How Shared Mobility Can Complement or Compete with Transit

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.