I thought the whole premise of Uber and Lyft was that you’d use it to catch a ride with someone already going in that direction.
It has turned into a taxi service with full time drivers. Was that always the intention?
New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior
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Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior
#112Transit systems in the US need some payment technology upgrade. On a couple of occasions, I haven't been able to board a bus due to not having exact change. Once, I was with kids & family visiting NYC. We were planning to take a public bus from a suburb to the city. The fare turned out to be $16 for all of us, but I had $11 and some $100 bills. Guess what, I couldn't board the bus as they can't return change. The bus…
Drivers not giving change sounds ridiculous. What's the reasoning behind that? In Europe it doesn't seem to be a problem.
Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior
#113Gee, it's almost like people only use public transportation when it's reliable, cost-effective, and efficient.
> efficient Specifically, it should be efficient and preferably fast for me , not just in aggregate
It can be fast for everyone else, because then you'll have all those empty roads for yourself.
Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
Other than in mathematics (broadly interpreted), there is no definitive proof. There are just different degrees of confidence. Even though Uber has been saying that they are improving urban transportation, I have always been skeptical. As new substitutes are introduced to mass transit - mass transit use should decline. If those new substitutes are heavily subsidized by VCs, mass transit will decline more.
> Even though Uber has been saying that they are improving urban transportation Note here that there are other dimensions of improving, not expressed in VMT. Such as convenience, availability, time to get to certain point, ability to perform certain tasks (e.g. compare traveling with two huge suitcases to/from an airport in public transport with two transfers and in a ride service car), etc. So when talking about imp…
Those are all important aspects, but it's also important to factor in accessibility (in the monetary sense, not physical - although that as well!), because that's one of the main reasons for public transit to exist.
Yes, Uber and Lyft will provide better opportunities for transporting two large suitcases across town. But at what cost to the person who needs an affordable journey to work? Neither can come close to replicating the cost of urban transit services in a great many situations. And if they're contributing towards traffic that is actively harming performance of public transit, it's worth discussing.
Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior
#115Gee, it's almost like people only use public transportation when it's reliable, cost-effective, and efficient.
Not to mention safe and clean. In bigger cities, public transportation can put you in physical danger and have you walking out smelling worse than Theon Greyjoy
More people die in automobile crashes than from train crashes and crimes in public transit systems.
Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior
#116I’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…
I'm regularly bothered by the fact that mass transit is more expensive than driving. Alone it is definitely cheaper disregarding sunk costs (price of car, etc.), it's still cheaper as long as I don't have to have a new car every few years, and if I have passengers mass transit is many times as expensive as driving.
Shouldn't it be the opposite?
I figure I can take 4 people from Mountain View to San Francisco and back for $20. Why does it cost $66 on Caltrain? (nevermind the costs of having to wait for trains, missing them, and transport from places the trains don't go)
Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't think the public transportation systems are subsidized?
At a certain point the comparison breaks down. Yes, public transit is subsidised. But it isn't subsidised in such a way that it is expected to eventually become self sustaining - tax-payer funding is expected to continue in perpetuity. That's not the case with Uber and Lyft. VCs are subsiding their rides on the expectation that eventually the company will dominate the market enough to not require subsidy any more.
> That's not the case with Uber and Lyft.
I mentioned this elsewhere, but I wonder if maybe cities should run light rail and buses along the most used routes then subsidize private companies (like Lyft and Uber) to service people outside of those routes. I used to ride #43 Taylor's Ferry in Portland twice a day and I was sometimes on the bus by myself or with three or four other people. I bet it would have been far cheaper for the city to put us in a cab (this was before Uber) than to pay a driver to operate a giant, empty bus. I bet the bus was way worse from an emissions point of view as well.
Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior
#118Sorry i get less sick when i commute by car hence i refuse to spend time with other people using buses/trams/subway.
Maybe you should stop touching your face often and wash your hands properly.
Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior
#119Gee, it's almost like people only use public transportation when it's reliable, cost-effective, and efficient.
Or if we're a little more honest public transportation is an Inferior Good [1] that people stop using as soon as they have the means to.
Re: New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior
#120Transit systems in the US need some payment technology upgrade. On a couple of occasions, I haven't been able to board a bus due to not having exact change. Once, I was with kids & family visiting NYC. We were planning to take a public bus from a suburb to the city. The fare turned out to be $16 for all of us, but I had $11 and some $100 bills. Guess what, I couldn't board the bus as they can't return change. The bus…
Here in Austin, Texas Capital Metro does at least have an app that you can pay through.
But I do agree that small transactions like that should be easier. Especially when a ride is $1.25. It's plausible that I might have a dollar on hand, but who carries around quarters these days?