Driving Change Locally
The Opportunity: Aligning Policy with Real-World Travel
The vehicles that move people and goods in the United States are out of scale with the types of trips we make. Most daily trips are short, typically less than three miles, yet they are made in large, high-speed vehicles designed for longer distances. This mismatch compromises safety and increases the cost of travel. It also results in excess energy use and congestion by consuming limited street capacity that could otherwise move more people and goods efficiently.
Local Use Vehicles (LUVs) are a better fit for shorter trips. LUVs are small, lower-speed vehicles that can be human or motor propelled, and typically weighing in under 3,000 pounds. Around the world, similar vehicles—occupying the space between e-bikes, motorcycles, and automobiles—are already being used safely and effectively for neighborhood travel, deliveries, and connections to transit.
In the US, however, inconsistent policy and regulation have result in a complex system where neither consumers nor manufacturers can esily determine which rules apply.
Making a Place for LUVs
The Vision
We want a national transportation ecosystem where right-sized vehicles are safely integrated into everyday travel, giving every community more affordable, sustainable choices for local trips and goods movement.
Local Use Vehicles are a key component of this ecosystem.
What’s the LUV Initiative?
The personal transportation system accommodates cars, trucks, and motorcycles as well as bikes and scooters, but leaves a regulatory gap for vehicles in between. These emerging modes are smaller and lighter than cars, but are faster and can carry more than bikes or scooters. As more users adopt these new vehicle types, this initiative will work to make affordable, right-sized mobility safe and legal for households, workers, and small businesses.
Our Goals
We’re building momentum for widespread adoption of Local Use Vehicles by bringing together industry, communities, and regulators.
We plan to leverage this coalition of stakeholders to create a standard taxonomy for diverse vehicle types, design regulatory frameworks and clarify state and local roles, and provide safe and supportive infrastructure.