Hi #smartcommunity friends! In this episode of the Smart Community Podcast I have another fascinating chat with Sandra Phillips. Sandra is a Shared Mobility Architect and Principal of Movmi, an award-winning women-owned agency focused on Shared Mobility. Movmi builds healthier communities co-creating innovative mobility solutions that increase transportation options, yet reduce dependency on private car ownership. I last spoke with Sandra in Episode 219 which was released in March of 2021 so it was great to catch up on what Sandra has been up to since. Sandra starts off by telling us about her background as a shared mobility architect and some of the work she has been doing with her company, what a Smart Community means to her, and we discuss how shared mobility can contribute to building more resilient and inclusive communities. We then discuss the importance of involving the community and the need for more creativity, when building Smart Communities, and Sandra tells us a bit more about some of the projects she has been working on. Sandra then shares some use cases with us of when on-demand and micro-transit has worked well for the community. We finish our talk discussing the emerging trends of smaller shared mobility hubs, an increase in more shared cargo bikes and similar styles of mobility, and lastly the exciting shift in mobility behaviour change Sandra has been seeing. As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it!

Listen here: 

What we cover in this episode:

• Sandra’s background in shared mobility architecture and some of the work she has been doing in this space
• What a Smart Community means to Sandra 
• How shared mobility is contributing to more resilient and inclusive Smart Communities especially since the pandemic 
• The importance of involving the community, and the need for more creativity to build better Smart Communities 
• A bit about some of the projects Sandra has been working on
• Some use cases of when on demand and micro transit works well for the community
• The emerging trends of smaller shared mobility hubs, an increase in more shared cargo bikes and similar styles of mobility, and lastly the exciting shift of mobility behaviour and change in people 

Quotes: 

“[Movmi] has been involved in about 70 projects by now, and we’ve realised that, people tend to think they know exactly what shared mobility is, but there’s a lot of different understanding. And there’s also a little bit of a shiny object syndrome, especially on the municipal side, [municipalities] don’t want to miss out, a neighbouring municipality has a kick scooter project, but that neighbouring municipality has invested hugely into BikeSafe morphic infrastructure, so it makes sense.”

“A Smart Community to me is a community that uses infrastructure, smartly, and to do that you ultimately have to connect it.”

“I think the one thing we didn’t fully understand until the pandemic is actually what makes a Smart Community is a more resilient community, because you’re not locked into one mode or the other.”

“What we’re excited about, it seems like there is a bit of a shift and understanding that actually smaller shared mobility hubs where people live in residential areas are gaining traction. It’s about convenience, it’s bringing the different modes to where I live, and then I can connect from there to the big public transit line.”

“Shared mobility has a little bit of a challenge sometimes to meet the needs of other demographics. And microtransit is a fabulous one that actually can. And there’s lots of different applications, but one reason we love [microtransit] is because it’s actually very appealing for seniors.”

“What we are really excited about is it seems like there is a bit of a shift and understanding that actually smaller shared mobility hubs where people live in residential areas are gaining traction. It’s ultimately about convenience, it’s bringing the different modes to where I live, and then I can connect from there to the big public transit line or the SkyTrain or metro etc.” 

Links: 

Episode 219 with Sandra Phillips 

Movmi Website 

Connect:

Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community 

Connect with Sandra via LinkedIn 

Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community  

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital