New mobility lanes

Ten years ago, New York's streets carried just four kinds of vehicles: cars, trucks, buses, and bicycles. Now there are more bikes, and they are used for more purposes. Delivery trucks are now as common in residential neighborhoods as they are in business districts. And a wide range of micromobility devices—personal electric-powered vehicles—are spreading fast. Micromobility vehicles will soon jostle for space with automated and electric delivery vehicles, many of which are "much smaller than traditional delivery vans." All of them are competing to operate safely in a fixed amount of street space.

That's why Rebooting NYC: An Urban Tech Agenda for the Next Administration" proposes expanding the city's bike lane network to 10-foot widths, restricting access more aggressively with barriers and entry points, and permitting a wider range of small vehicles to use them. If implemented, this could allow the city to establish an efficient network for such vehicles, while also allowing for more precise regulation of speed and movement. More broadly, "The attraction of such a route network in the largest city in America would likely be enough to lead many companies to design their vehicles to New York’s standards."

If implemented, this approach could signal a widespread shift in many cities towards repurposing public right-of-way devoted to automobiles to micromobilty and delivery, enabling more widespread and safe use of these modes of travel and encouraging innovation in vehicles and services.