Greening the commute: A case study of demand for employer-sponsored microtransit

Demand-responsive, pooled, app-based transportation services, often known as microtransit, fill a gap in providing public transportation where fixed-route transit services are weak. While prior research mostly focused on public-access microtransit services, little is known about the potential of restricted-access, employer-sponsored services to achieve mode shifts away from driving. This study investigates the possible use of employer-sponsored microtransit service by commuters who currently drive to work, using data from a stated choice experiment conducted at a major medical center in Columbus, Ohio. The results reveal a considerable interest in a hypothetical microtransit commuter service among medical center employees, with on average 29.6% of them shifting from car to microtransit. Overall, relatively few sociodemographic characteristics are found to correlate with interest in employer-sponsored microtransit use, but income, status as a shift worker, and a desire to work while commuting are found to affect choice. Valuations of in-vehicle travel time, flexibility in drop-off/pick-up time, and stop location are calculated and compared to prior results from the transit literature. Such valuations can serve as inputs for optimization models to design microtransit systems. Furthermore, respondents’ potential concerns about a microtransit service and reactions to proposed incentive schemes are analyzed. The study results highlight the value of combining employer-sponsored microtransit implementations with transportation demand management strategies that reduce the attractiveness of commuting by car. The findings suggest that employer-sponsored microtransit represents an opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and congestion in an industry sector that employs 6.6 million workers in the US.