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

虽然密集的城市地区是美国的核心就业中心，但大部分人口仍然生活在农村/郊区社区，这些社区的特点是地理面积大，人口密度低。这造成了人们生活和工作的空间不匹配，而城市的低住房供应和高房价又加剧了这种不匹配。农村公共交通或共享交通服务的效率不高，运输机构无法提供和维持，因为这些服务的每辆车载客量通常低于城市服务。由于需求在地理上分散，这种服务也受到频率低和停靠间隔长的影响。这迫使通勤者依赖（主要）单人私人汽车。这种通勤对低收入农村居民来说是昂贵的，对环境造成极大破坏，不成比例地造成拥堵，并对处境不利和/或弱势社区产生负面影响。该项目旨在确定和试行创新的共享交通解决方案，以提高城乡通勤者的流动性和无障碍性。它将把重点放在佩里县的通勤者身上，这是宾夕法尼亚州哈里斯堡地区的一个郊区，作为美国这个更大的问题的案例研究。研究结果可以作为其他与通勤问题作斗争的农村社区的榜样，帮助交通官员确定在他们地区可以成功的类似战略。该项目将通过对农村通勤者的调查、雇主访谈和现有数据来源，了解已确定的不同共享交通备选方案的可行性要求。它还将通过试点测试评估研究区域最可行的解决方案的有效性。在第一步中，该规划项目将评估农村地区的潜在出行需求和对共享出行选择的总体需求，同时考虑对乘车共享的态度。然后将设计和探索多种创新和灵活的城乡通勤共享交通解决方案，结合传统的交通系统结构（例如，移动枢纽、带分支的干线或通勤集群），配以乘车匹配服务和实时信息系统，专门克服为农村社区服务的地理挑战。比较不同的流动性战略将促进对每种战略的成本和效益的理解。这些解决方案的实施可以通过改善弱势群体的通勤选择并使他们能够更容易地加入劳动力队伍，以及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，该挑战赛是NSF、能源部车辆技术办公室、国土安全部科学技术局和联邦应急管理局的合作项目。该奖项反映了NSF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。

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.