William Lyons

The time has come for the city of Boston to incorporate ridesharing into all of its mobility planning. This is most critical when it comes to allocating precious curb space to the many competing demands for this valuable urban terrain. The changing needs of our mobility system must drive changes in our parking policies.

The not-so-distant future of mobility will require our cities to completely reconsider how curb space is allocated. Our current framework includes allocation of curb space primarily to parked cars, with specific areas dedicated to buses and shuttles. In areas with high demand for curbside pick-up and drop-off, in conjunction with remote parking, valet lanes are permitted to facilitate the efficient use of limited parking spaces while accommodating relatively short visits to restaurants and other establishments. This model has worked well for decades, and has provided a reasonable framework for the allocation of curb space. This is no longer the case.

The advent of transportation network companies, also known as ridesharing or ride-hailing companies, has revolutionized how we conceive of urban mobility in a very short period of time. Companies such as Uber and Lyft have radically transformed the mobility landscape in less than a decade. The ability to use an app on a smartphone to summon a private driver to provide a ride for a fixed fee is a tremendous evolution in mobility services. But the pace and scope of market penetration for this technology is placing a significant strain on city streets designed for horses and cattle 350 years ago.

Curb Space Must be Created

It is high time for the city to aggressively plan for the dominance of autonomous, electric rideshare vehicles. Some studies suggest such services will be ubiquitous within the decade. Volvo is delivering 24,000 autonomous, electric vehicles to Uber in 2019. General Motors is launching its line of autonomous, electric vehicles in 2019 with parallel plans to launch a ridesharing service to complete with Uber and Lyft. The rest of the players in the mobility services marketplace trying to keep pace including Ford, Waymo (Google), Lyft and others. The pace of change in this space is dizzying.

Once these autonomous, electric rideshare vehicles arrive on our streets, they will need curb space to pick up and drop off their passengers. However, adequate curb space for this activity simply does not exist; it must be created.

Like any physics problem, if we give some space to one urban activity, we will need to take it away from another urban activity. The bill-payer in this case is parking. The mass proliferation of autonomous, electric rideshare services will render on-street parking unnecessary. Vehicles will not sit idly by in on-street parking spaces if they can be out making money by driving others to appointments, to the airport, home from school or to meetings. That would be uneconomical and inefficient. We had best get ready to say goodbye to on-street parking sooner rather than later.

This eventuality begs the question: When should we start converting our on-street parking spaces to rideshare pick-up and drop-off zones? The answer: Now. The prevalence of these services is already creating congestion when human-operated rideshare services stop in the middle of travel lanes to discharge their passengers or pick them up. This is a maddening experience for those who occasionally still drive in the city. And it ignores the realities of the not-too-distant mobility future.

The city of Boston should systematically review all of the areas where there is a high incidence of rideshare pick-up and drop-off activity. Perhaps, in a gesture of cooperation, the rideshare companies can pinpoint their 100 most frequented locations. Then the city could evaluate these locations, identify a common area for pick-ups and drop-offs, and designate these areas for rideshare only. To make this approach really appealing, the ridesharing companies would then program their apps to direct passengers to these consolidated areas.

These issues are cropping up on a greater frequency every day in the city of Boston. The future is here, although many of our residents choose to blissfully ignore its arrival. Rideshare companies will continue to grow and become more technologically advanced. The arrival of autonomous, electric rideshare vehicles in the next five years will serve as a wake-up call to many. As a city, we better start planning for the realities of our mobility future – today.

William F. Lyons Jr. is president of Fort Hill Cos. of Boston.