Project Summary
In recent years, ride-hailing providers, such as Uber and Lyft, have become ubiquitous throughout the U.S. and many other parts of the world. In addition to their typical ride-hailing services, these companies, along with traditional taxis, have become partners with municipalities and public transportation operators in pilot projects. Now there are over 50 of these pilots throughout the U.S., many with an increasing focus on microtransit (6-12 passenger vehicles). This research will build on a current study that aims to identify the factors informing the implementation of pilot programs that provide a subsidy to passengers who use ride-hailing to connect to public transportation. The proposed research will update the database of pilots and broaden the scope by including microtransit pilots. The goals of this research will be to explore the processes of learning among public transportation operators and to determine how these processes of learning are affecting the evolution in the formats of these partnerships and pilots. The other primary goal of this study is to investigate the role of learning in the development of best practices for implementing these types of partnerships and pilot programs. The proposed research will involve data collected from document review as well as survey data collection. There are three key components to the analysis in this project: 1) summarize pilots that have been implemented so far, 2) evaluate pilots from the perspective of involved public transportation operators, and 3), analyze learning among public agencies involved in these partnerships and pilot programs. The overarching goal of this study is to investigate the relevance of learning to the evolving nature of these pilot programs.