On February 23rd, METRANS Advisory Board Member and General Manager of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) Seleta Reynolds joined a panel of practitioners and elected officials at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles to discuss the roles of the public and private sectors in car- bike- and ride-sharing as part of the Live Ride Share Conference, the first conference of its kind. Sponsored by both industry and the public contributions, the daylong event was designed to encompass all shared-use transportation modes in Southern California. 

Reynolds’ panel, Lift-Off: Getting Car-sharing, Bike-sharing and Ride-sharing Off the Ground in SoCal, was charged with answering the question, “What will it take to get a seamless and affordable transportation system that makes car ownership a choice and not a necessity?” Car-, bike- and ride-share providers, community groups, and government leaders contemplated the challenges and opportunities of new mobility options, and more specifically, what providers need from the public sector, and what government needs from the providers? Moderated by Tim Papandreou, Director of Strategic Planning and Policy, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, the panelists also included representatives from LA Metro, South Bay Cities Council of Governments, and the LA County Bicycle Coalition along with car and ride-share providers Lyft, Car2Go, Zipcar, Enterprise Rideshare.

Reynolds tapped her experience as leader of the Livable Streets division of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, a capacity in which she coordinating street projects citywide, as well as her new role at LADOT. In both, she has viewed the role of the public sector to keep the community safe while supporting the development of new, innovative, and creative transportation opportunities to enhance quality of life. Specifically, she says, in most cases government should do what it can to “Get out of the way” without compromising public safety. She shared her concerns that in her experience, the market is typically not able to safely bring shared mobility to the public on its own, and that cities and other public entities will have a significant role to play in the process. In order to keep the market of ridesharing functioning safe and healthy, “We must look for partners,” she noted, and referenced the continued efforts by the city of Los Angeles to partner and collaborate with both private and public entities to move the process forward.

When asked to sum up the shared mobility session, Reynolds said quite simply, “We need to think ahead,” which is sage advice indeed.