Electric Mobility as a Service in Disadvantaged Communities
Members of underserved communities face a range of transportation issues that disconnect them from resources and opportunities, including many health problems arising from the current models of transportation. Livingston intends to enable these communities to participate in the electrification movement of transportation by providing and incentivizing the use of interconnected electric car-share, van-share, ride-share and bike-share and charging infrastructure in the neighborhoods that have been left out of the deployment. In order for our shared electric mobility program to succeed, Livingston will include community members as advocates for the program, listen and implement evaluations and feedback, and create partnership with proven success record. To ensure that the project is proving the right e-transportation solution and improves the community access to jobs and resources, reduces GHG emissions, and stimulates an increase in purchasing electric vehicles, Livingston will use metrics and continue to survey the community and obtain feedback.
No matter where an underserved community is located, their transportation needs are not met. To respond to the different needs of these communities, our team will create a variety of transportation solutions that can easily apply to every group we want to serve, and a software platform that will be used to operate the electric vehicle charging station (EVCS) and the shared e-mobility program.
The shared e-mobility program will offer electric vehicles that will be used as carshare upon reservation, electric vans for larger groups, a possibility for EV drivers to offer rideshare with their electric vehicles, and shared electric bikes.
Riders in underserved communities will receive tokens that can be used to incentivize drivers to prioritize them, while drivers can use the tokens they receive from riders to get discounted charging.
Besides connecting drivers and riders, the mobile app will serve as an educational platform to increase EV support and awareness about EVs, provide information on free EV rides when available (to community events and organizations) , and other EV related news, opportunities and benefits.
The app will also include a goods delivery coordination system for users/service-providers.
We anticipate reaching communities in urban, suburban and rural areas not well-served by current public transit and we will measure our success by the number of people served and tokens used through the shared mobility program in these areas. Our solution will impact disadvantaged communities by allowing them to reach jobs farther away, decrease fossil fuel consumption and making it easier to reach basic services.