CISE-MSI: RCBP-RF: S&CC: Building a Smart Mobility Network for the San Antonio Transit to Improve Transit Service and Social Impact (SmartSAT)

Texas A&M University-San Antonio, San Antonio TX

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Public transportation connects people to their jobs, schools, medical and recreational facilities, friends, and family. Public transportation users in most American cities have disproportionately lower incomes than commuters who use automobiles. San Antonio (SA), TX, follows this trend, with 67% of public transit users falling below the poverty line. Providing reliable and accessible public transit will benefit all transit users and, therefore, promote the upward mobility, health, and wellness of all San Antonians. To improve the reliability of transit information and the quality of the rider experience, many transit authorities have developed smartphone apps. The public demand for public transportation smartphone apps is increasing in many urban areas, particularly among people in lower income brackets who primarily access the internet through their smartphones. However, maintaining sustainable, high-quality service and information on these apps is challenging. This SmartSAT project will develop a customizable secure mobile app for SA public transit that provides users with enhanced, accurate information about transit service and enables data collection to evaluate the impact of poverty, race, and ethnicity on the experience of transit users. The resulting SmartSAT project will (1) provide riders real-time information of arrival times and bus capacity with limited seats available, (2) build an in feedback on-trip experiences, (3) utilize intelligent technology and conduct data-driven decision making when analyzing data, (4) provide reliable and accessible transit with convenient and equal access to get places, and (5) integrate SA community stakeholders into a future smart and connected city in the long run. Researchers and students from diverse disciplines (sociology, computer science, cyber security, & information science) will work collaboratively to achieve project success. The outcomes of this project will primarily benefit low-income SA residents, especially the large Hispanic population. SmartSAT will ultimately improve SA mobile network infrastructure and connect more workers to jobs and workforce training, more students to educational opportunities, and more residents to social and leisure activities. It can impact the lives of public transit users, specifically, minority communities and lower income earners who make up most transit users. The built network can serve as a transferal model for similar metropolitan areas in advancing the mobility of public transportation services supported by data-driven decisions using intelligent technologies. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.