Emerging Mobility Services for the Transportation Disadvantaged

Bardaka, Eleni; Jin, Xia; McDonald, Noreen; Steiner, Ruth; LaMondia, Jeffrey · 2022 · ROSA P / Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center (STRIDE)

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Summary

This report, produced by the Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center (STRIDE), investigates the travel characteristics and use of emerging mobility services by transportation-disadvantaged populations. Motivated by demographic shifts—including an aging population, suburbanizing poverty, and rural accessibility gaps—the study addresses how transportation network companies (TNCs) and Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) can serve vulnerable groups who face limited alternative transportation options. The research is organized into five thrusts examining low-income households, older adults, healthcare access during the pandemic, transit accessibility in Gainesville, and rural MaaS adoption. The methodology combines econometric modeling, stated preference surveys, mobile device data analysis, and spatial accessibility tools. Thrust 1 utilized 2017 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) data and hurdle models to analyze trip characteristics of low-income, carless, and higher-income households across urban, suburban, and rural settings. Thrust 2 examined older adults’ (age 65+) travel behavior using NHTS data and conducted stated preference surveys to assess attitudes toward ridesourcing. Thrust 3 analyzed temporal patterns of healthcare visits in North Carolina during 2020 using SafeGraph mobile device data, correlating visit rates with block-group sociodemographics. Thrust 4 applied a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) tool to the Gainesville Regional Transit System to evaluate transit accessibility changes for vulnerable neighborhoods across three scenarios: pandemic impact, recovery, and five-year projections. Thrust 5 estimated multinomial logistic and logarithmic distance models using NHTS data to compare rural and urban MaaS mode choices and trip distances. Key findings reveal distinct disparities in mobility patterns. Low-income, carless households in suburban areas rely more heavily on walking and biking than their urban or vehicle-owning counterparts, suggesting a need for public microtransit in these regions. For older adults, daily trips and miles traveled decrease with age and lower urbanization; privately owned vehicles remain dominant, highlighting a market gap for ride-share services that prioritize privacy, reliability, and convenience. Analysis of healthcare visits during the pandemic showed that block groups with higher densities of older adults, low-income individuals, racial minorities, and carless residents experienced lower visit rates and slower recovery post-lockdown. In Gainesville, transit accessibility for vulnerable populations changed unevenly during the pandemic, with varying recovery trajectories for work, medical, and social trips. Finally, rural MaaS adoption is significantly influenced by trip distances, indicating that partnerships with existing transit systems are necessary to support rural-urban connectivity. The study concludes that emerging mobility services offer potential solutions for transportation-disadvantaged populations but require targeted design. Recommendations include developing equitable interventions for healthcare access, designing ridesourcing services that address older adults’ specific quality-of-life concerns, and implementing public microtransit in suburban areas. The findings provide evidence-based guidance for policymakers and transit agencies to create financially sustainable and socially equitable transportation systems that address the unique mobility needs of aging, low-income, and rural populations.

Key finding

Transportation-disadvantaged populations exhibit distinct mobility patterns and barriers, with low-income carless suburban residents relying heavily on active travel, older adults requiring high-quality ridesourcing services, and rural MaaS adoption being significantly constrained by trip distances.

Methodology

mixed_methods

Provenance

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Topics

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• demographic disparities