Chapter 3 - Mobility on demand (MOD) and mobility as a service (MaaS): early understanding of shared mobility impacts and public transit partnerships

Technology is changing the way we move and reshaping cities and society. Shared and on-demand mobility represent notable transportation shifts in the 21st century. In recent years, mobility on demand (MOD)—where consumers access mobility, goods, and services on-demand by dispatching shared modes, courier services, public transport, and other innovative strategies—has grown rapidly due to technological advancements; changing consumer preferences; and a range of economic, environmental, and social factors. New attitudes toward sharing, MOD, and mobility as a service (MaaS) are changing traveler behavior and creating new opportunities and challenges for public transportation. This chapter discusses similarities and differences between the evolving concepts of MaaS and MOD. Next, it characterizes the range of existing public transit and MOD service models and enabling partnerships. The chapter also explores emerging trends impacting public transportation. While vehicle automation could result in greater public transit competition in the future, it could also foster new opportunities for transit enhancements (e.g., microtransit services, first- and last-mile connections, reduced operating costs). The chapter concludes with a discussion of how MOD/MaaS partnerships and automation could enable the public transit industry to reinvent itself, making it more attractive and competitive with private vehicle ownership and use

Automated Microbial Metabolism Laboratory Final report

Photosynthesis activity during phosphate soil analysi

Review of California Wildfire Evacuations from 2017 to 2019

Between 2017 and 2019, California experienced a series of devastating wildfires that together led over one million people to be ordered to evacuate. Due to the speed of many of these wildfires, residents across California found themselves in challenging evacuation situations, often at night and with little time to escape. These evacuations placed considerable stress on public resources and infrastructure for both transportation and sheltering. In the face of these clear challenges, transportation and emergency management agencies across California have widely varying levels of preparedness for major disasters, and nearly all agencies do not have the public resources to adequately and swiftly evacuate all populations in danger. To holistically address these challenges and bolster current disaster and evacuation planning, preparedness, and response in California, we summarize the evacuations of eleven major wildfires in California between 2017 and 2019 and offer a cross-comparison to highlight key similarities and differences. We present results of new empirical data we collected via an online survey of individuals impacted by: 1) the 2017 October Northern California Wildfires (n=79), 2) the 2017 December Southern California Wildfires (n=226), and 3) the 2018 Carr Wildfire (n=284). These data reveal the decision-making of individuals in these wildfires including choices related to evacuating or staying, departure timing, route, sheltering, destination, transportation mode, and reentry timing. We also present results related to communication and messaging, non-evacuee behavior, and opinion of government response. Using the summarized case studies and empirical evidence, we present a series of recommendations for agencies to prepare for, respond to, and recover from wildfires

Dyadic Risk and Foreign Direct Investment

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been rigorously examined by scholars of international business. While recent studies have achieved a general consensus with regard to the political and economic determinants of FDI inflows and outflows, this paper sought to reconcile two disparate segments of the literature – regime type and political climate – based upon recently available events data. The study ultimately failed to establish support for its hypothesis that bilateral political ties can substantively mitigate political risk to investment in states with autocratic regimes, but demonstrates a necessity to look beyond country-level political risk factors and further examine those of the dyad in making foreign investment decisions

Public Bikesharing in North America: Early Operator and User Understanding, MTI Report 11-19

This study evaluates public bikesharing in North America, reviewing the advances in technology and major events during its rapid expansion. We conducted 14 interviews with industry experts, public officials, and governmental agencies in the United States and Canada during summer 2011/spring 2012 and interviewed all 19 IT-based bikesharing organizations in the United States and Canada in spring 2012. Several bikesharing insurance experts were also consulted in spring 2012. Notable developments during this period include the emergence of a close partnership between vendor and operator and technological advances, such as mobile bike-docking stations that can be moved to different locations and real-time bike/station tracking to facilitate system rebalancing and provide user information