Sustainable On-Demand Transit

NREL works in partnership with communities and transit agencies across the nation and beyond to support and evaluate customized on-demand transit solutions.

Mobility researchers advise communities on technology and system designs in tandem with data gathering and analysis to assess the effectiveness of on-demand transit operations. Key considerations in NREL's analyses include cost, travel time, fuel use, emissions, accessibility, ridership, and customer satisfaction.

Reshaping Mobility Access

A graphic shaped like a circle with four quadrants, with a hand tapping a smartphone in the middle. In the top right quadrant is a person holding a phone standing with a shopping cart in front of a hospital and a store, near an on-demand mobility shuttle plugged into an electric vehicle charger. In the bottom right is a person holding a phone sitting at a bus stop with a person riding a scooter nearby, an approaching transit bus, and a departing on-demand mobility vehicle. In the bottom left is a schoolhouse with two people playing soccer, a person riding a cargo e-bike, and an on-demand mobility vehicle. In the top left quadrant is a wheelchair user with a phone in their hand boarding an on-demand mobility vehicle, with a house in the foreground and a barn and silo in the background. — On-demand transit offers a customized, accessible, and efficient mobility solution. *Graphic by Cameron Nelson, NREL*

Akin to ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft, on-demand transit (also known as on-demand mobility or microtransit) offers flexible, point-to-point, shared transportation. It can reshape mobility access for underserved communities, especially for older adults, children, people with disabilities, and households with limited or no access to private vehicles.

On-demand transit offers an accessible and scalable public transportation option in diverse areas—such as rural and small communities—where traditional public transit services may be lacking or fixed-route services are incompatible with the area's sparse population and demand patterns. Such deficiencies can result in mobility challenges for residents who need access to jobs, healthcare, childcare, and other essential services. NREL analysis results based on real-world projects show that on-demand transit can effectively meet the needs of these populations by providing affordable and equitable transportation.

Meanwhile, in suburban and urban areas, on-demand transit can improve regional accessibility by providing first-mile/last-mile connections to traditional transit services as well as short, high-frequency trips to meet day-to-day needs within the community.

Designing Accessible, Efficient, and Affordable Mobility

Shared rides can be hailed via smartphone app, website, or telephone, and payments can be made with cash, credit card, or reloadable smart card. This flexibility enables equitable access to individuals who lack cell phones or bank accounts.

According to NREL analysis, on-demand transit typically offers shorter ride and wait times than traditional fixed-route transit—particularly in low-density areas such as suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas. It can also lead to lower operating and ridership costs as well as reduced fuel use and emissions in these contexts. This is due in part to the use of vehicles that are "rightsized" to demand—for example, vans or shuttle buses seating up to six passengers versus larger diesel buses—along with reductions in the number of trips taken by single-occupancy vehicles and unfilled buses.

To further reduce costs and emissions, NREL is exploring the integration of fully electric and hybrid electric vehicles alongside innovative micromobility solutions such as e-bikes and e-scooters.

Creating an Evaluation Framework for On-Demand Mobility

NREL has identified key criteria to track and measure for evaluating the effectiveness of on-demand transit systems:

System operations – Dispatch and route planning, hours of operation, and annual budget
Vehicle fleet – Fleet composition, origin-destination pairs, vehicle miles traveled, and environmental impacts (i.e., energy and emissions)
Ridership – Ridership numbers, passenger wait and travel time, demographics, and passenger satisfaction
System operational efficiency – Percentage of shared rides, trip cancellation rate, number of passengers per day per vehicle, and trip denial rate.

Communities and transit agencies can employ this evaluation framework along with lessons learned from real-world projects, described below, to inform the design and evaluation of on-demand transit solutions for their regions.

Publications

These publications offer insight and results from on-demand transit projects across the continental United States along with communities in Puerto Rico and Canada.

Mobility Energy Productivity Evaluation of On-Demand Transit: A Case Study in Arlington, Texas, Transportation Research Record (2024)

The Transportation Research Board recognized the authors of this article with the William W. Millar Award for best paper in the area of public transportation.

Community Public Mobility Using On-Demand, Low-Speed Electric Vehicles: A Case Study in Downtown St. Louis, Missouri, Transportation Research Record (2024)

A Mobility Energy Productivity Evaluation of On-Demand Transit: A Case Study in Arlington, Texas, NREL Presentation (2024)

Sustainable Public Transport: Providing Responsive, On-Demand Service With Clean Energy, NREL Presentation (2024)

Fort Erie On-Demand Transit Case Study, NREL Technical Report (2023)

Fort Erie Case Study: Transition from Fixed-Route to On-Demand Transit, NREL Presentation (2023)

Sustainability, Scalability, and Resiliency of the Town of Innisfil Mobility-On-Demand Experiment: Preliminary Results, Analyses, and Lessons Learned, ASCE International Conference on Transportation and Development (2022)

Contact

Rural Mobility Project Lead and Transportation Behavior Analyst

Andrew.Duvall@nrel.gov
303-275-4783