Sustainable City Mobility Innovations

The Capstone team was tasked to assist the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) in its goal to increase the presence of smart mobility solutions in small cities, a key market segment for the organization. Under the direction of NYSERDA’s Clean Transportation team, the Capstone team focused on the City of Kingston, New York. To arrive at a final recommendation, the team conducted a needs assessment, surveyed emerging smart mobility solutions, and evaluated potential solutions against three core values — sustainability, financial viability, and system-wide synergy.

The Capstone’s objective was to assess the technical and financial feasibility of implementing smart mobility solutions in Kingston. For the project scope, the Capstone team considered solutions that could be implemented in the near-term and financed for less than $5 million dollars. The final proposal recommended four initiatives — City Fleet, Walk Kingston, Smart Parking, and Signal Priority — and included implementation plans and financial models to pilot each initiative. Implementation plans also considered accessible deployment models to meet community needs with equity. In addition, the report considered a range of sustainable mobility enablers, including governance strategies, additional financing sources, and regulatory considerations. The combination of initiatives and enablers was designed to improve mobility, lower emissions, and boost economic development. While the recommendations were tailored to meet the needs of Kingston, the methodology and models can be replicated to accommodate other similarly sized cities. While the Capstone team designed specific pilots for near-term implementation, they aimed to provide a playbook for evaluating mobility innovations more broadly.