This week Oliver interviews Ben Bear, Chief Business Officer at Spin, themicromobility company backed by Ford and which operate in 65 markets acrossthe US. They dig into their service and how they’re different from othersin the industry. It’s a great discussion - Spin really come across as a thetortoise in an industry of hares. With micromobility adoption being a longterm prospect their focus on sustainability for what will inevitably be adecades long play is an interesting counter to others in the industry.Specifically:- Spin’s approach in COVID-19- The difference that Spin has in market, including:—Their use of Swiftmile charging stations (Swiftmile) from a tendering andbusiness operations perspective.—the efforts to integrate into MaaS- Why being backed by Ford makes them more resilient and able to focus onlonger-term planning and outcomes, and why this is attractive to cities. -How has he seen the regulatory environment change in the time that they’vebeen operating.- How do they see the owned and leased micromobility business modelcompeting in the ‘market for miles’, and whether they have plans to expandinto these area leveraging Spin’s brand or Ford’s distribution.- Their efforts at lobbying for better street infrastructure in the citiesthat they operate.Thanks also to our sponsor for the episode, Populus.ai. Populus arebuilding digital tools that assist government agencies to manage theircurbs, streets and sidewalks with access to intelligent data and analyticstools. Last week, they announced their Open Streets Initiative to providecities with digital solutions to identify and communicate slow and safestreet policies. Oakland, California recently announced that 74 miles ofstreets would be closed to through vehicle traffic in order to make itsafer for pedestrians, and small sustainable modes to travel for essentialtrips and create more room for social distancing. Populus works with citiesaround the world, from Buenos Aires to Baltimore - to help build trustbetween operators and regulators to see shared mobility become the bigsuccess that we think it can be. They run webinars and produce some of thebest editorial content about the impact of micromobility on cities in theUS that we’ve seen - if you’re looking to educate yourself better on thespace, and/or are looking for tools to build trust with your localgovernment to help take shared micromobility to the next level, check themout.