The Future of Transit: Mobility on Demand in a Shared Use Environment

Jeffrey SpencerITS Team Leader

July 16, 2015Building a Smart, Diverse, and

Shared Travel Network

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Today’s Discussion• What is shared use mobility?

• Shared mobility and it’s relationship to public transportation

• Wild Wild West of Transportation

• How do you pay for that?

• What’s the government’s role?

• What is the role of public transportation?

• Examples of past & ongoing FTA research

• Mobility on Demand

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Shared-Use Mobility?

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Bike Sharing: First/Last Mile Solution

• Biking and transit are inherently linked

• Some refer to bike sharing as “bike-transit”

• Bike share systems provide alternative access to public transportation and extend the reach of riders

• Bike share systems helping to alleviate the first and last mile challenge of public transportation

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Capital BikeShare (CaBi) Survey

• In November 2012 Capital Bikeshare conducted a Customer Use and Satisfaction Survey

• 54% of surveyed customers of CaBi utilized system to access Metro.

• Typical ride is a distance of .5-.75 miles (10-15 minute walk)

• Analysis of survey shows that about 40 % of trips involving Metro are within that first and last mile.

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Ballston-Rosslyn Corridor: Arlington, VA

http://mobilitylab.org/2014/01/21/hot-zone-commuters-taking-bikeshare-to-use-metro/

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Impacts of Car-sharing

• TCRP Report 108 on Car-Sharing

• Impacts include:– Lower emissions– Increased transit ridership– Cost savings– Greater mobility

• New business models emerging– Peer-to-peer (RelayRides)– Point-to-point (Car2Go)

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Wild Wild West of Transportation

• Google developing autonomous car

• Avis Budget Group purchases Zipcar

• Uber provides ad hoc delivery services

• Ford develops foldable electric bike

• Daimler buys Car2Go & RideScout

• Enterprise buying carsharing organizations

• RideScout acquires GlobeSherpa

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First/Last Mile - on Demand

• DART and Uber performed a pilot during Dallas St. Patrick's Parade– Connect with Uber through DART's

GoPass℠ mobile ticketing application– Begin or finish transit trip through

"Events & Offers" section of transit app– Creative partnership with MADD

• MARTA collaborate with Uber on “Last Mile Campaign”– Take the train and then Uber takes you

home…– Uber options listed within MARTA Guide

Source: www.dart.org

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Ford’s Blueprint for Mobility

• Smart Mobility Initiative– “We face the prospect of

‘global gridlock’”– “…develop new technologies,

as well as new ways of looking at the world.”

• MoDe:Flex – Foldable electric bike– Fully-connected cycle

connects to rider’s smartphone to plan routes, see forecasts and access fitness information

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Microtransit• Innovative commuter buses like

Leap or Chariot in San Francisco

• Bridj in Boston and Washington • Dynamic vanpools like Via in

New York• Carpool start-ups like Carma • True ride-share options like

UberPool (now claiming millions of trips) or LyftLine (now with fixed-point pick-ups)

• Via on-demand shuttles in NYC

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Transit now adopting a new, open approach for payment systems

Transportation options are emerging enabled by the Smart Phone

Payment systems can use a common or linked account across transportation modes

Transit Payment Systems

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What’s the role of Government?

• Create dialogue • Develop policies• Issue guidance on standards & equity • Encourage collaboration between

stakeholders• Conduct research that promotes

integration, customer safety, reliability, & equity

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A Changing Transportation System

• USDOT Policy: Beyond Traffic 2045• Population growth• Changes in demographics• Technological advances• Financial and infrastructure

challenges• Need new approach to meet

challenges of tomorrow• http://

www.transportation.gov/BeyondTraffic

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Stakeholders Who’s here today?

Who’s missing?

Federal

Agencies

Roadway

Agencies

Transit

Agencies

Activity

Centers

Public

Safety

Planning

Organizations

Fleet

Operations

Private

Sector

Traveler

AcademiaProfessional

Organizations

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What’s the role of Public Transportation?

• Provide the backbone for a multimodal integrated transport system

• Provide perfect environment to demonstrate & pilot new technologies and operations

Transit operations in a Connected Vehicle environment

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• BRT is an enhanced bus system that operates on bus lanes or other transit-ways in order to combine the flexibility of buses with the efficiency of rail.

• Next phase of research – connected vehicle environment

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

– Operates at faster speeds, provides greater service reliability and increased customer convenience

– Utilizes advanced technologies, infrastructure and operational investments to provide significantly better service than traditional bus service.

• BRT was used during the piloting of Vehicle Assist & Automation (VAA) technology in Eugene, Oregon.

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FTA Research Focus Areas• Enhancing Mobility

– Vehicle Assist and Automation (VAA)

– Connected Vehicle– Accessible Transportation

Technologies Research Initiative (ATTRI)

– Mobility on Demand (MOD)

• Improving Safety– Intrusion Detection Systems– Emergency Response Applications

• Promoting Energy Efficiency– Green Propulsion Systems– Inductive Charging

• Program Mainstreaming– Focus on “Ladders of Opportunity”– Demonstrations and Pilot Programs

Source: Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR)

Source: IPT Technology

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What is Mobility on Demand (MOD)?

• Long term strategic vision for a multimodal, integrated and connected transportation system.

• Collaboration between ITS Joint Program Office and FTA.

• A concept that imagines mobility as a commodity and a service.

Conceptual Notions of MOD: Promotes choice in personal mobility & Intelligent

Transportation Systems (ITS) Advances connected vehicles & automation Leverages emerging technologies & data exchange Encourages multimodal connectivity & system

interoperability

A New Transit Multimodal Mobility Concept

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What’s Driving MOD?• Aging Americans Require Mobility Choice

Older Americans on the rise From 2005 to 2020 there will be 30 million

additional people age 60 or older “Aging in place” requires unique mobility

options• Millennial Americans Want Mobility Choice

Public transportation utilization is on the rise Younger generations want both convenience

and cost savings 66% of Millennials consider transportation

alongside housing decisions • All Travelers Need Mobility Choice

Veterans with Disabilities Travelers with disabilities Low income individuals & Minors

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Technologies Enabling MOD

• “Big Data” and New Analytics• Smart Cities and the “Internet

of Things”• Connected Vehicles• Automation and Automated

Vehicles• Social media• Smartphone technology and

new payment appsJuly 2014 Cover

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Conditions Encouraging MOD

• Renewed concepts in car ownership (RelayRides, Car2Go)

• Shared economy model is growing (Lyft, Bridj, RideScout)

• Peer to peer transactions (airbnb, Peerby)• Increased urbanization and changing

demographics• Preference growing for alternative

transportation

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Guiding Principles of MOD Vision

• Traveler Centric/Consumer Driven – MOD is defined by performance– Quality and Carefree personal mobility choice for

individuals.

• Data Connected/Platform Independent– MOD (the end state) drives the technology. – Technology doesn’t change the MOD vision, it provides

the capability to realize in an interoperable fashion.

• Mode Agnostic/Multimodal– MOD embraces all modes and resources to support

personal mobility choice in an integrated, connected and multimodal manner.

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Payment – Connected, Integrated,

& Customer Centric• Collecting cash is slow, requires lots of handling, leads to inflexible payment schedules, is expensive to collect, and insecure.

• Payment systems create a relationship with a service provider and connect the individual to the system.

• Payment systems are becoming more integrated, flexible and connected.

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MOD’s Research Direction

• Foundational Research– State of Practice reports– Identification of challenges & opportunities

• Stakeholder Engagement & Outreach– Virtualization tools– Workshops & Webinars

• Big Data Analytics & Evaluation Methods– Acquisition and inclusion of new data sources– Understanding new business models

• National MOD Showcases

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Vincent ValdesAssociate Administrator

Research, Demonstration, and Innovation

vincent.valdes@dot.gov

Jeffrey SpencerITS Team Leaderjeffrey.spencer@dot.gov

Federal Transit AdministrationU.S. Department of

Transportation

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