SCC-CIVIC-PG Track A: User-Centered Mobility Solutions (UCMS): A New Vision to Connect Jobs and the Labor Force

A long-standing spatial mismatch has received significant attention between predominantly African American neighborhoods in the central city of Milwaukee and a large suburban employment center 15 miles northwest. Conventional fixed-route bus services were implemented but determined to be inefficient, so they were discontinued. Thus, the labor force (including employed workers and unemployed workers who are actively looking for jobs) and employers continue to struggle with the spatial mismatch. By adopting a fundamentally different approach that is bottom-up—focusing on the core users and their respective needs, this CIVIC Planning Grant (PG) will develop two pilot programs of User-Centered Mobility Solutions (UCMS), which integrate new mobility technologies, including transport network companies (TNCs) and micro-transit (e.g., Via), to directly address mobility needs of two types of core users—the labor force and employers. If successful, this project will serve as a new user-centered model for other U.S. metropolitan areas with significant spatial mismatches.