What is the Trump admin doing about traffic fatalities?
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Join us for CoMotion LA ‘26 this November 18-19 for the 10th edition: Cities on the Move: Mega-events, AI & Shaping What’s Next — featuring the OMF Summit Track.
How we build and govern our streets naturally leads to lively debate in just about every city and town. But it would be a mistake to believe these are entirely local affairs. The U.S. federal government is always in the background, quietly influencing how communities are built by deciding what type of infrastructure to reward with funding. In the second Trump administration, the influence is not so quiet. Administration officials have come down firmly on the side of maximizing vehicle speed and declared war on bike lanes, speed cameras and other measures that the rest of the western world has used to dramatically reduce traffic fatalities.
In other news, Uber becomes the world’s leading food delivery app, San Francisco International Airport is making a killing off ride-hailing, Dott looks at who is using micromobility in Europe and who do you think stands to lose most with the disappearance of negligent drivers?
What you need to know
The symbiotic relationship between ride-hailing and airports: An analysis by Siong-Hu Wong, a mobility researcher for BloombergNEF, shows why ride-hail firms need airports and vice versa. Airports are raking in millions a year in fees imposed on Uber and Lyft trips to and from their terminals. San Francisco International Airport collected a whopping $61 million in fees last year, followed in a distant second and third by LAX ($27 million) and JFK ($23 million). It’s a price the ride-hail firms have no choice to pay; air travelers are an essential part of their business. This is why allowing AVs to pick up and drop off at airport terminals is such an important milestone for the viability of the robotaxi business.
Bike lanes and speed cameras are out: The Trump administration has removed protected bike infrastructure and automatic speed cameras from a list of “proven safety countermeasures” on the Department of Highway Safety website. No officials have yet been willing to explain the changes, but given that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just earlier this month celebrated yanking federal funding for “DEI bike lanes and climate change,” it’s not too hard to read between the lines.
America suffers from a far worse traffic fatality rate than other industrialized countries. This wasn’t the case until the turn of the century, when other countries began embracing a variety of evidence-based practices aimed at slowing down cars.
The people building the future of mobility are coming to LA 🌴☀️
This November 18-19, CoMotion LA celebrates the 10th edition featuring the OMF Summit — and brings together the leaders, innovators and decision-makers reshaping how cities move, connect and grow. From public agencies and transport operators to investors, founders and global technology companies, CoMotion LA has become the world’s leading urban mobility gathering.
Be in the room to hear how:
LA Metro and LA28 are preparing for one of the world’s largest sporting events.
FIFA World Cup 26 is coordinating regional mobility across multiple cities.
Advanced air mobility is transitioning from concept to regulatory reality.
Autonomous and micromobility are reshaping last-mile connectivity.
Open-source mobility data is enabling interoperability.
Cities are reimagining streets from car-centric to people-centric planning models.
👉 Take a look at our latest confirmed speakers.
The conversations shaping the next decade start here. Register now.
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Uber gets hungry: The world’s top ride-hail company is also poised to become its top food delivery company by purchasing Berlin-based Delivery Hero for $14.8 billion offer. The deal means Uber now has either a mobility or food delivery presence in 99 countries.
Image credit: Dott
Who is micromobility serving in Europe? Dott, the Berlin-based scooter and e-bike-sharing service operating across Europe and the Middle East, achieves a half billion rides since its founding eight years ago. According to a survey of its users, a quarter of Dott trips replace motor vehicle trips and nearly half connect to public transportation. The published results do not say, however, how many users are simply using scooters to avoid walking. Another finding: only 22% of users are women.
ICYMI
CoMotion Founder & CEO John Rossant sits down with Michael Müller, CEO of TASARU Mobility Investments, a subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund, the Saudi soverign wealth fund. TASARU is funding and supporting the Kingdom's own nascent electric vehicle industry and other mobility innovations. Müller and Rossant discuss current bottlenecks for new mobility deployment, what’s specific about the regional context of Saudi Arabia, and how the country and fund are adapting strategies from around the world to innovate.
🎧 Tune in now!
What we’re reading
What do AVs do to trial lawyers? Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution notes that one group has been lobbying furiously against autonomous vehicles for nearly a decade: trial lawyers. The roughly 6 million car crashes that occur each year in the U.S. lead to roughly $200 billion of insurance payouts, a big chunk of which goes to the attorneys representing crash victims and their families. Tabarrok believes the autonomous future will not only be far safer but far more just for those who are injured because of the tremendous amount of data collected by connected vehicles.
