TRIPODS+X:RES: Collaborative Research: The Future of the Road - A Data-Driven Redesign of the Urban Transit Ecosystem

长期以来，提供高效、经济、可持续的交通解决方案一直是城市规划者面临的挑战。传统上，城市机动性是通过个人车辆所有权或公共交通系统来满足的，这两种方式都不是最佳结果（前者导致拥堵和污染，而后者则缺乏“最后一英里”可用性）。按需交通模式——自行车共享、拼车和微型交通——有可能解决城市面临的许多挑战。它们的规模自然扩大，可以通过在人口密度较低的地区提供覆盖来缓解最后一英里的问题，并减少买车的动机。然而，随着它们越来越大，并与“经典”城市交通模式混合在一起，城市规划者被迫考虑它们的社会后果和它们的有效整合。该项目关注以下核心问题：我们如何设计一个高效和可持续的综合交通生态系统，使个人通勤者、按需和公共交通提供商以及整个社会的动机保持一致？为了应对上述挑战，研究人员提出了“运营”和“市场设计”相结合的方法，围绕数据驱动的交通系统运行随机网络模型，以及交通管理机构作为通勤者和交通供应商之间中介的元平台的观点。第一个关于“运营”的研究重点是即将到来的按需交通平台（微交通、无桩共享单车）所面临的算法挑战，以及平台将其服务与更广泛的交通基础设施相结合所面临的算法挑战。第二个重点是“市场设计”，即整合生态系统的经济挑战。特别是，研究人员提出了一些契约模型，用于城市规划者如何有效地整合按需交通。调查人员还计划在2019年组织一次关于城市交通未来的研讨会，促进学术界与公共和私人交通平台代表之间的对话。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Providing efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable transportation solutions has long been a challenge for urban planners. Traditionally, urban mobility has been satisfied via either personal vehicle ownership or mass transit systems, neither of which is an optimal outcome (the former causes congestion and pollution, while the latter suffers from a lack of "last-mile" availability). On-demand transit modes - bikesharing, ridesharing, and micro-transit - have the potential to solve many of the challenges faced by cities. They scale naturally, can alleviate last-mile problems by providing coverage in lower density areas, and reduce incentives for car ownership. However, as they grow larger and intermingle with "classical" urban transit modes, the urban planner is forced to consider both their societal consequences and their effective integration. This project focuses on the following central question: How can we design an efficient and sustainable integrated transit ecosystem, that aligns the incentives of the individual commuter, providers of both on-demand and mass transit, and society as a whole?To address the above challenges, the investigators propose a combination of *operational* and *market-design* approaches, built around a data-driven stochastic-network model for transit system operations, and the view of a transit authority acting as a meta-platform mediating between commuters and transit providers. The first research thrust on *operations* focuses on the algorithmic challenges faced by upcoming on-demand transit platforms (micro-transit, dockless bikesharing), and also by platforms in integrating their services with the broader transit infrastructure. The second thrust focuses on *market design*, i.e., the economic challenges of an integrated ecosystem. In particular, the investigators propose a number of contractual models for how urban planners can effectively integrate on-demand transit. The investigators also plan to facilitate conversation between academics and representatives of public and private transit platforms by organizing a workshop in 2019 on the Future of Urban Transit.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.