Do ridesharing transportation services alleviate traffic crashes? A time series analysis.

OBJECTIVES: On-demand ridesharing services are suggested to provide several benefits, such as improving accessibility and mobility, reducing drive-alone trips and greenhouse gas emissions. However, the impacts of these services on traffic crashes are not completely clear. This paper investigates the availability of Via- an on-demand ridesharing service in Arlington, TX, to identify the effects of this service on traffic crashes. We hypothesize that the launch of Via would result in more shared rides, fewer drive-alone trips and fewer traffic crashes. METHODS: We implement an Interrupted Time Series Analysis (ITSA) approach to study the impact of Via service availability on traffic crashes using weekly counts of all traffic crashes, the number of injuries, and serious injuries that occurred in Arlington from 2014 to 2021. RESULTS: The results show a statistically significant reduction in the weekly number of total crashes and total injuries but do not show any significant impact on the number of serious injuries. Shared Autonomous Vehicles have the potential to reduce traffic crashes caused by driver's fault. CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals the potential impacts ridesharing services can have on traffic crashes and injuries in a mid-sized city. The results of this study can help decision and policymakers to understand the full potential of ridesharing services that can contribute to making relevant decisions toward creating sustainable and safer transportation systems in cities.

Communicating Climate Change: Lessons Learned from a Researcher-Museum Collaboration.

The need for science education and outreach is great. However, despite the ever-growing body of available scientific information, facts are often misrepresented to or misunderstood by the general public. This can result in uninformed decisions that negatively impact society at both individual and community levels. One solution to this problem is to make scientific information more available to the public through outreach programs. Most outreach programs, however, focus on health initiatives, STEM programs, or young audiences exclusively. This article describes a collaboration between the Research and Learning Center at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History and an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metroplex area. The collaboration was a pilot effort of a science communication fellowship and was designed to train researchers to effectively convey current science information to the public with a focus on lifelong learning. We focus on the broader idea of a university-museum collaboration that bridges the science communication gap as we outline the process of forming this collaboration, lessons we learned from the process, and directions that can support future collaborations.