Introduction to On-Demand Transit

Description

This webinar is led by ITE MaaS/MOD Committee (CSC).

To learn how to register and see more information about the webinar including webinar fees and PDH credit certificate fees, please view the webinar course page here.

Webinar Description:
The ITE Mobility as a Service and Mobility on Demand (Maas/MOD) Standing Committee is hosting this webinar to provide an introduction to the world of on-demand transit. This introduction is for practitioners who work in the context of sustainable transportation but do not have direct experience with public transit planning. This webinar contains three presentations, starting with a high-level overview of on-demand transit and ending with a case study of an on-demand transit program.

The first presentation will provide an overview of the Canadian Urban Transit Association's On-Demand Transit Toolkit. This resource was created to help advise service design objectives, implementation strategies and other considerations for a municipality or transit system looking to provide on-demand transportation services, and includes different use cases of on-demand transit service based on case studies and current deployments from across Canada. Next, we will look at on-demand transit from the user's perspective, based on research conducted at UC Berkeley. This research considers equity, accessibility and the environmental impacts of Mobility-on-Demand services offered by public transportation agencies. The final presentation will cover the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority's Mobility on Demand program, an example an on demand transit service for paratransit customers.

Learning Objectives:

Describe on-demand micro transit
Identify on-demand transit planning resources and tools
Recognize the use-cases of on-demand transit
Understand on-demand transit from the users' perspective
Enhance knowledge through a case study of on-demand transit

Policies: The webinar recording will be made available on-demand it will have a shelf life of 60 days to register before it is archived. Participants are able to purchase and retrieve their PDH credit certificate until their access to the content expires. After the content expires and goes into archive, the PDH credit certificate opportunity is forfeited.

Contributors

Moderator: Erin Toop, Principal | Toop Consulting | Jasper, Alberta, Canada

Erin is a transportation planner and advisor who has supported numerous clients with conducting transit system reviews and developing public transportation plans and strategies. In early 2023, she founded Toop Consulting to create her own platform from which to provide public transportation and active transportation planning services and stakeholder engagement. Since 2010, Erin has been an ITE member and active volunteer. She received ITE's Young Member of the Year award in 2017.
David Cooper, Principal | Leading Mobility Consulting | Toronto, Ontario, Canada

David Cooper is the founder and principal of Leading Mobility, a transportation planning firm that offers strategic and planning support for public transit, infrastructure delivery, stakeholder support, and government relations projects and initiatives. Some of David's significant transportation contributions include: planning the Relief Line Subway and King Street Pilot in Toronto; procurement support for the Broadway Subway Project and development of TransLink's Battery-Electric bus program in Vancouver; implementation of LRT/BRT expansion and regional transit in Calgary. David authored the Canadian Urban Transit Association's COVID-19 National Recovery Strategy, a foundational plan which has helped to obtain emergency operational funding to maintain transit service during the acute stage of the pandemic. David recently supported CUTA and Metrolinx in the development of the first national On-Demand Transit Toolkit which is the focus of his presentation for the ITE webinar.
Emma Lucken, Multimodal Planning Specialist | Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States

Emma is a multimodal planning specialist at Ramsey County, Minnesota. She earned a PhD in transportation engineering at UC Berkeley, where her dissertation focused on the equity, accessibility, and environmental impacts of Mobility-on-Demand services offered by public transportation agencies. She has received the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, three FHWA Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation (DDETFP) Graduate Fellowships and DDETFP's Top PhD Student 2022, and WTS International sponsorship to attend the Eno Future Leaders Development Conference. Emma graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College with a B.A. in Environmental Science and Public Policy. She has worked as a transportation analyst for the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, as a construction liaison for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and as a shared mobility intern for the Strategic Initiatives Department at Twin Cities Metro Transit.
Bonnie Epstein, Director of Mobility Services | Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority | St. Petersburg, Florida, United States

Bonnie started at PSTA in 2015 in the Planning Department working on amenity projects, GIS mapping, and managing PSTA’s Mobility on Demand Programs. In May 2020, Bonnie became the Director of Mobility Services. The Mobility Team manages PSTA’s ADA paratransit program, the Transportation Disadvantaged Program, and Mobility on Demand Programs. Under her management, the Mobility Team rebranded PSTA’s ADA paratransit service to PSTA Access and introduced a new eligibility process that gives riders a better understanding of the services PSTA offers, including the Mobility on Demand program, which provides paratransit riders on demand service. Over the last three years, ridership on the Mobility on Demand has expanded and now two thirds of all paratransit trips are taken on demand, saving PSTA over $20,000 each month.

Description

Contributors

Moderator: Erin Toop, Principal | Toop Consulting | Jasper, Alberta, Canada

David Cooper, Principal | Leading Mobility Consulting | Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Emma Lucken, Multimodal Planning Specialist | Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States

Bonnie Epstein, Director of Mobility Services | Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority | St. Petersburg, Florida, United States