1000 Words: Susan Shaheen on Shared Mobility Equity

Dr. Susan Shaheen is an adjunct professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a research engineer with the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also co-director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at UC Berkeley.  She is a co-author of the Federal Highway Administration primer Travel Behavior: Shared Mobility and Transportation Equity.

Shared mobility—the shared use of a motor vehicle, bicycle, or other mode that allows users to obtain short-term access to transportation on an as-needed basis—can have implications on access and mobility for users in terms of transportation equity. A maxim often drawn from the sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King is that "our lives begin to end the day we become silent on things that matter." As our transportation industry faces disruptions from sharing, automated, and electric vehicles along with other Mobility on Demand (MOD) providers, we must remain vigilant to providing fair access to our evolving transportation systems.

Shared mobility has the promise of improving access to our jobs, healthcare, goods and services, and social connections. There is reason to be optimistic about the potential shared mobility services have to bridge equity gaps in a rapid, cost-efficient manner. It can improve mobility for those who are unable to access private vehicles and encourage more shared trips, potentially reducing household expenditures, vehicle miles traveled, and greenhouse gas emissions.  

But our diversity--geographic, economic, and social--creates challenges. Currently, shared mobility users tend to be younger, more educated, have higher incomes, and are less diverse than the general population. Older adults, low-income individuals, rural/suburban communities, and minority communities are less likely to use shared mobility. Some of this distribution is a result of reluctance of users and less market diversity but de facto "redlining" (lack of service in certain communities), limited internet, and lack of access to banking services also play a role.  

Shared mobility providers, advocacy groups, and researchers are continuously trying to address these barriers to ensure that shared mobility services improve social accessibility through community engagement, improved product design, and marketing. Recognizing social challenges, public agencies and service providers could shift from prescriptive outreach requirements to performance-based community engagement metrics that allow for flexibility in ensuring broad participation.  

I recently collaborated on a FHWA project to address these kind of transportation equity issues. We developed the STEPS framework. (Read: STEPS to Transportation Equity). STEPS stands for – Spatial – Temporal – Economic – Physiological – and Social. The table below summarizes the opportunities, challenges, and explores some policy options for each factor.

STEPS with the Shared Mobility Opportunities and Equity Challenges.  

This is just a few ways the STEPS framework can be applied to assess potential gaps and identify solutions for equity challenges impacting shared mobility. The growth of shared mobility services and options provides opportunities to expand transportation equity; meeting these challenges requires coordination among multiple stakeholders on a wide range of issues that cross silos and areas of expertise.

Perhaps the most immediate challenge is what defines equity when thinking about mobility.