Smart City Challenge
San Francisco: Harnessing the Future of Shared Mobility
For more information go to smartcitysf.com

What is the Smart City Challenge?
Simply put, it is creating the future of urban transportation.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has pledged up to $40
million to one city to help define what it means to be a “SmartCity” and become the country’s first city to fully integrateinnovative technologies – like self-driving cars and connectedvehicles – into their transportation network. Vulcan Inc. hasalso pledged another $10 million to the winning city, which willlink people to transportation in ways that improve quality of lifeand lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Seven cities were selected as finalists on March 12: Austin,Columbus, Denver, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Portland andSan Francisco. A winner will be announced this summer.

San Francisco Is the Right CitySan Francisco is the right city to win this challenge. For
innovation, openness and early adoption, there is no place better
than San Francisco. We are the start-up capital of the world,and for decades we have been pioneering new transportation
options. Our robust public transit systems average 1 million daily
boardings and feature one of the largest zero-emission fleetsin the country. We are the birthplace of ride-sharing and carsharing companies. We created an innovative demand-pricing
approach to parking that cut greenhouse gas emissions andparking wait times. And the San Francisco Bay Area is the hub
for autonomous vehicle technology.

(At top) People will have multiple affordable, clean, and safe options, making daily trips much moreconvenient. (Below) A pilot program of micro delivery hubs would allow trucks to deliver to hubsat night rather than clog city streets during the day. Handcarts and cargo bikes would be used todistribute goods from the hub during the day.

World Class Research
The University of California, Berkeley is the perfect institution
to partner with the City of San Francisco on the Smart City
Challenge. With 22 Nobel Laureates, UC Berkeley is a premier global research institution. UC Berkeley’s Transportation
Sustainability Research Center and Institute of Transportation
Studies, along with its partnership with the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, provide unparalleled technical expertiseand an academic infrastructure that cannot be matched byother applicants.

San Francisco by the Numbers

121

Companies Testing
Autonomous
Vehicles in California

Birthplacest Theof Ridesharing
Services1#City In Venture
Capital Investment

2Electricnd Most
Vehicle Charging
Stations in the US22
1Nobel Laureates at
Academic Partner
UC Berkeley

Electric Vehicles
st InMoreThan Any
Other City#

1

Global Start-Up
Ecosystem

1 mil

Daily
Transit
Boardings

Smart City Challenge
San Francisco: Harnessing the Future of Shared Mobility
For more information go to smartcitysf.com

Why a Smart City Challenge?

San Francisco’s Approach

Our country’s current car-focused transportation system isdangerous, inefficient and unaffordable. More than 30,000
people die in traffic fatalities in our nation every year. We’re
wasting valuable space storing cars along our streets and ingarages where they sit unused 80 percent of the time.
Combined, the 440,000 on-street parking spaces in San
Francisco make up enough space to create another Golden
Gate Park and still fill the floor space of 120 Transamerica
Pyramids with affordable housing.

Here’s our plan: a phased approach that has shared, electric,
connected vehicles – eventually autonomous ones – affordably
link people seamlessly to enhanced transit or their nearby
destination. We’re partnering with UC Berkeley and innovative
companies to make that happen. These are the main components:

Our plan would phase in innovative technologies that allow us
to repurpose public space currently under-utilized as parking
into affordable housing, small parks and pedestrian amenities.
San Francisco is the city that can test and deliver innovative
projects that move us to a future where there are zero traffic
deaths, zero transportation emissions and everyone can get
where they’re going conveniently and affordably.

• Easy – Combine routing, scheduling and payment througha single, simple mobile device app for: transit, bike share,scooter share, car share, ride share, public parking facilities
and public shuttles.
• Opportunity – Provide low-income residents with accessto smart phones and banking services so they can benefit
from mobile payments. Free public Wi-Fi will connect the
many residents who cannot afford mobile data plans fromprivate companies. Transportation prices would beaffordable to all residents. Service would be provided
around the clock so late-night service workers would havesafe and affordable means to get home. Low-income areas
would be better connected to transit. Vehicles in theprogram would all be accessible to people with disabilities.
• Safety – Eliminate fatal collisions through collision
avoidance technology and connected vehicles, including
after-market devices for cars and trucks that currently lackthe technology.
• Shared – Shared vehicles will always be available to takeyou where you need to go, eliminating the stress andexpense of owning and parking a car. Since the vehicles
would be in use nearly continuously, most parking could beturned into mini parks, relaxation areas and affordable
housing.
• Green – Vehicles would be electric to minimize air and noise
pollution, including cargo vans and cargo bikes. The smart
grid will be enhanced and more charging stations built.
• Community – Some improvements will be citywide; forothers neighborhoods would apply to participate in pilot
programs. That way changes happen at a pace that
communities embrace and benefit from.

Shared, autonomous, connected, electric, transportation will streamline and synchronize traffic,
eliminate the need for parking creating room for inviting public spaces and affordable housing.

• Teach – Work with UC Berkeley and industry partners to test,
analyze and disseminate best practices learned from thesepilot programs to other transportation agencies, academics,
and students across the United States and the world.

The San Francisco Team