ABOUT THE WEBINAR:
Transportation network companies (TNCs) and microtransit are changing the way people travel by providing dynamic, on-demand mobility that can supplement public transit and personal vehicle use. Well-designed policy strategies are needed to fully leverage the potential of pooling to lessen congestion, energy use, and emissions by reducing private-vehicle ownership and enabling higher vehicle occupancy. Policy and planning tools could help to leverage pooling strategies and more efficient TNC routing to reduce deadheading and excess vehicle miles traveled. There is an opportunity to increase pooling rates by:1) improving pickup/dropoff infrastructure and 2) offering promotions to encourage pooling to public transit stations, employment centers, and designated pickup/drop-off locations. These strategies are the focus of this University of California, Berkeley project in which the research team employed the photovoice methodology among TNC users (pooled and non-pooled), as well as user/stakeholder workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER:
Susan Shaheen is a pioneer in innovative mobility strategies. She was among the first to research and write about the changing dynamics in shared mobility and likely scenarios automated vehicles might gain prominence. She is a professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a Co-Director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center of the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), Berkeley and Director of the UC ITS’ Resilient and Innovative Mobility Initiative (RIMI). She has a Ph.D. from UC Davis and a M.S. from the University of Rochester. She has authored 76 journal articles, over 125 reports and proceedings articles, 19 book chapters, and co-edited two books.
She is the Vice Chair of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Executive Committee and will become the Chair in 2021. She received the 2017 Roy W. Crum award from TRB for her distinguished achievements in transportation research. In May 2016, she was named one of the top 10 academic thought leaders in transportation by the Eno Transportation Foundation.