Emerging Transportation Mobility: Using National Parks as Laboratories 

Date and Time: 8/31/2022
Location: Tamarack

Presenter: Amalia Holub, Senior Program Manager / Community Planner , U.S. Department of Transportation - Volpe Center

  

 

 

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION

The transportation industry is evolving at a rapid pace, aided by advancements in mobile technology, electrification, new business models, and vehicle automation. These emerging mobility trends present opportunities and challenges for the National Park Service (NPS) and the resources entrusted to it. Through its Emerging Mobility Working Group (EMWG), the NPS is exploring new transportation trends, assessing the resource and visitor experience implications, and devising policy and program solutions. The EMWG includes staff from across the NPS and covers four key transportation trends that are currently impacting or expected to affect the NPS and visitors: micromobility, ridehailing, traveler information technologies, and automated vehicles.

This presentation will focus on outcomes from the EMWG and lessons learned for national parks, other public lands, and small and medium-sized communities. Topics will include the impact of emerging mobility trends on congestion, visitor experience, and equity. The impact of these trends will vary depending on the park context; this presentation will focus on considerations for parks in and nearby small and medium-sized communities, such as how lack of cell service or the presence of unpaved roads may change how these technologies are implemented. The presentation will also provide examples of partnership opportunities and how emerging mobility can help to better connect public lands with gateway communities. For example, ridehailing and bike or scooter share could be used to provide first/last mile connections between a transit stop in a gateway community and a national park.

This presentation could be combined as part of a panel or other format with similar topics related to vehicle automation or emerging mobility trends in small and medium-sized communities.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Amalia Holub is a senior program manager and community planner at the U.S. Department of Transportation Volpe Center with over a dozen years of transportation planning and policy expertise. She leads Volpe support to the National Park Service’s Park Planning, Facilities & Lands Directorate, drawing on a team of over 50 multidisciplinary staff, with dozens of active projects ranging from national transportation policy and funding strategies to site-specific data collection and technical assistance. She oversees Volpe support to the NPS on emerging mobility, including micromobility, ridehailing, traveler information technologies, and automated vehicles, as well as electric vehicles/chargers. Prior to joining Volpe, Holub’s career included work in state government, an international non-profit in Argentina, and the private sector. She holds a Master in City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.A. in sociology from Barnard College, Columbia University.