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

这个智能互联社区-综合研究资助（SCC-IRG）轨道1项目将开发和评估智能，社区支持的解决方案，以提高公共微交通系统的效率和公平性。美国各地小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。虽然公共微型交通，提供点对点的服务，在小型车辆，最近已成为一个有前途的解决方案，它仍然无法满足日益增长的需求，没有额外的资源（车辆和司机）。该项目旨在通过增加共乘和将灵活的行程转移到非高峰期来公平地改善系统性能。为此，它将研究技术，以激励微交通用户采取亲社会行动（志愿者改变自己的行程时间，以适应高负荷的工作行程，配合要求步行更多的共享与残疾用户乘坐，回报后，学习，一个以前受益于另一个用户）通过唤起对其他社区成员的同情心。通过一项专门针对通勤者的计划，该项目还将为弱势工人和学生提供可靠和无压力的交通。这些创新将导致更少的未得到服务的微交通旅行请求和取消，从而导致生活质量的改善，包括减少乘客的工资损失和错过医疗预约。透过本研究所激发的亲社会行为，将加强社区成员关系、情绪安全感与归属感。该项目有可能使数千个缺乏就业、医疗保健和其他关键目的地的美国小社区受益。获奖的研究将为促进社会技术系统中的亲社会行为创造新的范式，远离传统的定价机制和激励措施。基于实时用户信息并由人工智能（AI）提供支持的同情心建立消息传递，将以较低的认知负担实现和激励微交通中的亲社会行为，同时考虑个人需求和偏好。为了提高共乘和运营效率，将开发微交通算法，用于首个混合系统的运营，该系统将工作和学校旅行的通勤计划整合在固定的常规时间表上，并提前安排按需和其他旅行。该项目将与政府和非政府组织合作，以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，并将促进我们对社区贡献的理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响进行评估来支持审查标准。

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.