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Rural America, representing 97% of the U.S. land area, is home to 15% of the total U.S. population. Rural trips for commuting, shopping, health care, and community-based services have become increasingly longer in the past few decades. The project develops a holistic approach to address the mobility challenges in Greene County, a typical rural county in Southwestern Pennsylvania bordering West Virginia, and this approach can be replicable to all rural counties in the United States. Key to this is developing a capability that does not now exist in the United States, namely a "Rural County Mobility Platform" (RAMP) consisting of both an online platform and phone-based system for trip reservations, structured shuttle services, volunteer management, volunteer-request matching, and mobility information dissemination. This project helps in developing methods and algorithms to pilot a new hybrid service consisting of two complementary components: a volunteer-based ridesharing system and a highly structured shuttle service (not a typical fixed route, with flag stops). It also includes a new capability for more efficient data-driven operations of the existing Greene County Transportation Program and Waynesburg University shuttle services. Ultimately, the project will improve the overall energy efficiency of the local transportation system in meeting rural transportation needs.

For more information on this project, check the Technology Integration 2020 Annual Report or Annual Merit Review presentation.