Exploring the Consumer Market and Environmental Impacts of Microtransit Services in Sacramento and Citrus Heights, California

Public transit plays an important role in transportation systems by providing basic and essential mobility services to people, as well as help reduce traffic congestion, energy consumption, air pollution, and carbon emissions. However, barriers such as unpredictable wait times, inconvenient transfers, and set schedules discourage people from adoption, compounded due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. While traditional transit services are struggling with the virus, microtransit, an on-demand and technology-enabled transit fills the gap quickly. At present, growing interest in microtransit has led to pilot programs, including that of the Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT), the largest microtransit provider in the US. SmaRT Ride allows passengers to book in app or online to set locations for their request. The microtransit platform automatically assigns the closest bus to pick up passengers along the flexible route. Given the novelty of this service, the size of its potential market, the service's relationship to alternative modes, and its effectiveness during the pandemic are largely unknown. To fill the gap, this study will explore its consumer market, impacts on alternatives, environmental benefits, and the role it plays in the COVID-19 pandemic through interviews, focus groups, and large-scale surveys conducted in Sacramento and Citrus Heights, California. This study will enable the evaluation of the competitiveness of microtransit in the market in terms of cost and efficiency. The results will help transportation planners better understand the level of demand for such a service and its social and environmental impacts, thereby make well-informed decisions to encourage this new business model in the future.

• Record URL:
  https://ncst.ucdavis.edu/project/exploring-consumer-market-and-environmental-impacts-microtransit-services

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Programmed
• Funding: $98331
• Contract Numbers:

  Caltrans 65A0686 Task Order 052

  Project ID UCD-CT-FAST-052

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  California Department of Transportation

  1227 O Street
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95843
• Managing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  Institute of Transportation Studies
  Davis, CA  United States  95616
• Project Managers:

  Iacobucci, Lauren

• Performing Organizations:

  National Center for Sustainable Transportation

  University of California, Davis
  Davis, CA  United States 

  University of California, Davis

  Institute of Transportation Studies
  Davis, CA  United States  95616
• Principal Investigators:

  Xing, Yan

• Start Date: 20201120
• Expected Completion Date: 20211231
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Case studies; Communicable diseases; Consumers; COVID-19; Demand; Demand responsive transportation; Environmental impacts; Markets; Mobile applications; Social impacts; Sustainable transportation; Technological innovations; Travel behavior
• Geographic Terms: Sacramento (California)
• Subject Areas: Economics; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01758500
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: National Center for Sustainable Transportation
• Contract Numbers: Caltrans 65A0686 Task Order 052, Project ID UCD-CT-FAST-052
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Nov 19 2020 5:49PM