FYI this should be a really interesting conference.  I’ll be presenting at a couple of sessions.

MOVING MINDS: The Next Transportation Infrastructure

November 9 – 12, 2009

Primary Location: Michigan League, U of M Campus Ann Arbor. 911 N. University Ave. 734-764-0446.

It’s a pivotal time for transportation — in the U.S., in Southeast Michigan, and worldwide. Half the world now lives in city regions. By 2020 that figure will rise to 2/3, challenging current transportation models and policies while at the same time opening exciting new opportunities for business and innovation.

Moving Minds: The Next Transportation Infrastructure will bring top researchers together with business leaders, entrepreneurs, practitioners and policy makers from around the world and across the U.S. to advance new thinking and to accelerate implementation of systems-based New Mobility solutions and infrastructures.

Special focus: “Moving Minds” — understanding the cultural, psychological, and aspirational underpinnings of our relationship to transportation (for both users and leaders), and responding with innovative systems, policies, and business models that address these values sustainably, equitably and compellingly. Primary Sponsor: Ford Motor Company.

Highlights:

• Llew Wells, former West Wing producer – on “moving minds”
• Scott Page, world-renowned systems scholar on diversity, resilience, and national security
• Florencia Serrania, former head of Mexico City’s transit system – on connectivity
• Amit Kapoor, Chair of India Competitiveness Institute and Harvard Business School
• Joint sessions with UM Urban Land Institute on the transport & real estate revolutions
• Naveen Lamba, IBM Global Industry Leader for Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Robin Chase, Founder & Former CEO, ZipCar
• Focused sessions on: business opportunities, pilots, research, and capacity building

The SMART Summit provides a platform for collaboration among leaders from private sector, public sector, non-governmental organizations and academia, who undertake pilot projects, research, education, and global learning exchange on a range of pressing issues and opportunities related to the future of transportation in city regions around the world. For background on SMART: http://um-smart.org

Video footage of last year’s summit:    http://um-smart.org/resources/conference/video.html

2009 SMART Moving Minds Summit:    http://um-smart.org/resources/conference09/overview.html

After working downtown for many years, you get used to common sights and sounds. Things like the white twinkle lights glowing from the trees on Main Street in the winter, the sidewalks filling with café tables in the spring, and the return of the LINK in the fall after its summer hiatus. Not this year.

After five years, the AATA and DDA suspended funding for the Link. The DDA Board voted back in July to suspend funding because they felt that the LINK was not doing what they had intended. The topic of the LINK has been re-visited in subsequent DDA Transportation Advisory Committee Meetings: whether to fund again or not. The issue is complex, as the LINK has become many things to many people, and it leads to the ultimate question: what makes a successful downtown bus circulator?

What other communities have a service similar to the LINK? One example of many is Boulder Colorado’s The Hop. Boulder is a similarly sized community and a college town, which makes it a worthy comparison. I have also been to Boulder and ridden The Hop so I have first hand experience with its ease of use. The City of Boulder attributes the success of The Hop to convenience. The trips are frequent (7-10 minutes) and thus the riders don’t need to consult a schedule. In addition, the buses are fun (they play XM radio to riders and plus they’re named the Hop…how cute is that?) and are affordable (just $2.00 per ride or free if you have a pass that’s similar to our go!pass.)

As a long-time downtown worker, and a former LINK rider, I can say that the LINK was successful by many of the same standards and our bus was free. However, the schedule was not often regular or clear. It changed from year to year, and didn’t run during the summer months. If a bus came every 7-10 minutes throughout the day, even summers (and maybe Saturdays!) I would expect ridership would increase.

What did you like about the LINK? Are you going to miss it when the wind starts to blow and the snow drifts and you’ve got to walk all the way to State Street or Main Street loaded down with a laptop and a briefcase? Tell us what you think and we’ll keep you posted as this issue is discussed.

(Special thanks to Amber Miller of the DDA for her analysis of downtown circulators)