Employees of a Colorado-based non-profit will soon move to Austin to begin studying the city鈥檚 various commuting woes as part of a partnership finalized Thursday.
The City鈥檚 calling it a 鈥渕ulti-year Mobility Transformation program,鈥� intended to develop 鈥渕obility as a service that is electrified and eventually autonomous.鈥�
Greg Rucks is with the Rocky Mountain Institute and will manage the project here in Austin. One of the organization鈥檚 first goals has little to do with traffic; rather, it鈥檚 to increase the number of electric and environmentally friendly vehicles on the roads. Rucks says they鈥檝e already started talks with ride-sharing and taxi companies about adding electric vehicles to their fleets. Rocky Mountain Institute鈥檚 team of ten will also spend the next year finding a way to fill the gaps in public transportation. For instance, finding a way to get commuters from their homes to bus stops when the stops aren't very close by.
鈥淢aybe the private companies could give you a ride to that node, get you on that public transportation service and allow you to use it in a way that you didn鈥檛 before,鈥� Rucks says.
The partnership will last between three and five years, and will work within the City鈥檚 already-approved budget.
*This story originally referred to several U.S. cities as 'partners' with RMI. RMI only has official partnerships w Denver and Austin.
