SCC-IRG Track 1: Empathy and AI: Towards Equitable Microtransit

智能互联社区综合研究基金（SCC-IRG）第一轨道项目将开发和评估社区支持的智能解决方案，以提高公共微交通系统的效率和公平性。美国小城市和城镇糟糕的交通服务严重挑战了许多弱势居民的日常生活。虽然用小型车辆提供点对点服务的公共微型交通最近成为一种有希望的解决方案，但在没有额外资源（车辆和司机）的情况下，它仍然无法满足不断增长的需求。该项目旨在通过增加拼车和将灵活的出行转移到非高峰时段来公平地提高系统性能。为此，它将研究通过唤起对其他社区成员的同理心来激励微交通用户采取亲社会行为的技术（自愿改变自己的出行时间，以适应高负荷的工作旅行，配合与残疾用户共乘一辆车的要求，在了解到自己以前从另一个用户那里受益后做出回报）。通过一个专门针对通勤者的项目，该项目还将为弱势工人和学生提供可靠和无压力的交通工具。这些创新将减少未得到服务的微交通出行请求和取消，从而改善生活质量，包括减少工资损失和乘客错过的医疗预约。本研究所激发的亲社会行为会强化社区成员、情感安全和归属感。这个项目有可能使成千上万的美国小社区受益，这些社区缺乏就业、医疗保健和其他关键目的地。这项获奖研究将为促进社会技术系统中的亲社会行为创造新的范例，摆脱传统的定价机制和激励机制。基于实时用户信息并由人工智能（AI）提供支持的移情构建消息传递将在考虑个人需求和偏好的同时，以较低的认知负担实现和激励微交通中的亲社会行为。为了提高拼车和运营效率，将开发微型交通算法，以运行首个混合系统，该系统将工作和学校通勤计划整合在固定的常规时间表上，并预先安排按需和其他行程。该项目将与政府和非政府组织合作，了解利益相关者的需求，提高利益相关者对技术的接受程度，并将加深我们对社区组织和教育在智能和互联社区成功方面的贡献的理解。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。

This Smart and Connected Communities - Integrative Research Grant (SCC-IRG) Track 1 project will develop and evaluate smart, community-supported solutions for improving efficiency and equity in public microtransit systems. Poor transit service in small cities and towns around the US severely challenges the everyday lives of their many disadvantaged residents. Although public microtransit, which provides point-to-point service in small vehicles, has recently emerged as a promising solution, it remains ineffective at accommodating the rising demand without additional resources (vehicles and drivers). This project seeks to improve system performance equitably, through increased ridesharing and shifting flexible trips to off-peak periods. To this end, it will investigate techniques to motivate microtransit users to act prosocially (volunteer to shift one’s trip time to accommodate the high load of work trips, cooperate with the request to walk more to share a ride with a disabled user, reciprocate after learning that one previously benefited from another user) by evoking feelings of empathy towards other community members. Through a program dedicated to commuters, this project will also provide reliable and stress-free transportation to disadvantaged workers and students. These innovations will result in fewer unserved microtransit trip requests and cancelations and therefore lead to quality-of-life improvements, including reduced wage loss and missed medical appointments for riders. The prosocial acts motivated through this research will strengthen community membership, emotional safety, and sense of belonging. This project has the potential to benefit the thousands of small US communities that lack access to employment, health care, and other critical destinations. The awarded research will create new paradigms for facilitating prosocial behavior in sociotechnical systems, moving away from traditional pricing mechanisms and incentives. Empathy-building messaging based on real-time user information and powered by artificial intelligence (AI), will enable and motivate prosocial behavior in microtransit at a low cognitive burden while accounting for individual needs and preferences. To increase ridesharing and operational efficiency, microtransit algorithms will be developed for the operation of a first-of-its-kind hybrid system that integrates a commuter program for work and school trips on a fixed, routine schedule with both on-demand and other trips scheduled in advance. This project will engage with both governmental and nongovernmental organizations to understand stakeholder needs and improve stakeholder acceptance of the technology and will advance our understanding of the contributions of community-based organizations and education in the success of smart and connected communities.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.