The City of Tomorrow Challenge inspires ideas and solutions for improving transportation.
For The Right Place, the Mobility Challenge was an opportunity to showcase the region as a place where companies and entrepreneurs can test out and pilot new technology. The economic development organization served as the voice of the business community for the project. Other partners included the city of Grand Rapids through Mobile GR and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Planet M, which served as co-funders. For Ford, this project provided access to boots-on-the-ground data research and insight on how individuals engage in the mobility ecosystem. Some early analysis of that data, gathered along with insights from a series of public meetings and focus groups, revealed opportunities to improve our regional transit system and better serve the Grand Rapids community. The Right Place plans to continue the mobility discussion in 2019 and beyond, understanding it will have a major impact on the movement of talent and goods in our region. If you or your company are interested in engaging in the mobility discussion with The Right Place, contact our internal lead, Tim Mroz, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at mrozt@rightplace.org .
The best ideas were eligible for a $100,000 grant to run a pilot program of a new mobility system or technology. Twelve semifinalists — selected from more than 90 proposals —were chosen to work with a mentor and local accelerator to further refine their projects before a winner was announced in November. Chicago-based Kaizen Health, a medical ride-sharing startup, won the prize. The learning and discoveries made throughout the program alone proved just as valuable as the winning pilot project, says Tim Mroz, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for The Right Place, Inc. The pilot opened our region to new technology and awareness about the rapidly evolving mobility industry. TRIGGERING CONVERSATION The program raised awareness about the need for an overall strategic approach to mobility and sparked a larger conversation about addressing the movement of people and freight throughout the region in the future.
When one of the largest automakers in the world shines a spotlight on your city as a place to explore the future of transportation, that’s a major compliment. Grand Rapids was one of three U.S. cities — along with Miami-Dade and Pittsburgh — selected this year by Ford Mobility for its Ford City of Tomorrow Challenge program. The 8-month pilot program took a crowdsourcing approach to mobility by asking the community to identify transportation challenges and then discovering how new technology can address them. Ford’s launch of the program comes as the Dearborn-based automaker is preparing for the future of transportation with a major investment in electric and autonomous vehicle design.
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CITY OF TOMORROW CHALLENGE
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