Member Spotlight: Toole Design

Toole Design is a leading planning, engineering, and landscape architecture firm specializing in multimodal transportation. As a firm, their mission is to create livable communities where walking, bicycling and other forms of active transportation are safe, convenient, and enjoyable for everyone, in order to help people get where they need to go efficiently, while improving health, quality of life, and economic vitality.

Toole Design has a long history of helping communities across North America use shared micromobility to improve access to transit, employment, retail, recreation, education, and other community destinations. In addition to Toole’s recent involvement in the NABSA Shared Micromobility State of the Industry Report, Toole has completed over 50 bikeshare feasibility studies, business plans, and system planning efforts for communities large and small across North America; has worked with over 40 communities on dockless micromobility policy development and evaluation across a variety of equipment types; and has developed national best practice guidance to help cities implement and manage micromobility systems. They are also working with leading micromobility vendors to develop equipment and services that are more equitable, accessible, and sustainable.

Over the more than ten years that Toole has worked with micromobility, their work has evolved along with the technology. Recently, Toole Design worked with LA Metro on the first project in the U.S. to effectively integrate bikeshare with transit. Toole Design developed a program that links Metro’s transit pass with bikeshare membership and locates bikeshare stations close to transit stops to make a seamless transition between multiple modes. Toole is currently advising Metro on site planning decisions, identifying which communities are best suited for bikeshare through a regional feasibility study, and assisting local jurisdictions in how to best deploy stations in their communities. Another exciting project Toole Design is working on is with the City of Boston’s New Mobility Team. In collaboration with City agencies, stakeholders and neighborhood groups, Toole Design is designing and implementing eight mobility microHUB pilots in two Boston neighborhoods: East Boston and Roxbury. The micro HUBs are aimed at filling the last-mile gaps by co-locating transportation mode choices, including micromobility, and service information.

RJ Eldridge, Toole Design’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, says, “It has been exhilarating to watch this field rapidly grow, change, and shape the urban transportation landscape, challenging us to keep learning and growing as well. Being a NABSA member offers a host of benefits and improves our work.  The fantastic webinars and useful resources help us stay current in this rapidly-evolving field. The annual conference is a unique opportunity to meet with professionals from all realms of micromobility: service operators, governments, technology providers, and other consultants. Bikeshare and shared micromobility support our mission, just as NABSA’s work supports the viability of micromobility as an alternative to automobile travel. It is rewarding to be a part of that virtuous circle!”