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As the world grapples to combat the spread of COVID-19, our city streets have nearly emptied. Unprecedented community mitigation interventions have been applied in efforts to “flatten the curve” and slow the transmission of the virus. Social distancing measures have dramatically altered our daily behavior; notably, in the ways we do or do not move. This report seeks to identify emerging trends in urban mobility and road safety in respect to COVID-19. This is followed by a discussion of how we could shape our mobility future as communities begin to reopen.

Increasingly, travelers are turning to shared mobility and enabling technologies (i.e., smartphone apps) to meet their mobility needs. A consequence of the ever-growing and ever-evolving landscape of shared mobility is the lack of standardized terms and definitions. The shared and digital mobility industry is challenged with discrepancies in use and definition of terms, which often create ambiguity and confusion for policymakers, regulatory agencies, and the broader public. In recognition of this challenge, the SAE Shared and Digital Mobility Committee embarked on the task of developing J3163™ – Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to Shared Mobility and Enabling Technologies. This white paper provides an overview of the rationale, scope, key discussions held in the development of J3163TM, as well as guidance on how to use J3163TM.

To date, the universal metric for road safety has been historical crash data, specifically, crash frequency and severity, which are direct measures of safety. However, there are well-recognized shortcomings of the crash-based approach; its greatest drawback being that it is reactive and requires long observational periods. Surrogate measures of safety, which encompass measures of safety that do not rely on crash data, have been proposed as a proactive approach to road safety analysis. This white paper provides an overview of the concept and evolution of surrogate measures of safety, as well as the emerging and future methods and measures. This is followed by the identification of the standards needs in this discipline as well as the scope of SAE’s Surrogate Measures of Safety Committee.