In this month’s edition of our Women In Shared Mobility series, we spoke with Haley Rubinson, Director of Business Development at Revel and Kristy Zoshak, Director of Marketing and Community at Revel. 

Rideshare apps are still young and electric moped rideshares are even younger. Revel is the first to enter the New York market. The world of urban transportation is changing every day, and it is Revel’s mission to stay ahead of the traffic and to make getting around fast, affordable, and way more fun.

Haley is the Director of Business Development at Revel. Prior to joining the team she was a Managing Director at Tusk Ventures where she ran multi-jurisdictional campaigns for start-ups and offered strategic growth and regulatory advice. Previously she served as Deputy Policy Director to Governor Andrew Cuomo and held multiple positions in the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, including at the New York City Department of Transportation.

Prior to joining Revel (NYC’s first shared electric vehicle service) as Director of Marketing and Community, Kristy served as Director of Sales and Marketing for Citi Bike. She has over 10 years of experience leading marketing and branding efforts that span content creation, brand strategy, and consumer engagement. Kristy loves connecting people and communities through MaaS.

If you missed our WiSM interviews last month, you can find them here. Want to have a look at all the of Women in Shared Mobility we have interviewed? View the entire category here.

Women in Shared Mobility: expected 2019 developments and the future of maas in north america

The Interviewees:

   Haley Rubinson, Director of Business development

Kristy Zoshak, Director of marketing & community

1. What were the biggest lessons learned from a failed or successful project in 2018, that will shape transportation in the future?

Haley: I think the biggest lesson recently has been the popularity of micromobility, which is undeniable. I think there are always questions such as, ‘who is going to use what mode?’ and ‘what is technology going to bring us in the future?’ All those things remain to be seen, but it is undeniable that there has been such a strong demand. The pick up is so fast for all these new micromobility options we are seeing on the street, and again, not every option is for every person, but it clearly is something the public demands which can be seen right off the bat every time they are launched in cities.

Kristy: I think the only thing that I would add to that, is that there really is room for everyone and that everyone utilizes a lot of different services for different things. I think it is a big space and people don’t need to choose one thing of the other. There’s a lot of room to use different types of mobility every day.

2. What will be the big developments in shared mobility throughout 2019?

Kristy:  I think we are going to see a big shift towards more electric vehicles on the streets, whether it’s electric cars or our shared electric mopeds, there is going to be a movement towards that direction.

Haley: I totally agree. A few years ago, electric mopeds were not really a feasible thing to bring in the way that we are doing now so rapidly. The technology has finally caught up. I think that is going to continue to happen in ways I can’t conceive right now but it is all very promising. I think there is also going to become a better stasis between city regulators and these new start up companies that bring new transportation options into cities. There is clearly a demand and cities are growing increasingly popular as places to live. I think there is a contention between regulators and companies where really there shouldn’t be because we all have the shared goal of moving people; as many people as we can, as efficiently as we can and as affordably as we can. I think because our interests are really aligned, we are going to start coming together and there is going to be a really great climate for this stuff to flourish. I think we are already starting to see it happen. We’ve been talking to cities like Miami, Oakland, D.C – who are super progressive, really looking at what their city looks like today and also what it will look like tomorrow and we are having all these conversations on the front end.

3. what NEEDS TO BE DONE SO THAT MAAS IS A MORE ATTRACTIVE SOLUTION FOR PEOPLE IN NORTH AMERICA?

Kristy:  I think more options to fit into peoples existing lifestyles and also more density. I’ve had a lot of friends recently say that they would get rid of their car if car share was just a little bit better, or if there was just one more option. I think that in the last year or so there has been a lot of talk about ‘last mile’ trips and I think in order for MaaS to become more of a ‘thing’ – for lack of a better word, I think we need to provide people with more and better options.

Haley: I also think reliability is huge, so for our network, if you are not within two/three blocks of a moped, you’re not likely to use one. So I think there is a critical density – not a saturation – but a reliability of these networks that will go a long way to having people commit to adopting them on a regular basis. I think that you see this in European cities and in the United States, over the past ten years, we’ve been so much better about it but it’s really about embracing the concept of ‘shared streets’ and so while over the past ten years we really have done a lot of that, we still have a ways to go. I think people are sitting in traffic in cities across the country – we’re not in the ‘build more roads’ model, we just have to be figuring out how to do better. There is an acknowledgment of having more than one way to get from point A to point B and we really, in practical life, embrace that. I think that will go a long way and I think there is a reason why these systems are so successful in Europe, because they really do, in a lot of these cities, embrace the concept of ‘shared streets.’

What are your thoughts on the developments in shared mobility that occurred over 2018 and what is to be expected for next year’s developments? What about the future implementation of shared mobility within rural areas? If you would like to be interviewed or to nominate a woman working in Shared Mobility for our next series, get in touch with us here.