Enhancing Transportation System Performance by Promoting Sustainable Travel through Public-Private Mobility Partnerships

Abstract

Public-private partnerships, involving transit agencies and emerging mobility service providers (such as micromobility and ridesharing), offer a promising strategy to improve transportation system performance and promote sustainable travel behavior. These partnerships have potential to address key challenges, including the first-mile/last-mile problem, reducing dependency on personal vehicles, and increasing transit ridership. This study develops an optimization-based framework that integrates private mobility services with public transit to encourage transit adoption among personal vehicle users through personalized incentive packages. The incentives include monetary and non-monetary rewards designed to minimize user disutility (including long wait times and inconvenient transfers) that often deters transit use. Cluster analysis is applied to group users based on their sociodemographic characteristics, and choice models are employed to estimate the likelihood of mode switching under various incentive scenarios. These methods ensure that incentive packages are aligned with user preferences and system-wide performance objectives. Numerical experiments on multiple transportation networks demonstrate that this framework enhances transportation system performance by increasing transit ridership, reducing overall system travel time, and supporting environmental sustainability through lower emissions and the promotion of sustainable travel options. This research offers actionable insights for policymakers and urban planners, highlighting the value of public-private partnerships in creating sustainable transportation systems that enhance urban mobility and social welfare. Moreover, leveraging app-based platforms from private mobility providers and transit agencies may enable low-cost implementation of the framework without requiring new infrastructure.