Free SEPTA for Students

In Whitehall, Montana, a senior center and a nonprofit that helps rehabilitate individuals with brain injuries joined together to enhance public transportation services for "multiple constiuencies," including rural, elderly populations and for those who are living with a disability. Although Whitehall Public Transportation was not immediately popular, in 2019, over 27,000 riders utilized this new, free service to run errands, travel to appointments and local events or just to meet other community members.

Los Angeles has faced deepening issues of severe traffic and extreme smog pollution in the past several decades, but for years intentions and promises to broadly improve transportation have fallen flat. At long last, the most congested city in the world - once home to the most extensive urban rail network on the planet - is reviving rail lines and trains as a solution to both issues. Robust public transport has proven to have multi-layered economic, cultural, environmental, and social benefits to communities.

Using AI technology, home address data, and algorithms, the Metro21 Institute at Carnegie Mellon was able to find the best school bus routes to deliver school meals to students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The solution wouldn’t have worked with the help of a community of partners, leaders, and volunteers. “It truly has taken a village.”

Data-driven transport can improve access and efficiency if properly implemented. In Shanghai, China, users benefit from customized bus routes designed by artificial intelligence software. Other countries, however, have discontinued pilots of programs similar to the one implemented in China. Elsewhere, in Innisfil, Ontario, a different kind of program helps to fill the gap in public transport--namely, subsidized Uber rides.

A well-designed algorithm can help increase the efficiency of complex, and troublesome, transportation systems. In 2017, Boston Public Schools hosted a competition to redesign its complicated bussing system. The selected proposal, an algorithm created by PhD students, increased efficiency by 20% overall, helping BPD cut tons of carbon emissions and ease budget constraints. The savings will allow BPD to reinvest in its schools.

When Sanjay Patel realized there was unused land and parking lots near many of Atlanta's MARTA stations, he had an idea - working with city partners, Patel built soccer fields in and adjacent to several stations, offsetting the growing price and travel demands of youth soccer and bucking the trend of declining public transportation ridership. Is a similar approach possible in Philadelphia, a city without the same vacant lots?

Turning land owned by transit agencies into transit-oriented housing developments creates opportunities for affordable housing. Instead of building another parking garage in Oakland, California, community leaders and The Unity Council nonprofit petitioned for the construction of a multi-use development that combines affordable housing units, retail spaces, and even social services. The Fruitvale Village serves as a model for future affording housing developments on BART land, or on land owned by public transit agencies in other cities.

In Bengaluru, switching from rickshaws to electric autos could help reduce noise pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 0.11 million tons each year. But the policies that encourage electric autos only exist, largely, on paper.

Japan is taking major steps to putting autonomous buses on the roads in rural areas because there is a need for reliable transportation and not enough funding as more young people move to the cities. It has the potential to save labor costs and provide more reliable transportation options while delivering necessary data to companies looking to expand driverless technology. However, this also requires more detailed mapping, which is often not available for smaller and more rural roads.

Finland is at the forefront of conceptualizing mobility as a service. In Helsinki, citizens are getting rid of their cars and using Whim instead. The app gives users unlimited access to all transport options (bus, train, bike, taxi, and car) for a single monthly subscription.