CIVIC-PG Track B: Mobility and Aging in Collaboration (MAGIC): A Transportation Platform for Older Adults

This Civic Innovation Challenge (CIVIC) Stage 1 project will fund research that addresses the pressing challenge of providing diverse transportation options for older adults (aged 65 and above). The goal is to create user-friendly tools and applications that help older adults find safe, reliable transportation to essential destinations like medical appointments, grocery stores, and recreational activities by leveraging existing community resources and social networks. Social networks play a crucial role in facilitating mobility for older adults, emphasizing the importance of community-based transportation solutions. By improving understanding of how these networks and resources influence transportation options, the research project will strive to develop new transportation solutions that better meet the daily needs of older adults. The research project, titled Mobility and Aging in Collaboration (MAGIC), aims to enhance the quality of life for older adults by increasing their accessibility to essential services, thereby promoting independence and well-being. Additionally, the project will foster partnerships among academia, transportation professionals, and civic operators, and provide educational opportunities for students from underrepresented groups in engineering. The overarching objective of this research project is to determine the degree of impact of a collaborative transportation service on the independence, well-being, and quality of life of older adults. This objective will be accomplished by developing and implementing a collaborative transportation platform for older adults. This platform will optimize the coordination of existing community resources and social networks to create a new collaborative mobility option by applying information technologies, artificial intelligence, and operations research techniques. The specific objective of this planning grant (Stage 1) is to strengthen collaborations with relevant stakeholders, clarify the roles of academic and civic team members, and refine the vision and plan for executing this research-centered pilot project. This research will advance our understanding of the potential of social networks and community resources in addressing transportation challenges faced by older adults. The project will also provide local transportation providers with a low-cost solution to integrate their services, addressing the resource allocation challenges they encounter when serving these disadvantaged demographics. This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program’s Track B. Bridging the gap between essential resources and services & community needs and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy. 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.