Mobility on Demand in the United States

The growth of shared mobility services and enabling technologies, such as smartphone apps, is contributing to the commodification and aggregation of transportation services. This chapter reviews terms and definitions related to Mobility on Demand (MOD) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS), the mobility marketplace, stakeholders, and enablers. This chapter also reviews the U.S. Department of Transportation’s MOD Sandbox Program, including common opportunities and challenges, partnerships, and case studies for employing on-demand mobility pilots and programs. The chapter concludes with a discussion of vehicle automation and on-demand mobility including pilot projects and the potential transformative impacts of shared automated vehicles on parking, land use, and the built environment

Model-based Transportation Performance: A Comparative Framework and Literature Synthesis, Research Report 11-09

In an era of limited resources and a proliferation of data, there is increasing pressure to conduct careful evaluations of the economic, environmental, and equity effects of investments and policies that influence transportation and land-use systems. This report compares performance measures recommended to achieve desired goals and reviews the literature to determine the degree to which these measures have been implemented and what they indicate about the relative effectiveness of land-use, transit, and automobile pricing policies. Despite the variation in methods and performance measures implemented in the studies reviewed for this report, the synthesis of study results suggests the direction and relative magnitude of change resulting from different types of policies, as well as potential biases introduced by omitting the representation of the land-use and transportation interaction. Overall, the performance measures indicate that carefully designed transit, land-use, and automobile pricing policies may improve travel, economic, environmental, and equity conditions for communities. However, transit and peak-period automobile pricing policies can, in some situations, lead to negative performance outcomes across some or all measures, as illustrated in studies that explicitly represent the land-use and transportation interaction

Small Aircraft Transportation System Concept and Technologies

This paper summarizes both the vision and the early public-private collaborative research for the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS). The paper outlines an operational definition of SATS, describes how SATS conceptually differs from current air transportation capabilities, introduces four SATS operating capabilities, and explains the relation between the SATS operating capabilities and the potential for expanded air mobility. The SATS technology roadmap encompasses on-demand, widely distributed, point-to-point air mobility, through hired-pilot modes in the nearer-term, and through self-operated user modes in the farther-term. The nearer-term concept is based on aircraft and airspace technologies being developed to make the use of smaller, more widely distributed community reliever and general aviation airports and their runways more useful in more weather conditions, in commercial hired-pilot service modes. The farther-term vision is based on technical concepts that could be developed to simplify or automate many of the operational functions in the aircraft and the airspace for meeting future public transportation needs, in personally operated modes. NASA technology strategies form a roadmap between the nearer-term concept and the farther-term vision. This paper outlines a roadmap for scalable, on-demand, distributed air mobility technologies for vehicle and airspace systems. The audiences for the paper include General Aviation manufacturers, small aircraft transportation service providers, the flight training industry, airport and transportation authorities at the Federal, state and local levels, and organizations involved in planning for future National Airspace System advancements

How events can influence in the customer experience at Out of the Blue Hostel: an internship storytelling

The growth of tourism is not an exception to Azores Islands that saw a big increase of tourists after the low cost airlines started flying to the islands in 2015. The whole market is in a process of adaptation and hostels is a new concept to the island and very appreciated to the ones who visit it. Out of the Blue hostel's concept is to turn each stay into a unique experience. So me and the owners of the hostel were brainstorming ideas how to improve the concept and together we decided to create Out Of The Blue Family Dinners, where every evening we prepare homemade dinners and take guests out on night tours, creating moments of sharing cultures, ideas, dreams and time on the island between the guest and the staff of the hostel. In this storytelling I am presenting how I started doing events at the hostel and the process of adaptation to the tourism trends, guest and management needs in order to create a high quality experience. In the end I will present the reviews left by the guests of the hostel on various booking platforms. After 6 months the impact of the events is very visible through the guest reviews and feedbacks, team satisfaction and sales revenue.O turismo em crescimento e não é uma exceção nas Ilhas dos Açores que viu este fenomeno acontecer após as low coast começarem a voar para as ilhas em 2015. Todo o mercado está a adaptar-se e os hostels é um novo conceito na ilha e muito apreciado para o aqueles que as visitam. O conceito Out of the Blue é transformar cada estadia em uma experiência única. Então, juntos começamos a fazer um brainstorm como melhorar o conceito. Juntos, decidimos começar a fazer eventos todas as noites que inclui jantares e passeios nocturos, criando momentos de partilha de cultura, ideias, sonhos e tempo na ilha. Esta storytelling que vos apresento consiste em começar a fazer eventos no hostel e todo o processo de adaptação às tendências de turismo, hospedes e necessidades de gestão para criar uma experiência de alta qualidade. No final, irei apresentar os resultados de inquenritos realizados no hostel. Depois de 6 meses os impactos dos eventos são muito visíveis nas avaliações e comentários dos hospedes, assim como na satisfação da equipe e nos lucros das vendas

Net Effects of Gasoline Price Changes on Transit Ridership in U.S. Urban Areas, MTI Report 12-19

Using panel data of transit ridership and gasoline prices for ten selected U.S. urbanized areas over the time period of 2002 to 2011, this study analyzes the effect of gasoline prices on ridership of the four main transit modes—bus, light rail, heavy rail, and commuter rail—as well as their aggregate ridership. Improving upon past studies on the subject, this study accounts for endogeneity between the supply of services and ridership, and controls for a comprehensive list of factors that may potentially influence transit ridership. This study also examines short- and long-term effects and non-constant effects at different gasoline prices. The analysis found varying effects, depending on transit modes and other conditions. Strong evidence was found for positive short-term effects only for bus and the aggregate: a 0.61-0.62 percent ridership increase in response to a 10 percent increase in current gasoline prices (elasticity of 0.061 to 0.062). The long-term effects of gasoline prices, on the other hand, was significant for all modes and indicated a total ridership increase ranging from 0.84 percent for bus to 1.16 for light rail, with commuter rail, heavy rail, and the aggregate transit in response to a 10 percent increase in gasoline prices. The effects at the higher gasoline price level of over $3 per gallon were found to be more substantial, with a ridership increase of 1.67 percent for bus, 2.05 percent for commuter rail, and 1.80 percent for the aggregate for the same level of gasoline price changes. Light rail shows even a higher rate of increase of 9.34 percent for gasoline prices over$4. In addition, a positive threshold boost effect at the $3 mark of gasoline prices was found for commuter and heavy rails, resulting in a substantially higher rate of ridership increase. The results of this study suggest that transit agencies should prepare for a potential increase in ridership during peak periods that can be generated by substantial gasoline price increases over$3 per gallon for bus and commuter rail modes, and over $4 per gallon for light rail, in order to accommodate higher transit travel needs of the public through pricing strategies, general financing, capacity management, and operations planning of transit services

Measuring Benefits, Tracing Distributional Effects, and Affecting Distributional Outcomes

This paper shows the differences between how benefits are estimated and how they are distributed, calls attention to the policy variables that are crucial in explaining certain distributional outcomes, explores the importance of looking at the demand for characteristics when trying to benefit the poor, and suggests areas for research.cost-benefit, poverty, distribution, distributional effects, project, project analysis, project appraisal, project evaluation,

A Comparative Analysis of High-Speed Rail Station Development into Destination and Multi-Use Facilities: The Case of San Jose Diridon

As a burgeoning literature on high-speed rail development indicates, good station-area planning is a very important prerequisite for the eventual successful operation of a high-speed rail station; it can also trigger opportunities for economic development in the station area and the station-city. At the same time, “on the ground” experiences from international examples of high-speed rail stations can provide valuable lessons for the California high-speed rail system in general, and the San Jose Diridon station in particular. This study identifies and draws lessons from European HSR stations that share similarities across several criteria with the San Jose area context. From an initial consideration of twenty European HSR stations, the researchers chose five stations for in depth case studies: Euralille and Lyon Part Dieu in France, Rotterdam Centraal and Utrecht Centraal in the Netherlands, and Torino Porta Susa in Italy. Additionally, the study drew information from relevant local actors and stakeholders to better tailor recommendations to the particular California context.Through the undertaking of different research tasks–literature review, case studies of European railway stations, survey of existing station plans and other planning documents for the Diridon station, station area analysis, and interviews with station area planners and designers–the study compiles timely recommendations for the successful planning of the Diridon station and other stations along the California high-speed rail corridor