Image: Commarts

Uber Transit announced the launch of a $1 Million Innovation Fund, alongside a nationwide Call for Projects to help public transit agencies, municipalities, and regional authorities pilot on-demand mobility solutions. The initiative is designed to remove financial barriers, enabling agencies to test new service models, reduce operating costs, and improve rider experience.

Through the fund, Uber Transit will award up to $50,000 in funding to 20 forward-thinking agencies across the United States to launch real-world pilot programs.

"The reality is, the math of public transit is not getting easier," said Chris Margaronis, Head of Transit Agency and Higher Education Partnerships for Uber Transit. 

"When a traditional paratransit trip costs $100, that’s not just a cost problem; it’s a service problem. Every excess dollar spent on one trip is a dollar an agency cannot use to serve another rider. We are launching this fund to prove that by using flexible supply and modern tools, we can safely deliver that same trip for $20. That translates to five times the mobility for the same budget."

"This fund offers agencies a responsible way to test better solutions without putting their core budgets at risk. We are providing a platform for small pilots, real data, shared investment, and measurable outcomes. Riders don’t experience innovation as risk, they experience it as freedom."

The funding opportunity is structured to minimize risk for agencies, with no upfront fees, no minimum guarantees, and no capital investment required. Agencies only pay for trips delivered, ensuring alignment between cost and performance.

Call for Projects Program Highlights:

• Funding: Up to $50,000 in funding per agency
• Matching funds are required. Applicants must provide 10% of the award amount in matching funds.
• Eligible Use Cases: 
• Complementing paratransit (Same-day/on-demand)
• Supplementing microtransit
• Augmenting underperforming fixed-route services (Off-peak/late-night) 
• First-mile/last-mile connections 
• Service disruption mitigation
• Transit desert coverage 
• Guaranteed Ride Home and commuter programs
• Social impact (e.g. senior mobility, food access, etc.)

How to Apply

Agencies are invited to submit proposals through the Call for Projects.

Applications are due by June 30, 2026 and will be reviewed on a rolling basis until funds are fully allocated.

Click Here to Apply

From Left: Victoria Sheehan, Executive Director of TRB; and Matt Daus, President of IATR

After more than two decades in public transportation leadership roles, most recently as Executive Director of the Transportation Research Board, Victoria Sheehan has joined HDR to lead the firm’s top-ranked global highways and roads program.

Matt Daus, President of IATR, said, “Congratulations to Victoria Sheehan on this exciting and well-deserved next chapter with HDR. I’ve had the privilege of working alongside Victoria through the Transportation Research Board and across the broader transportation community, including at this year’s TRB Annual Meeting, where we formalized an important MOU to strengthen collaboration between the IATR and TRB to advance shared priorities across the global transportation ecosystem. Her leadership, integrity, and commitment to advancing the industry have always stood out. She has a rare ability to bring together diverse stakeholders, bridge research and practice, and drive meaningful progress on some of the most complex challenges facing our transportation systems. HDR’s global highways and roads program will undoubtedly benefit from her vision and experience, and I look forward to continuing our collaboration in this new role.”

As highways and roads director, Sheehan will set the vision and direction for continued growth and delivery of HDR’s expansive highway program. Based in Washington, D.C., she will be responsible for more than 3,500 global employees who provide a diversified portfolio of services tailored to the needs of departments of transportation, toll facilities, municipalities and other roadway infrastructure owners worldwide. These professionals assist highways and roads clients with navigating funding and stakeholder engagement, managing program development and design, and providing construction management.

Prior to her work at TRB, Sheehan led the New Hampshire Department of Transportation for seven years, preceded by 10 years at the Massachusetts DOT. She also served as president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) from 2020-2021. Sheehan holds a master’s degree in structural engineering and architecture from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

“Joining HDR represents an exciting new step in my career, but also a continuation of many of the themes that have defined it already,” said Sheehan. “At TRB, we had more than 100 standing committees addressing every aspect of transportation, including the benefits of improved coordination across disciplines. HDR embodies that same multidisciplinary emphasis in its approach to projects, providing amazing value to our clients and communities.”

HDR’s highways and roads program has active projects in every U.S. state, as well as in Canada, Australia and the Middle East.

Chicago Cabbies Conflicted about Fare Hike Intended to Save Taxi Industry

Chicago’s beleaguered taxicab drivers have mixed feelings about the first taxi fare increase in a decade that aims to keep their struggling industry afloat. The City Council agreed Wednesday to raise cab fares by 20% in an effort to help cabdrivers who are trying to compete with Uber and Lyft while facing soaring prices for gas, car maintenance, insurance and other necessities.

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Waymo Expands to Miami Highways and Drops Wait-List

Self-driving Waymo vehicles are now traveling on South Florida highways for the first time, and the company has dropped its waiting list so anyone can hail a ride. The expansion marks a major change for the robo ride-share service, which had been restricted to city streets since launching earlier this year.

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Uber Will Now Pick Up Your Returns from Your Doorstep

Uber launched a new feature on Friday that lets customers return purchased items without leaving their home. The new returns feature, which is accessed through the Uber Eats app, is the latest effort by Uber to add “stickiness” to its app by offering services that extend beyond its core ride-hailing and delivery businesses. There are limitations to the new service, and there is, of course, a courier fee. The return fee is calculated based on the courier’s time and distance, according to Uber.

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Carney Paused the Gas Tax to Help Canadians. Some Say It Helps the Wrong Ones

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s latest affordability measure is muting important gas price signals, climate-concerned politicians and experts are warning. The federal government is pausing the excise fuel tax from April 20 until Labour Day. This change is expected to remove up to 10 cents per litre on gasoline and four cents per litre on diesel to offer “real relief for you and your family,” Carney said at a press conference earlier this week. Canadians and businesses are feeling the impacts of oil price shocks from the US war on Iran, so the federal government was under pressure to offer some sort of affordability solution, but Nicholas Rivers, professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa, told Canada’s National Observer this was not the right way to do it.

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Electric Ferries Are Breaking Records — And Quietly Joining Canada's Fleet

Electric ferries around the world are getting bigger, more robust and travelling record-breaking distances. Many ferry services in Canada are already electrifying or electrified, with longer-distance routes getting ready to charge up.  More electric ferry services are being announced in cities from Vancouver to Halifax, and Toronto's is set to begin this fall. But some of the Canadian ferries capable of running entirely on battery power today are still burning fuel, due to the extra challenge of installing charging infrastructure.

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Montreal Mayor ‘Fed Up’ with Lack of Public Transit Funding

Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada used the 2026 Montreal Climate Summit, held at the Grand Quai of the Port of Montreal, to call on Quebec City and Ottawa to finally reach an agreement on transferring funds for public transit. For the past several years, Montreal has been strengthening its resilience against extreme weather events by investing in flood prevention infrastructure and accelerating the electrification and energy transition of its buildings, among other measures.

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Can Europe Avoid a Summer of Holiday Flight and Cross-Channel Travel Chaos?

Holiday makers have faced numerous stresses in recent years when planning and budgeting for the sacred summer holiday. Holiday flights to Europe have kept growing despite a pandemic, a cost of living crisis and long airport queues, but summer 2026 threatens to bring fresh anxieties. Legacies of Brexit mean longer border checks for Britons and most non-EU nationals to get into much of Europe, and the US-Israel war on Iran has prompted fears that airlines may not have enough fuel for every scheduled flight.

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EU Cuts Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 40% but Transport Remains a Weak Spot

The EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions have now fallen by 40% since 1990, according to official data. The latest statistics, which show a 3% fall between 2023 and 2024, underline a continued trend of declining emissions largely driven by a larger share of renewable energy, the use of less carbon intensive fossil fuels, improved energy efficiency and structural economic changes. According to a briefing from the European Environment Agency, almost all member states have contributed to the emission reductions.

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Italy at Europe’s Heart: Infrastructure for the Continent’s Transport Network

Between the Mediterranean, Alpine passes and major rail corridors, Italy is now more than ever the decisive transit point between southern traffic flows and the industrial heart of the continent. This centrality is not merely geographical, but built around infrastructure development and the launch of new construction sites capable of transforming a natural position into a genuine competitive advantage. It is precisely on this terrain that the new geography of the European infrastructure network is being defined.

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Electric Minibus Taxis: The Challenges and Gains Facing Cape Town’s Transition

The minibus taxi is ubiquitous in southern Africa. These vehicles are the backbone of the urban economy, providing affordable mobility for millions. In Cape Town, South Africa’s second most populous city, they are central to the transport landscape.  Around two-thirds of the city’s public transport users rely on paratransit services (which respond flexibly to demand), carrying about 830,000 daily passengers across 1,466 routes, and run by private individuals or associations rather than the state. But because these vehicles run on petrol and diesel, they also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, poor urban air quality and rising fuel costs.

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Road User Charge Should Be Based on the Weight of Vehicles, Says Polestar Boss

The federal Minister for Infrastructure, Catherine King, has poured cold water on suggestions a road user tax for electric vehicles will be implemented anytime soon as electric vehicle sales rise amid record high fuel prices. Meanwhile, Polestar's Australian boss has offered his take on how it should work.

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Paju City to Enhance Transportation Welfare by Expanding Special Mobility Services

Paju City in Gyeonggi Province is expanding its special transportation vehicles and further enhancing mobility support services to improve convenience and ensure a safe right to mobility for transportation-vulnerable individuals. This year, the city plans to operate a total of 109 vehicles, including three additional special transportation vehicles (44 special transportation vehicles and 65 voucher taxis).

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Image: Taxi Point

The passage of key amendments to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill looks to significantly reshape how taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) licensing is enforced across England, with far-reaching implications for drivers, operators and licensing authorities.

Amendments 299 to 304, agreed in the House of Lords, establish a clearer legal framework focusing on the temporary suspension powers that have become central to the Bill’s reforms. For the first time there is a formal definition of “enforcement area”, which effectively extends the reach of licensing officers beyond traditional local authority boundaries.

Under the new provisions, an enforcement officer’s authority will cover both their home licensing area and, in specific circumstances, the entirety of England. This applies particularly where action is taken against licences issued by their own authority but being used elsewhere, reinforcing the Government’s push to close longstanding gaps linked to out-of-area working.

The changes provide the legal backbone to earlier provisions allowing immediate licence suspensions, ensuring that enforcement activity is not constrained by geography when public safety concerns arise. For the taxi and PHV sector, this marks a structural shift away from a purely localised regulatory model towards a more integrated national enforcement approach.

Alongside this expanded reach, the amendments introduce detailed definitions covering every aspect of the licensing system. These include “regulated driver licence”, “regulated vehicle licence” and “regulated PHV operator licence”, explicitly bringing drivers, vehicles and operators within the same enforcement framework.

By consolidating these definitions in Clause 72, the legislation removes ambiguity that has historically complicated enforcement and legal interpretation. The move ensures that all licence types are clearly recognised in law when suspension powers are exercised, reducing the risk of legal challenges and inconsistent application across authorities.

Source: TaxiPoint

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