pacific nw transportation consortium region 10 Pactrans

Shared Mobility Options for the Commute Trip: Opportunities for Employers and Employees

PI: Qing Shen (UW), qs@uw.edu, ORCID: 0000-0002-0968-7377

Co PIs: Xuegang (Jeff) Ban (UW), Anne Vernez Moudon (UW), and Mike Lowry (UI)

AMOUNT & MATCH: $180,000 from PacTrans; $180,000 Match

PERFORMANCE PERIOD: 8/16/2020 – 8/15/2022

STATUS: Completed

CATEGORIES: Shared Mobility, Commute Trip Reduction

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DESCRIPTION: This project uniquely addresses the question of how shared mobility options can resolve some of the problems associated with commuting. Our research has three key components. First, we will work with the University of Washington (UW), which is one of the largest employers in the Seattle region, to systematically and closely examine the commute-related challenges and opportunities for essential workers. Collaborating with UW Transportation Services, we will collect and analyze travel survey data to address questions regarding the distinct transportation needs of essential workers and the actual and potential roles that employers can play in providing shared mobility solutions for essential workers, especially those who do not have a car.  Secondly, continuing our collaboration with the WSDOT Commute Trip Reduction program and Puget Sound Regional Council, we will recruit about a dozen employers for focus groups to gain a deeper understanding of what organizational constraints currently limit wider adoption of shared mobility for commuting and what technological and policy/management innovations may help create desirable shared mobility alternatives. As part of this research effort, we will invite researchers from Microsoft, who are developing a calendar-based App for carpooling among coworkers, to participate in our focus groups for mutually informative and inspiring dialogs. Thirdly, the University of Idaho team members will lead a study to explore how employers in small cities and rural communities can facilitate shared mobility options for commuting. We will work with the University of Idaho to design and implement a policy experiment to use student parking fee exemption as an incentive to encourage students to come to the University by carpooling/vanpooling, while offering new students an education program to help them gain a basic understanding of available alternative transportation services in the area.