Award Abstract # 2045999
CAREER: How Transportation User Experiences Shape Future Behavior: Learning from the Past

NSF Org: CMMI
Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation
Recipient: OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE
Initial Amendment Date: February 19, 2021
Latest Amendment Date: May 21, 2024
Award Number: 2045999
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Daan Liang
dliang@nsf.gov
 (703)292-2441
CMMI
 Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation
ENG
 Directorate for Engineering
Start Date: June 15, 2021
End Date: May 31, 2026 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $655,624.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $703,528.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2021 = $655,624.00
FY 2023 = $39,904.00

FY 2024 = $8,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Andre Carrel (Principal Investigator)
    carrel.20@osu.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Ohio State University
1960 KENNY RD
COLUMBUS
OH  US  43210-1016
(614)688-8735
Sponsor Congressional District: 03
Primary Place of Performance: Ohio State University
Office of Sponsored Programs
Columbus
OH  US  43210-1016
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
03
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): DLWBSLWAJWR1
Parent UEI: MN4MDDMN8529
NSF Program(s): CAREER: FACULTY EARLY CAR DEV,
GOALI-Grnt Opp Acad Lia wIndus,
CIS-Civil Infrastructure Syst
Primary Program Source: 01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01002425DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002122DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 019Z, 029E, 1045, 1057, 116E, 1504, 9178, 9231, 9251
Program Element Code(s): 104500, 150400, 163100
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.041

ABSTRACT

This Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award supports foundational behavioral research to understand what drives shifts from lifestyles oriented toward sustainable transportation modes ? transit in particular ? to auto-oriented lifestyles. Despite the critical importance of urban transportation systems that are affordable, reduce congestion, and are associated with low greenhouse gas emissions, developments over the last decade suggest that many multi-modal travelers eventually migrate to single-occupancy automobile travel. A key to understanding these shifts may be the way in which past travel experiences, satisfaction with travel, and subjective well-being during travel shape future traveler decision-making, but these effects are not sufficiently captured by current modeling approaches. This research develops a novel analytical framework to model and forecast such feedback effects, which will lead to a richer understanding of the long-term dynamics of urban travel and an improvement of travel demand forecasting tools. Thus, the research supports the development of policies and infrastructure investment decisions that aim to increase the environmental and social sustainability of urban travel and the provision and maintenance of high-quality public transportation services. Such efforts are central to providing accessible and affordable transportation options and access to opportunities to communities of concern, to meeting climate goals, and to enhancing the nation?s economic resilience. The research activities are integrated with educational activities to improve critical skills of transportation engineering students and build early excitement and awareness of transportation engineering among elementary school students in Columbus, Ohio. Comprehensive outreach activities engage transit practitioners early and throughout the project and ensure the relevance and applicability of the research to practice.

Based on prior research, several behavioral mechanisms are hypothesized through which past travel experiences, satisfaction with travel, and subjective well-being (SWB) during travel shape future travel behavior. These mechanisms are investigated using detailed travel diary data from multi-modal travelers in a major US metropolitan area and appropriate econometric models. The novelty of this research lies in that, for the first time, the dynamics between satisfaction/SWB, beliefs, and choices are systematically studied. The research focuses on transit use but aims to derive generalizable insights about behavioral processes that tie in with the scientific community?s theoretical conceptualization of traveler choices. This supports the transformation of the field toward an emerging, holistic model that adds affective components to the traditional neoclassical economic elements of the traveler choice framework. The results will be translated into novel performance metrics that can be used by transit agencies and metropolitan planning organizations to quantify the link between transit service quality and passenger behavior and to better quantify the impacts of public funding for transit.

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.

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