AECOM launches New Tech for Pandemic Response

AECOM launched Mobilitics™ for Pandemic Response, an updated version of its groundbreaking transportation scenario-planning tool originally launched in 2018.

The latest iteration helps transit agencies, departments of transportation, and other clients across the U.S. assess how pandemic infection rates, stay at home orders, availability and deployment of a vaccine, economic recovery and re-opening, and other factors are expected to impact transportation patterns, to help clients better recover and strengthen resiliency.

The transportation industry is experiencing profound transformations, from changes in travel patterns and behaviors due to the global pandemic, to technology advances in vehicle communication and automation, to teleworking and increased e-commerce. Several of AECOM’s transportation clients are already using Mobilitics to better understand how these complex and interrelated factors may impact future mobility and help inform service and capital planning decisions today.

Mobilitics in action:

• Seamless Bay Area: AECOM teamed with Seamless Bay Area to develop a scenario planning tool and approach to evaluating and envisioning an integrated, people-focused, and equitable plan for a transit system recovery for the San Francisco Bay Area. Mobilitics is being used to understand how different levels of transit network optimization and funding may impact future transportation patterns and accessibility. Additionally, the team is helping communicate the vision to policymakers and the public to build support for near, medium, and long-term funding and policy reforms.
• New Jersey Transit: To provide actionable and results-oriented analysis and a better understanding of COVID-19’s impacts on New Jersey Transit, AECOM is using Mobilitics for scenario planning to forecast possible ridership and revenue under different recovery and return to service scenarios. This analysis includes regular updates to incorporate actual ridership and the pace of recovery to understand how that changes the trajectory of ridership on bus, rail, and light rail.
• Northern Virginia Transportation Authority: With the goal of exploring impacts to operating conditions and investment considerations for future transportation projects, AECOM is providing services to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on travel behavior and return to service. The work involves developing four scenarios and performance analysis to help inform policy decisions and regional recovery efforts.

"Proactive planning is needed to understand how these changes will affect our cities, and how we can help channel emerging technologies to best meet community goals,” said Jannet Walker-Ford, sr. VP, AECOM Transportation. “We’re proud to be able to quickly adapt existing solutions to help our clients analyze these changes, their impacts, and how they can best prepare to usher in a new era in transportation. By considering multiple future scenarios, Mobilitics highlights the associated range of outcomes that could occur, allowing communities to make smart investment decisions even in the face of uncertainty.”

To learn more about Mobilitics, click here.