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New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior

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Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior

#61

Post by isostatic »

QAPereo wrote: post #7
orasis wrote: post #3

Congestion pricing for use of city streets would quickly solve any problems due to increased use.

Did it in London?

In London taxis are classed as public transport - don't have to pay congestion charges, and the legacy expensive cash-only ones can use bus lanes (but not south of the river at this time of night).

The upshot of this is its far cheaper to park outside and get a taxi from outside the zone than to drive all the way in, despite not saving on congestion. The reason it didn't used to be as easy was black cabs are an archaic unreliable form of transport. Uber in the other hand is more convienient than driving and parking.

Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior

#62

Post by criddell »

so33 wrote: post #46
cdoxsey wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buses are subsidized too.

Buses are indeed subsidized. But which routes? I bet that the most popular bus routes, the ones that are always packed to the gills, make money. What buses are subsidizing are the unpopular bus routes, the ones whose goal is to increase mobility for those who would otherwise not have it, such as night routes or relatively infrequent peak-hour commuter routes. Those cost a lot to run, and ride-hailing has the luxury o…

> Those cost a lot to run, and ride-hailing has the luxury of not having to run those routes.

It might make sense for some cities to stop running buses on those routes and instead pay a private company. Imagine being able to book an Uber or Lyft ride and still only paying the $2.50 fare. Maybe it would be cheaper for the city and more convenient for users?

Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior

#63

Post by cygaril »

bartread wrote: post #40
yardie wrote: post #18

I’m a big proponent of mass transit and when it’s available I use it if I can. But I can get Lyft door to door for just $1-2 more than a bus or train. If mass transit wants to keep with rideshare and livery they need to: expand routes, increase availability, update their equipment. When I was a kid I knew how to read a bus schedule and train map to plan my trip. Now, there is an entire generation of kids in school an…

You make a good point here, and mass transit has done the square root of bugger all to improve accessibility for a new generation. For example: I live in the countryside and want to get a bus into town. Fair enough but sometimes the buses run late, and sometimes they run really late - like half an hour plus. I often don't have that kind of time to waste, especially not if it means standing or sitting around in the ra…

London has online live bus information, but not live tracking. It's still very useful though.

https://tfl.gov.uk/bus/stop/490013766E/trafalgar-square-char...

Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior

#64

Post by bo1024 »

jessriedel wrote: post #24
otterley wrote: post #9

Link to the actual report: https://itspubs.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/themes/ucdavis/pubs/d... What it actually says: "Directionally, based on mode substitution and ride-hailing frequency of use data, we conclude that ride-hailing is currently _likely to_ contribute to growth in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the major cities represented in this study." (Emphasis mine)

Are there realistic situations where a cheaper and more convenient form of driven transport leads to fewer VMT?

Maybe if it promotes a significant increase in carpooling.

Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior

#66

Post by Yhippa »

Where I live it is nearly cost equivalent or even cheaper to use an app to pre-pay for parking and go into the city from the suburbs instead of taking public transit. It's faster too. I will take one or the other depending on how much I feel like I want to zone out or be stressed by the traffic.

Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior

#67

Post by thisisit »

tmh79 wrote: post #39
thisisit wrote: post #29

It's been established that Uber/Lyft cabs actual cost more than what they cost end customer. So when the whole thing pops, prices will go back to the normal level and people back to using mass transits.

this is not true

Which part? The cost of rides being subsidized or people eschewing mass transit in favor of these ride sharing apps or was it the insinuation that people are eschewing mass transit because it is cheaper or more convenient for the price?

Cost of ride: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9a3vye/uber-true-...

2nd point is the highlight of the linked article. 3rd point has been made repeatedly in this very thread.

Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior

#68

Post by neonhomer »

justboxing wrote: post #31
yardie wrote: post #18

I’m a big proponent of mass transit and when it’s available I use it if I can. But I can get Lyft door to door for just $1-2 more than a bus or train. If mass transit wants to keep with rideshare and livery they need to: expand routes, increase availability, update their equipment. When I was a kid I knew how to read a bus schedule and train map to plan my trip. Now, there is an entire generation of kids in school an…

> expand routes, increase availability, update their equipment. ... and be faster . The SFMTA in San Francisco , at an average travel speed of 5 miles / hour. Is only slightly faster than brisk walking. Also, from the downtown FiDi out 2 miles in every direction, the Bus has a bus stop at Every block. Yes, every block.

I've always thought bus stops were too frequent outside of downtown Pittsburgh as well. Probably half he stops could be removed and that would speed up bus routes.

Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior

#69

Post by zten »

capkutay wrote: post #20

Its pretty disappointing that transit advocacy groups spend more time fighting ride-share and jitney transit services than actually working to improve transit in their cities. Instead of looking for solutions to making faster, cleaner, more reliable transit more feasible, they're blaming riders and ride-share companies for a 5% reduction in ridership.

If you're in a city that mostly moves people by bus, and has incredibly high construction costs, of course this is the solution they're going to chase. The bus service suffers with more competing vehicles on the road. People prefer rail and dedicated right-of-ways, but they also don't want their neighborhood destroyed while it's built. The transit advocacy groups end up hamstrung by these competing desires.

Uber and Lyft have given everyone a taste of the self-driving car dream (on-demand comfortable private transit) -- they just need to figure out how to get rid of the drivers. It's already producing political pressure to stall or end hugely expensive transit projects because of uncertainty about what a city might really need in 20-30 years.

Hopefully someone's smart enough to show that we'll all still be stuck in the same dumb traffic of our own making, regardless of a human or computer driver, because we really need to be solving for space and land use by minimizing the distance and frequency of vehicle trips instead, public transit included.

Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior

#70

Post by so33 »

stretchwithme wrote: post #19
orasis wrote: post #3

Congestion pricing for use of city streets would quickly solve any problems due to increased use.

Absolutely. Space on the street is a valuable, limited resource, especially at peak times. And it should be priced accordingly. We also need competition in bus service, not government-run, subsidized monopolies. Then we'd see many more transportation options. We should look at how these problems are solved in other countries. Or all of the innovation we had here in the US when cars first became practical, before the…

There are a few cities in the world where public transportation is privately owned and operated. Those cities have so much density, most routes can turn a profit. Most cities do not have this luxury.

Cities in Europe, for the most part, do just fine with public transit. It's all publicly-run. And they have solved the problem with a way that would be seemingly unacceptable in the US: Segregated rights-of-way for buses and trams, an extensive metro and regional rail network, and depending on the city, sometimes heavy subsidies. And that's fine, because if public transit is run as a public service, it's not all going to make money.

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