Transportation Equity

To Pool or Not to Pool? Understanding the Time and Price Tradeoffs of OnDemand Ride Users – Opportunities, Challenges, and Social Equity Considerations for Policies to Promote Shared-Ride Services

Shaheen, Susan, PhD
Lazarus, Jessica
Caicedo, Juan
Bayen, Alexandre, PhD
2021

On-demand mobility services including transportation network companies (also known as ridesourcing and ridehailing) like Lyft and Uber are changing the way that people travel by providing dynamic mobility that can supplement public transit and personal-vehicle use. However, TNC services have been found to contribute to increasing vehicle mileage, traffic congestion, and greenhouse gas emissions. Pooling rides ⎯ sharing a vehicle by multiple passengers to complete journeys of similar origin and destination ⎯ can increase the average vehicle occupancy of TNC trips and thus mitigate some of...

Innovative Mobility Services & Technologies: A Pathway Towards Transit Flexibility, Convenience, and Choice

Shaheen, Susan A.
2012

The number of senior citizens is expected to double by the year 2020, representing 18% of the nation’s population. After age 75, driving performance begins to decline due to changes in health and medication effects. Indeed, one quarter of seniors over 75 are expected to require alternative transportation services in the future. This chapter examines transit and innovative mobility options to better meet the needs of the growing older population in the near (2011) and more distant (2021) future. Barriers to transit use among older adults include anxiety and confusion about using transit;...

Leveraging the Sharing Economy to Expand Shelter and Transportation Resources in California Evacuations

Wong, Stephen
Shaheen, Susan
2019

In 2017 and 2018, California was severely impacted by a number of devastating wildfires that required thousands of people to evacuate. These evacuations were hampered by poor communication, traffic congestion, and transportation and shelter resource deficiencies. To ensure that all citizens have both transportation and shelter in evacuations, agencies must consider alternative strategies for expanding resources, such as leveraging the sharing economy. To understand the possibility of leveraging the sharing economy to provide housing and transportation in an evacuation, researchers at the...

Roundtrip Carsharing in New York City: An Evaluation of a Pilot Program and System Impacts

Martin, Elliot, PhD
Stocker, Adam
Nichols, Aqshems
Shaheen, Susan, PhD
2021

The study found that roundtrip carsharing in NYC mostly serves as a substitute for car rental, other personal vehicle modes, and personal vehicle ownership. The analysis showed that the broader pilot program had a modest impact on user behavior through carsharing (i.e., reduced vehicle ownership, reduced VMT, and mode shift). It also found that the pilot program likely expanded the membership base of carsharing to demographic cohorts that are traditionally underrepresented in carsharing populations (i.e., increased participation by lower education levels, lower household incomes, minority...

Bridging the Income and Digital Divide with Shared Automated Electric Vehicles

Lazarus, Jessica
Bauer, Gordon, PhD
Greenblatt, Jeffery, PhD
Shaheen, Susan, PhD
2021

This research investigates strategies to improve the mobility of low-income travelers by incentivizing the use of electric SAVs (SAEVs) and public transit. We employ two agent-based simulation engines, an activity-based travel demand model of the San Francisco Bay Area, and vehicle movement data from the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles Basin to model emergent travel behavior of commute trips in response to subsidies for TNCs and public transit. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the impacts of different subsidy scenarios on mode choices, TNC pooling and match rates,...

Integrating Vehicle Design and Human Factors: Minimizing Elderly Driving Constraints

Shaheen, Susan
Niemeier, Debbie
2001

With a projected rise in the number of elderly, most of whom have also relied primarily on the private automobile for their mobility, it is likely that future adaptations in vehicle design will be linked in some part to the physical infirmities often faced by the elderly. This paper offers a bridge between medical research on the physical impairments of the elderly and automobile design and driving safety. We describe recent findings on the driving-related physical and cognitive impairments faced by the elderly. We then propose two major types of vehicle design and infrastructure...

Online and App-Based Carpooling in France: Analyzing Users and Practices—A Study of BlaBlaCar

Shaheen, Susan, PhD
Stocker, Adam
Mundler, Marie
2017

This chapter examines the characteristics and practices of ridesharing users in France. In May 2013, the authors surveyed members of BlaBlaCar, the largest online and app-based carpooling service in France, to analyze the sociodemographic characteristics and usage patterns of the respondents. The survey results identify correlations between socio-demographic characteristics and usage elements. Notably, users with a lower income level are more inclined to be passengers, while higher income users employ carpooling mainly as drivers. Students are shown to be more frequent users as well. These...

An Evaluation of Free-Floating Carsharing in Oakland, California

Martin, Elliot, PhD
Pan, Alexandra
Shaheen, Susan
2020

GIG Car Share is a free-floating carsharing system that began operations in the East Bay in April 2017. Similar to other free-floating carsharing systems, such as car2go and ReachNow (which later combined as ShareNow), members of GIG have access to a fleet of vehicles which they can book and unlock via an app. Once booking the vehicle, members can drive anywhere, but must park back in the home zone in order to terminate their session. The price of driving a GIG vehicle is charged per hour, per mile, or per day, and is calculated based on the lowest cost to the user. This report uses the...

Strategies to Overcome Transportation Barriers for Rent Burdened Oakland Residents

Pan, Alexandra
Shaheen, Susan, PhD
2021

Shared mobility is gaining traction in the transportation community as a potentially more environmentally friendly alternative to automobile travel and complement to public transit. However, adoption and use of shared mobility by low-income individuals lags behind other demographic groups. Additional research is needed to better understand the transportation needs of low-income travelers and how public agencies, community-based organizations, and shared mobility operators can work together to best serve those needs. This research fills gaps in understanding the potential policy strategies...

Struggling to Connect: Housing and Transportation Challenges of Low-Income Suburban Residents in the San Francisco Bay Area

Pan, Alexandra
Deakin, Elizabeth, PhD
Shaheen, Susan, PhD
2024

Suburban areas have lower density development than urban areas, which may make them less accessible for the growing population of low- and moderate-income suburban residents, particularly those without a personal vehicle. This research examines factors that lead these households to move to suburban areas and identifies accessibility barriers they face. We use a mixed-methods approach with Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data from the U.S. Census, online/in-person surveys (n=208), and interviews conducted in English and Spanish (n=25) with households in Contra Costa County with an income...