On-demand, dynamic route, new mobility services have changed customer expectations around transportation, and public-transit agencies want to be responsive to these changes. How public transportation agencies do so continues to be, at least at this still early stage, executed through trial and error.
The Eno Center for Transportation has just released a new report that nicely reviews the limited research on this topic and also offers case-study examples of how these services have worked so far in Kansas City, Santa Clara, and Alameda-Contra Costa.
Some of the highlights from the report’s literature review include:
In 2016, the Transportation Research Board published a report identifying policy and regulatory considerations for privately operated technology-enabled transportation. It concluded that the necessity for customers to have access to smartphone and data connectivity to access these services can make it challenging for people to access TNCs.
Also in 2016, the Shared Use Mobility Center (SUMC) published a report on behalf of the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) on the effects that on-demand dynamic route transportation technology has had on large metropolitan regions in the United States. Based on rider surveys in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., the authors suggested that shared services have the potential to complement public transit.
A 2017 report from the University of California, Davis surveyed riders to determine reasons for selecting ride-hailing over public transportation.
Other studies evaluated the experiences of public transit agencies and cities partnering with private sector mobility providers, which might have a different transportation outcome than fully private TNC services. In August 2016, the city of Centennial, Colorado launched a temporary pilot partnership service with Lyft to provide first and last mile(s) access to and from the city’s light rail station. Another report provided case studies on the partnership between Uber and Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA) and the partnership between the Kansas City Area Transit Authority (KCATA) and Bridj.
To see more articles like this, subscribe to the Mobility Lab Daily Newsletter.
Read the complete article at The Eno Center for Transportation