As a part of its smart city initiative, Hanson has partnered with the Greater Peoria Mass Transit District to determine how on-demand, microtransit solutions could be used to improve first- and last-mile mobility and increase fixed-route transit ridership within the Peoria, Illinois, urbanized area. The study has received $75,000 from the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Statewide Planning and Research Funds program.
With the goal of developing a vision to implement a microtransit pilot in the Peoria region, the team will research best practices and lessons learned from other urbanized areas developing the service as well as explore the potential to use different modes of transportation, varying from scooter or bike sharing, shuttles or vans and connected and autonomous shuttles or vans.
Recommendations for the plan will include the area best suited for a microtransit pilot and creating key performance indicators that relate the cost to improvements in mobility, social equity caused by more transportation options and the ability of the system to optimize operations while increasing ridership on fixed routes.