Opportunities and Challenges for Urban Public Transportation in the Era of App-based Shared Mobility

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2022This dissertation is a collection of research on urban public transportation planning and policymaking in the era of app-based shared mobility. The dissertation has an emphasis on how public transit agencies can better incorporate shared mobility modes into public transportation service provision. It consists of three studies. The first study uses longitudinal data to examine the impacts of app-based ride-hailing, the most commonly used form of shared mobility, on individual travel behavior. The second study employs latent class analysis to analyze riders’ adoption of a pilot mobility service, where an on-demand shared mode is incorporated to supplement fixed-route transit. The third study introduces an effective approach for transit agencies to compare the costs of incorporating new on-demand modes and expanding traditional fixed-route transit. The approach in this study consists of an economic-theory-based conceptual framework and a transportation simulation model. This dissertation is among the earliest efforts in the academic literature that rigorously studies the impacts of shared mobility modes and more importantly, investigates transit agencies’ recent innovations of incorporating app-based shared mobility. The three studies utilize economic theories, statistical models, and transportation modeling techniques. Jointly, they provide evidence-based policy insights that are urgently needed by transportation researchers and practitioners