SCC-CIVIC-PG Track A - The Lily Pad Neighborhood Mobility Hub Planning and Feasibility Study

The project is to study the feasibility and create a conceptual plan for a resilient neighborhood-based mobility hub in the Rockaways Peninsula, New York City. The mobility hub provides a single point of connectivity where different travel options: walking, biking, transit, and shared mobility – come together. It addresses the long standing challenges between location of affordable housing and jobs by providing lower cost transportation choices, as well as bridging connections to high-speed transit and jobs.

The mobility hub would also provide support for vulnerable residents by building resilient capacity to disasters. In times of crisis, the Hub would transform and support preparation, response, and recovery; providing key connections to critical emergency services.

The Rockaways was selected because of its mobility, housing, and social equity issues. It provides an ideal community for evaluating mobility options to solve long standing issues between housing affordability and jobs as it leverages New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)’s long term commitment to this community. The goals of this project are 1) through the use of community engagement and data gathering, create a feasible mobility program to connect the community, neighborhoods, isolated / vulnerable populations with affordable housing, jobs and critical services, 2) establish a functional plan and budget for implementing the mobility solutions pilot program.

The project directly addresses challenges of the CIVIC Innovation Challenge Track A: Communities and Mobility: Offering Better Mobility Options to Solve the Spatial Mismatch Between Housing Affordability and Jobs. CIVIC is a collaboration between the NSF, the Vehicle Transportation Office of the Department of Energy, and the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security.

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.