SCC-PG: Empathy and AI: Towards Equitable Microtransit

公共微型交通最近已成为连接郊区和农村交通弱势人口与就业和其他重要目的地的一个有前途的解决办法。作为一种公共交通服务，微交通通常提供较低的固定出行率，并且不依赖于动态定价等定价机制来平衡供需。虽然避免高费率和动态定价特别适合低收入、弱势群体，但这可能导致上午和下午高峰时段的严重延误，对用户造成严重后果，如错过医疗预约和工资。 工作和医疗旅行有时间限制，但其他旅行可能更灵活，可以在非高峰期发生，以减少服务延误和错过关键旅行。为了实现智能互联社区（S CC）的愿景，该规划拨款专注于技术支持和社区支持的解决方案，以公平的方式分配随时间推移的按需公共交通服务的出行需求，而不是独家甚至主要使用传统的定价激励措施。一个由教师和研究人员组成的跨学科团队将与北卡罗来纳州的社区合作，这些社区已经试行了微型交通系统，以推进这项研究，并更好地了解社区的需求，偏好和能力。这笔赠款有可能导致加强公共微型交通模式，减少错过或延误的关键旅行，改善交通弱势群体的生活质量。这项研究将推进我们的理解的可行性，并参与实现和激励亲社会行为在公共微交通，包括志愿改变一个人的出行时间，以适应其他人，共享一程，与其他用户合作，以改善用户社区的成果，并优先考虑交通弱势用户或一个关键的行程。它将研究人工智能如何通过减少用户的认知负担来促进行程安排环境中的亲社会行为。在规划赠款期间，该小组将组织一个讲习班，收集包括规划和运输机构以及社区组织在内的各利益攸关方的知识。将召集社区成员组成焦点小组，进行半结构化访谈，并收集有关愿意与其他用户分享游乐设施和信息的信息，全天时间安排的灵活性，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审查标准。

Publicly owned microtransit has recently emerged as a promising solution for connecting suburban and rural transportation disadvantaged populations to employment and other important destinations. As a public transportation service, microtransit typically provides low, fixed trip rates, and does not rely on pricing mechanisms such as dynamic pricing to balance supply and demand. Although avoiding high rates and dynamic pricing is particularly appropriate for low-income, vulnerable population groups, it can lead to significant delays during the morning and afternoon peak with important consequences on the users, such as missed medical appointments and wages. Work and medical trips have time constraints, but other trips may be more flexible and could happen in off-peak periods to reduce service delays and missed critical trips. Fulfilling a Smart & Connected Communities (S&CC) vision, this planning grant focuses on technologically enabled and community-supported solutions for distributing travel demand over time for on-demand public transportation services in an equitable manner, without the exclusive or even primary use of traditional pricing incentives. An interdisciplinary team of faculty members and researchers will engage with communities in North Carolina that have piloted microtransit systems to advance this research and gain a better understanding of the community needs, preferences, and capacities. This grant has the potential to lead to an enhanced public microtransit paradigm, with fewer missed or delayed critical trips and quality-of-life improvements for the transportation disadvantaged. This research will advance our understanding of the feasibility of, and tradeoffs involved in enabling and incentivizing prosocial behavior in public microtransit, including volunteering to shift one’s trip time to accommodate others, share a ride, cooperate with other users to improve outcomes for the user community, and prioritize a transportation disadvantaged user or a critical trip. It will investigate how artificial intelligence can be applied in facilitating prosocial behavior in a trip scheduling environment by reducing the cognitive burden placed on users. During the planning grant period, the team will organize a workshop to gather knowledge from various stakeholders, including planning and transportation agencies and community-based organizations. Focus groups with community members will be assembled to conduct semi-structured interviews and collect information on willingness to share rides and information with other users, flexibility of schedule throughout the day, and the type of information about other users that would evoke empathy and prosocial behavior.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.