SCC-CIVIC-PG Track B: Novel shared transportation services to improve rural-urban commutes

SCC-CIVIC-PG Track B：改善城乡通勤的新型共享交通服务

• 批准号: 2228360
• 负责人: Vikash Gayah
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-10-01 至 2023-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2228360&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SCC; CIVIC; PG; Track; Novel

While dense urban regions serve as the core employment centers in the United States, a large fraction of the population still lives in rural/suburban communities that are characterized by large geographic areas and low population densities. This creates a spatial mismatch between where people live and work, which is exacerbated by low housing supplies and high housing prices in cities. Rural public or shared transportation services are not efficient for transit agencies to provide and maintain, as they generally carry fewer passengers per vehicle than urban services. Due to a geographically dispersed demand, such services also suffer from infrequency and long stop spacings. This forces commuters to rely on (primarily) single-occupant private automobiles. Such commute trips are expensive for low-income rural residents, are extremely damaging to the environment, disproportionately contribute to congestion, and negatively impact disadvantaged and/or vulnerable communities. The project aims to identify and pilot innovative shared transportation solutions that can enhance mobility and accessibility of rural-urban commuters. It will focus on commuters in Perry County, a suburban of the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania region as a case study for this larger, problematic issue in the United States. The results can serve as a model for other rural communities that struggle with the commuter problem, helping transportation officials identify similar strategies that can be successful in their areas. The project will create knowledge on the feasibility requirements of different identified shared transportation options through surveys of rural commuters, employer interviews and existing data sources. It will also evaluate the effectiveness of the most viable solution for the study area via a pilot test. In the first step, the planning project will assess latent travel demand in rural areas and overall demand for shared mobility options, taking attitudes toward ride sharing into account. Multiple innovative and flexible shared transportation solutions for the rural-urban commute will then be designed and explored, combining traditional transit system structures (e.g., mobility hub, trunk with branches or commute clusters) with ride-matching services and real-time information systems to specifically overcome the geographic challenges of serving rural communities. Comparing different mobility strategies will advance the understanding of the costs and benefits of each strategy for rural-urban commutes. The implementation of such solutions can provide significant benefits to the society by improving commute options for disadvantaged populations and enabling them to join the labor force more easily, and by lowering congestion and emissions through the reduction of single-occupant vehicles. This project is part of the CIVIC Innovation Challenge which is a collaboration of NSF, the Department of Energy's Vehicle Technology Office, and the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate and Federal Emergency Management Agency.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.

虽然密集的城市地区是美国的核心就业中心，但很大一部分人口仍然居住在农村/郊区社区，其特点是地理面积大、人口密度低。这造成了人们生活和工作地点之间的空间不匹配，而城市住房供应量低和房价高则加剧了这种情况。交通机构提供和维护农村公共或共享交通服务的效率不高，因为它们每辆车运载的乘客通常少于城市服务。由于需求在地理上分散，此类服务还存在频率低且停靠间隔长的问题。这迫使通勤者（主要）依赖单人私家车。对于低收入农村居民来说，这种通勤旅行费用昂贵，对环境造成极大破坏，严重加剧交通拥堵，并对弱势和/或脆弱社区产生负面影响。该项目旨在确定和试点创新的共享交通解决方案，以增强城乡通勤者的流动性和可达性。它将重点关注宾夕法尼亚州哈里斯堡地区郊区佩里县的通勤者，作为美国这个更大的问题问题的案例研究。研究结果可以为其他与通勤问题作斗争的农村社区提供借鉴，帮助交通官员确定可以在其地区取得成功的类似策略。该项目将通过对农村通勤者的调查、雇主访谈和现有数据源，了解不同已确定的共享交通方案的可行性要求。它还将通过试点测试评估该研究区域最可行解决方案的有效性。第一步，规划项目将评估农村地区的潜在出行需求以及对共享出行选择的总体需求，同时考虑到人们对拼车的态度。然后，将设计和探索针对城乡通勤的多种创新和灵活的共享交通解决方案，将传统的交通系统结构（例如移动枢纽、干线与分支或通勤集群）与乘车匹配服务和实时信息系统相结合，以专门克服服务农村社区的地理挑战。比较不同的出行策略将加深对每种城乡通勤策略的成本和收益的理解。此类解决方案的实施可以改善弱势群体的通勤选择，使他们更容易地加入劳动力队伍，并通过减少单人车辆来减少拥堵和排放，从而为社会带来重大利益。该项目是 CIVIC 创新挑战赛的一部分，该挑战赛由 NSF、能源部车辆技术办公室、国土安全部科学技术局和联邦紧急事务管理局合作。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。