Title
Community Micromobility Deployment
Fort Smith, AR
Contact
PROJECT LEAD
Suman Mitra
CONTACT INFO
- skmitra@uark.edu
THE IDEA
The Fort Smith team implemented SMILIES, a bikeshare program tailored to small- to mid-sized municipalities and focused on providing transportation options to low-income communities.
THE CHALLENGE
SMILIES ((Shared Micromobility for affordabLe-accessIble houSing) addresses access to jobs, critical goods, and services for low-income residents of small and mid-sized communities by implementing a bikeshare service accessible to unbanked populations. More than 65% of lower-income families report challenges accessing efficient and affordable transportation. The deployment of a community-based bikeshare system provides low-cost, alternative transportation options for residents of affordable housing communities.
THE TEAM
Research Partners
- University of Arkansas
- Arkansas Colleges of Health Education
Civic partners:
- The City of Fort Smith
- Frontier MPO
- Westerns Arkansas Planning & Development District
- Fort Smith Public Library
- Tandem Mobility
- Champion Cycling
THE APPROACH
The research team designed a bikeshare system called ‘Ride 4 Smilies’ based on community feedback for payment design, station location, and cost structure. Bike station locations are optimized to bridge the gap between home, work, and transit stops, serving as last-mile transportation options, and the team developed a citizen scientist-based feedback system for bikeshare system improvement of station location, cost structure, and bike infrastructure.
THE IMPACT
‘Ride 4 Smilies’ currently operates 8 stations with 40 bikes, located mostly in lower-income neighborhoods. Around 70% of current riders are from lower-income households (<$35,000), who use it for work, shopping, and recreational purposes.