivery gig workers like UberEATS/Deliveroo/DoorDash in the UK, US and Australia. Given everything happening right now with COVID19 and the explosion in delivery based meal consumptions, this is a great interview. Specifically, we dig into: - Mina’s background at Bain, Deliveroo and Mobike, and how that prepared him for Bolt Bikes. - The unit economics of their business, including 6 month paybacks, 3 year cycles and 66% residual value for depreciated bikes. - How most markets are still allowing takeaway and delivery during COVID19 lockdowns. - How couriers calculate the costs and tradeoffs of leasing vs owning their own vehicles (ie. bikes, ebikes vs mopeds) and why the end-to-end and flexible nature of access positions Bolt well to solve the job to be done. - Their plans for expansion and vertical integration into their own Bolt hardware - A discussion about ebikes and the future of the fleet, includ
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65: Viral Nature: thinking about the impact of coronavirus on micromobility with Horace
26/03/2020 Duración: 56minThis week, Horace joins Oliver for a discussion about the impact of COVID19 on the world of micromobility, as well as taking questions from Twitter. Specifically, we cover: - Horace discusses the work of Nassim Taleb on anti fragility and tail risks, and how that applies to micromobility’s low-end disruption - Why financial stress, shorter distances being travelled in quarantine areas and the low-cost nature of micromobility position it to do well in the face of this crisis. - Examining this pandemic in the face of historical challenges like WW2 and earlier pandemics - The impacts and opportunities faced by shared micromobility operators in the meantime. - How brands can be ‘made’ in moments of crisis. - Whether the early movement for ‘emergency bike lanes’ to facilitate physically isolated movement will take hold, and how that could spread around the globe. NOTE: Apologies in advance for the audio quality. Things are moving very quickly, and even though we recorded this on Saturday, lots has changed s