USDOT's Mobility on Demand Sandbox Demonstration Provides Lessons Learned from Pilot that Offered Free First and Last Mile Service Connection Trips for Transit Users.
Tacoma, Washington, United States
Mobility on Demand (MOD) Sandbox Demonstration: Limited Access Connections
Summary Information
Pierce Transit’s Limited Access Connections (LAC) project provides first/last mile services within a transit agency service area via rideshare partners. The project initially included a wide array of rideshare partners, but eventually the service was narrowed for most users to access free trips through one transportation network company (TNC). Pierce Transit collected data for 8,827 trips from 330 unique users over a 19-month pilot period from May 2018 to December 2019. A user survey, including questions on trip making using LAC, was developed in June 2019 and distributed via email with a sample size of 222. The results from the study give stakeholders insight on lessons learned from the project pilot.
- Communicating and interviewing project staff at other transit agencies is a key part of hosting first/last mile partnerships, and helps foster best practices for project design.
- Reviewing TNC and transit partnership documentation can provide templates for agreements, policy development, and operational guides.
- Connecting with legal counsel from other transit agencies to retrieve information on risk, type, and amount of data available to share can speed up the negotiation process.
- It is important to be sure the grantee has access to contact information for all study participants throughout the life of the project to gather user input and feedback to avoid complications and delay in establishing agreements between the transit agency and TNCs or TNCs and independent evaluators.
- It is critical that partners involved in a first/last mile pilot project agree early on in the process to the type, granularity, and amount of data needed to measure performance and demonstrate success.
