The COVID-19 pandemic spurred a period of significant change in travel behavior in the United States. Increased working from home, teleconferencing, telelearning, and e-commerce changed how travelers perceive, interact with, and use public transportation and shared mobility. According to the Federal Transit Administration, at the start of the pandemic public transit ridership in the U.S. dropped by 79% between 2019 and 2020. While some riders have returned, public transit ridership remains below pre-pandemic levels. Transit operators may be serving different needs, as post-pandemic travel behavior and the use of other forms of shared mobility (such as microtransit and transportation network companies) continues to evolve. Public transit operators have also been impacted by new pandemic-related procedures, service cuts, and staffing shortages. This project will explore how the pandemic impacted public transportation and shared mobility to inform policy recommendations that can help the state maximize the effectiveness of shared and active transportation options. It will examine the current state of public transit, how transit agencies can evolve into this new context, and how other shared modes have been impacted by the pandemic. The project will also assess how micromobility (both personally owned and shared) can fill gaps in public transit networks caused by California’s changed post-pandemic travel demand. It will also examine the role that active transportation infrastructure can play in improving safety and environmental outcomes, enhancing social equity, and economic development in a variety of built environments.

While the COVID-19 pandemic caused ridership on public transit and shared mobility to drop precipitously and put severe strain on their finances and operations, all was far from well prior to the pandemic. Transit ridership had dropped across the state in the five years prior to the pandemic, despite increasing public investment. Furthermore, the relationship between shared mobility and public transit was often disputed, with some stakeholders claiming they complement each other and others arguing that they compete. This project focuses on various facets in the relationship between shared mobility and public transit, including: (1) circumstances by which microtransit and transportation network companies complement or compete with public transit, (2) how demand-responsive shared mobility services can fill in public transit service gaps in various contexts, and (3) how – in underserved rural and suburban areas that lack high-quality transit – electric vehicle carsharing can be deployed equitably and cost-effectively.

Traditional transit systems that rely exclusively on fixed routes and fixed schedules struggle to provide high-quality service to transit-dependent travelers and to attract choice travelers in moderate- to low-density areas. This is especially true in areas where jobs, restaurants, and shopping are not clustered together. Moreover, it is expensive for transit agencies to run services in moderate- and low-density areas. Integrating traditional transit and the more flexible microtransit—multi-passenger transportation services that serve passengers using dynamically generated routes—has been touted as a means to attract riders to public transit, improve mobility and sustainable transportation outcomes, and provide better accessibility to more travelers. These integrated services also have the potential to reduce costs incurred by transit agencies and improve mobility equity in underserved communities. However, successful real-world examples of and guidelines for integrating traditional transit and microtransit are relatively limited. This project has two key objectives: (1) to develop network design and operational strategy guidelines for integrating microtransit and transitional transit in low- to moderate-density areas, and (2) to analyze the mobility, accessibility, and equity benefits of integrating transitional transit and microtransit statewide. The project will identify ways the state can support microtransit integration, blueprints transit agencies can use to implement microtransit, and metrics to track how well microtransit services are helping California achieve climate, equity, and mobility and accessibility goals.