Examining the Post-Pandemic Role of Shared Micromobility: A Study of Travel Behavior, Policy, and Equity in Motion

Abstract

Since the start of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, travel behavior has changed in unprecedented ways. Additionally, with the rise of new variants of the virus and with heightened priorities on social distancing, it is important that new transportation alternatives be introduced to mitigate fears of travel and to prevent further reliance on private vehicles, both of which could result in significant envi-ronmental, economic, and societal consequences. In light of this, this thesis studies shared micromobility systems, a mode of transportation that is especially compelling for a post-pandemic society.

Through a series of three experiments, this work: 1) demonstrates how shared micromobility ridership demand and behavior has changed throughout the pandemic; 2) identifies factors linked to ridership changes and measures the impact of micro-mobility providers’ promotions implemented during the pandemic; and 3) proposes a set of novel fairness metrics to assess the equality of outcomes in micromobility trips while illustrating the tradeoffs between location privacy and fairness metric accuracy.

Notable results from these experiments include a transition away from pre- pan-demic peak ridership patterns around 7-9 am and 5-7 pm and towards a more steady increase in ridership throughout the morning to afternoon periods. Moreover, travel time was frequently found to be comparable between public transit and shared mi-cromobility modes for specific central urban neighborhoods with the latter leading to shorter trips in many areas.

Further, spatial lag and ordinary least squares regression analyses demonstrated both persistent and temporary changes in factors correlated with micromobility rid-ership. Two meaningful examples include the steady decrease in correlation - as measured by the magnitude of regression coefficients - for the female population and the initial spike and subsequent decline in the coefficients for communities of color. Changes for other significant variables were also explored and interpreted.

The last experiment applied concepts of equality from various fields, including economics, computer science, and transportation, to define a set of fairness metrics with which micromobility trips can be evaluated. The effect of processing such trip data through a geo-indistinguishability privacy mechanism was then analyzed by its impact on these fairness measures. The results of this third study demonstrated that a reasonable degree of privacy can be secured without entirely compromising the utility of micromobility data in assessing how fair such systems may be.

Motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic, this thesis explores its effects on shared micromobility systems in terms of demand, policies to encourage ridership, and fac-tors affecting use. From this, it theorizes how these systems can be considered and evaluated by policy-makers and city planners looking to adapt to how the pandemic has radically altered travel behavior and urban mobility. For this purpose, this work highlights important consequences that should be addressed and regulated for in or-der to not only meets the new or exacerbated needs of communities impacted by the coronavirus but to do so in an equitable way for all riders.