Location
Seattle, WA
Client
Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), King County + King County Metro
Services
New Mobility
Autonomous Vehicle Planning
Public Engagement
Seattle New Mobility Playbook
In the midst of unprecedented population and economic growth, the City of Seattle and King County contracted Sam Schwartz to create a forward-thinking and forward-doing comprehensive shared mobility plan that integrates emerging technology and services with the existing transportation system to create a mobility network that is efficient, equitable, safe, and sustainable. The first plan of its kind in the US, the New Mobility Playbook codifies a plan for 21st century cities to harness technology as a tool to support sustainable and equitable transportation systems.
Sam Schwartz worked with SDOT and other stakeholders to devise guiding principles for new mobility in Seattle and identify a set of policy and regulatory strategies that were quickly implemented to ensure Seattle can shape the impacts of new services appearing on the City’s streets. Using an innovative suite of modeling and analytical tools, Sam Schwartz measured the potential impact of different strategies and combinations of strategies to quantify the potential benefits and challenges facing the City. The complete Playbook also included a preliminary Automated Mobility Policy Framework and outlined the need for the City to manage transportation data and establish the back-end infrastructure to do so. Following the adoption of the Playbook, Seattle has gone on to launch the largest dockless bike share pilot in the country, worked with new mobility providers to improve access to transit stations, and introduce free-floating car share.
