Sustainability, Scalability, and Resiliency of the Town of Innisfil Mobility-on-Demand Experiment: Preliminary Results, Analyses, and Lessons Learned

Weigl, Dustin; Sperling, Joshua; Henao, Alejandro; Duvall, Andrew; Young, Stanley

doi:10.1061/9780784484340.022

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…This study was motivated by a desire to explore and document the impacts of Fort Erie's successful transition from fixed-route transit using diesel buses to on-demand transit (ODT) using light-duty minivans. Recognizing that the Fort Erie transition had not been previously documented in the published literature, this work was also motivated by prior efforts exploring a nearby on-demand pilot in Innisfil, Ontario [3]. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) team collaborated with Fort Erie Transit and its partners to collect information, present an overview of the on-demand transit service's implementation, and analyze impacts with respect to cost, energy, emissions, ridership, and customer satisfaction.…”

Section: Methods and Organizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other communities have adopted similar on-demand systems with various business models. The town of Innisfil, Ontario, partnered with Uber in 2017 for an effective outsourced ODT system [3]. According to interviews with employees of the town of Fort Erie, Fort Erie considered such a partnership, but there are few Uber drivers in the Fort Erie area.…”

Section: Implementation Of the Fort Erie On-demand Transit Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fort Erie On-Demand Transit Case Study

Powell¹,

Endsley²,

Young³

et al. 2023

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Rural and smaller-sized communities in North America face unique mobility challenges due to their low population density, lower public transit spending per capita compared to major cities, and a high reliance on private vehicles. In recent years, communities such as Fort Erie, Ontario, have restructured or advanced their public transit systems using on-demand services. Fort Erie is a relatively sparsely populated region of 32,901 residents, spread across a land area of 166 square kilometers (64 square miles), for an average population density of 198 residents per square kilometer (514 per square mile). In October 2021, the town implemented a mobility-ondemand system integrated with smartphone software to replace its fixed-route community bus system, which consisted of four buses with three routes, each with a roughly 1-hour, one-way loop. The new service utilizes a fleet of six minivans, two of which are retrofitted with wheelchair-accessible ramps. The system may require that a passenger requesting a standard van walk up to 400 meters (a quarter mile) to their pickup location to optimize vehicle routing while providing origin-to-destination service. The on-demand system proved effective in providing service, eclipsing pre-pandemic ridership by 40%, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions per ride by 63%, and decreasing the cost to the town per ride by 29%. This report documents both the previous system and the new system in terms of routes, ridership, costs, fuel, and other notable system parameters. This work is part of an ongoing series of case studies on providing small communities with on-demand, right-sized vehicle service coupled with a smartphone application. vi This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at www.nrel.gov/publications.

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Section: Methods and Organizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Implementation Of the Fort Erie On-demand Transit Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fort Erie On-Demand Transit Case Study

Powell¹,

Endsley²,

Young³

et al. 2023

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“…One of the most significant differences between the operation of the standard Uber service and Innisfil Transit is that all riders must opt in to having their rides pooled (although not every trip will be matched for pooling). Innisfil found that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (November 2019), more than 50% of trips were pooled-significantly higher than the 17% match rate for traditional ridehailing operations in Chicago, despite the larger city's higher population density (Weigl et al 2022). Analysis of Innisfil Transit performance compared to estimated bus system performance found that the partnership with Uber resulted in significantly higher quality of service at a lower cost and with reduced emissions per trip.…”

Section: Innisfil Ontario Uber Partnershipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electric Mobility Opportunities for Brooklyn Park, Minnesota

Weigl,

Bopp,

Rosner

2024

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The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Communities LEAP pilot partners with low-income, energyburdened communities that experience environmental justice challenges and/or direct economic impacts from reducing their historical reliance on fossil fuels to build community-driven action plans for clean energy-related economic development. Through this program, DOE provides customized, high quality technical assistance to competitively selected communities to develop clean energyrelated economic development pathways. In each community, coalitions of local partners, including at least one local government partner and one community-based organization, contribute to project oversight and delivery. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the primary technical assistance provider, delivering technical expertise and supporting community engagement, as well as managing the overall network of TA providers.

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