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CAPSTONE PROJECT REPORT Technical Report Documentation Page 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient’s Catalog No. N/A N/A N/A 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date School Transportation Equity for Vulnerable Student Populations through 2020 Ridehailing: An Analysis of HopSkipDrive and Other Trips to School in Los Angeles 6. Performing Organization Code County UCLA-ITS 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No. Samuel Speroni LAS2004 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. Institute of Transportation Studies, UCLA N/A 3320 Public Affairs Building 11. Contract or Grant No. Los Angeles, CA 90095-1656 N/A 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies Final www.its.ucla.edu 14. Sponsoring Agency Code UC ITS 15. Supplementary Notes DOI: doi:10.17610/T6530N 16. Abstract The Every Student Succeeds Act (2015) gave foster youth additional legal protections in school, including the right to transportation and the right to remain at their school despite any moves, similar to protections already in place for students experiencing homelessness and students with disabilities. California’s compliance with this mandate was relatively more difficult than other states’, as less than ten percent of students in California travel by school bus, compared with 35 percent nationally. Thus, California schools could not simply tap into their existing services to provide transportation for foster youth. Ridehailing offers a solution to this gap. HopSkipDrive, a ridehailing company designed to transport children, engages in contracts with school districts and county governments to provide school transportation for these vulnerable student populations. In 2018–2019, HopSkipDrive provided 32,796 trips to school in Los Angeles County, with massive time savings over the logical alterative: transit. Using Google’s Directions API, I determine that HopSkipDrive offers time savings of nearly 70 percent compared with the same trips simulated on transit. HopSkipDrive’s trips average 28 minutes in duration, yet on transit only 30 percent would have taken less than 45 minutes. This is despite 90 percent of all origins and destinations being located within a half-mile of a transit stop. This service has important social equity implications beyond just time savings offered to vulnerable student populations, as HopSkipDrive contract trips tend to originate in neighborhoods with high percentages of low-income households and people of color. 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement new mobility, school transportation, equity, mobility as a service No restrictions. 19. Security Classif. (of this report) 20. Security Classif. (of this page) 21. No. of Pages 22. Price Unclassified Unclassified N/A Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed page authorized School Transportation Equity for Vulnerable Student Populations through Ridehailing An Analysis of HopSkipDrive and Other Trips to School in Los Angeles County Samuel Speroni University of California, Los Angeles Meyer and Renee Luskin School of Public Affairs Department of Urban Planning Applied Planning Research Project A comprehensive project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Urban and Regional Planning. Client: HopSkipDrive, Inc. Client representative: Qiana Patterson, Vice President for Strategic Development Faculty supervisor: Dr. Evelyn Blumenberg, Professor of Urban Planning and Director of the Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies June 2, 2020 Speroni i Table of Contents Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................... v 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 2. Background and Context ..................................................................................................... 3 2.1. School Travel Policy .................................................................................................................. 3 2.2. HopSkipDrive ............................................................................................................................ 5 3. Literature Review ................................................................................................................. 8 3.1. Travel to School ......................................................................................................................... 8 3.2. Ridehailing ............................................................................................................................... 14 3.3. Filling a Gap in the Literature ............................................................................................... 17 4. Data and Methodology ...................................................................................................... 18 4.1. Geographic Context ................................................................................................................ 19 4.2. Obtaining School Trip Data ................................................................................................... 19 4.3. School Travel in Los Angeles County ................................................................................... 20 4.4. HopSkipDrive Data ................................................................................................................. 21 4.5. Differences between HopSkipDrive and other Ridehailing Analyses .............................. 25 5. Descriptive Statistics and Spatial Analysis Findings ........................................................ 28 5.1. Statistics for Travel to High School ...................................................................................... 28 5.2. Spatial Patterns of HopSkipDrive Trips ............................................................................... 31 5.3. Sociodemographic and Neighborhood Traits ..................................................................... 37 5.4. Spatial Analysis of Neighborhood Traits ............................................................................. 42 6. Modal Comparison Findings ............................................................................................. 46 6.1. Trip Statistics Comparison .................................................................................................... 47 6.2. Spatial Analysis of Simulated Transit Trips and Modal Differences ............................... 51 7. Discussion of Findings and Implications .......................................................................... 54 7.1. The California Context ........................................................................................................... 54 7.2. Racial and Socioeconomic Transportation Equity ............................................................. 56 7.3. Educational Equity .................................................................................................................. 57 7.4. Mutually-Beneficial Partnerships ......................................................................................... 59 8. Policy Recommendations and Conclusion ....................................................................... 61 8.1. Recommendations ................................................................................................................... 61 8.2. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 63 9. Appendix ............................................................................................................................ 64 10. References .......................................................................................................................... 82 ii School Transportation Equity for Vulnerable Student Populations through Ridehailing List of Figures Figure 1: Comparison of Average Distance (mi.) ................................................................................. 31 Figure 2: Comparison of Average Duration (min.) .............................................................................. 31 Figure 3: HopSkipDrive Trip Origins and Destinations ...................................................................... 32 Figure 4: Maps of Origins and Destinations by HopSkipDrive Trip Type ....................................... 34 Figure 5: All HopSkipDrive Trips Average Durations by Census Tract of Origin .......................... 35 Figure 6: All HopSkipDrive Trips Average Durations by Census Tract of Destination ................. 36 Figure 7: All HopSkipDrive Trip Destinations and Number of Nearby High Schools ................... 37 Figure 8: Maps of HopSkipDrive Origins by Trip Type and Median Household Income ............. 43 Figure 9: Maps of HopSkipDrive Trip Type and Percent Non-White Residents ............................ 43 Figure 10: Maps of HopSkipDrive Trip Type and Percent without HS Diploma ............................ 44 Figure 11: Maps of HopSkipDrive Trip Type and Ratio Private : Public Students .......................... 44 Figure 12: Duration Comparison of HopSkipDrive Trips and Simulated Transit Trips ................ 48 Figure 13: Map of Simulated Transit Trip Durations by Origin Census Tract ................................ 51 Figure 14: Map of Simulated Transit Trip Durations by Destination Census Tract