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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

#291

Post by isostatic »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #285
isostatic wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Standing up for an hour does not require a "peak of physical fitness"!!! It's probably a good thing to do - that's why standing desks are so popular.

Standing while working on your terms vs. standing on a crowded bus or subway are totally different things. You aren't really burning calories standing either, it is just time spent in discomfort. I don't think someone who actually has to stand a hour a day on their commute would actually say this (and better to take a bike at that point). Obviously, it is better if the subway car or bus is just totally packed so you…

When I used to commute I would often have to stand for 40 plus minutes twice a day. It's quite normal for millions of Brits, why is America different?

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

#292

Post by ibejoeb »

leroy_masochist wrote: post #256
HillaryBriss wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> driving drunk was just the way of life, and it was a real problem. Now, I don't know anyone who prefers driving over ridesharing given the option. drunk driving in LA is still a real problem. law enforcement continues to conduct DUI checkpoints on a regular basis. and they catch drunk drivers. maybe you don't know the people who continue to drink and drive?

This strikes me as a deliberate misunderstanding in service of a snappy counter-comment. Do you honestly believe that the parent meant that nobody drives drunk anymore? In my reading, parent comment is saying that there has been a major shift in default going-out behavior in LA, from driving one's own vehicle home while intoxicated to taking Ubers to/from nightlife locations. Does that sound untrue to you? Sounds tru…

Thank you. Spot on.

To elaborate: even only 5 years ago, I would almost always drive unless I was sure it was going to get aggressive that evening. I bought a personal breathalyzer for $45 at Walgreens, because that's how common a need it was. I'd sit in my car for an hour if I was blowing hot. Don't close your eyes, because that's DUI...

The deal with cabs in a town like that is that it is more luxurious than the nightlife itself. $100+ rides from Santa Monica to West Hollywood. $80 from Downtown to Los Feliz. After you track down a local number and call it, if you were lucky, they would even show up sometimes. (But never in under 40 minutes.) "Cash only, no change for a $20."

I just had kind of a blowout with Uber, but even as bad as there support is, it's way above "professional" car services there.

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

#293

Post by wolco »

ghaff wrote: post #212
benbristow wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$10-15 for a drink? Of liquid gold?

Pretty typical price range for a cocktail in a major (or even not so major) city. Even a beer is, outside of happy hour prices, getting near $10 with tip.

For a pitcher?

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

#294

Post by jasonbarone »

ProAm wrote: post #164
harigov wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subsidies are here to accomplish economies of scale. And when they have that scale, the cost of ride will also decrease dramatically (run buses instead of cars, electric cars/buses?), so my bet is that there will be an increase in price but it won't be order of magnitude more than current price.

Subsidies here are not for economies of scale, but for market share. Your bet is a risky one vs proven methodology.

But they are for economies of scale. Product like UberPool, LyftLine, and UberEats were born from it. The business gets more efficient, and as the network keeps evolving it’ll open up new business opportunities that’ll drive prices down.

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

#295

Post by spc476 »

colechristensen wrote: post #232
nhaehnle wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You realize that there are a lot of fixed cost overheads, right? Surely the cost per mile from SFO to LAX is already much higher than what you quoted for SFO to JFK, and it's reasonable if local transit is even more expensive per distance.

28.6¢ SFO to LAX A train is something like 10 times more fuel efficient per passenger. It's a much less complicated machine, and carries something like 10 times as many passengers per vehicle. It's not reasonable that a train is more expensive. It doesn't have to accelerate to 550 mph 6 miles up. Piloting it doesn't require years and years of training. Compare SFO to your local caltrain station and tell me which one…

Have you tried pricing train tickets? I have, and it's always more expensive than flying.

Just now, I decided to price a ticket from Delray Beach, Florida (where the closest Amtrak station is to my house) to Deland, Florida (a distance of 220 miles). By car (and my car, I mean, my car, which gets 30mpg), it's a total of six hours (three there, three back) and will cost me $45 in gas (assuming $3.00/gallon, which is a bit high right now). This is doable in one day (leave by 9:00 am, arrive around noon, leave at 6:00 pm, arrive home by 9:00 pm).

The same trip, by Amtrak, costs $96 (twice my gas costs), and is impossible to do in one day. The train leaves at 9:22 am, arrives at 2:39 pm (over five hours, but more on this below). The train back leaves at 1:02 pm and right there you should see the problem---I have to stay overnight, incurring more cost. But anyway, it leaves at 1:02 pm and arrives at 8:31 pm, taking over seven hours.

The departure times assume everything goes smoothly. My first real train trip [1] from Delray Beach to Kissimmee (not quite as far as Deland) was incredible (don't get me wrong), but the train from Kissimmee back to Delray Beach was over two hours late, and I was informed that that is a common occurrence for Amtrak (it not owning the track it runs on), but had it been on time, I would have only had about half an hour in Kissimmee. Had the train from Delray Beach been late, and the train from Kissimmee been on time, I would have missed my connection.

[1] http://boston.conman.org/2015/08/05 [2]

[2] I never did find out how much my friend paid for his trip, but I assume it was the price of a car.

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

#296

Post by HillaryBriss »

leroy_masochist wrote: post #256
HillaryBriss wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> driving drunk was just the way of life, and it was a real problem. Now, I don't know anyone who prefers driving over ridesharing given the option. drunk driving in LA is still a real problem. law enforcement continues to conduct DUI checkpoints on a regular basis. and they catch drunk drivers. maybe you don't know the people who continue to drink and drive?

This strikes me as a deliberate misunderstanding in service of a snappy counter-comment. Do you honestly believe that the parent meant that nobody drives drunk anymore? In my reading, parent comment is saying that there has been a major shift in default going-out behavior in LA, from driving one's own vehicle home while intoxicated to taking Ubers to/from nightlife locations. Does that sound untrue to you? Sounds tru…

> Do you honestly believe that the parent meant that nobody drives drunk anymore?

yep. that was my honest interpretation of the parent comment.

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

#297

Post by twic »

ctoth wrote: post #150

I cannot drive. I take Uber to and from work every day using a Uber pass. If my alternative were public transit, a bus to a train to another bus or train depending, it would take me 1.5 hours per trip, for a total of 3 hours a day. I would not work in the corporate world if this were the case. Does this study capture these positive externalities? For blind people, these often-derided services are the difference betwe…

In London, efforts have been made to make buses and trains accessible for the blind and the mobility impaired, but there are also a couple of public schemes specifically for them. Taxicard makes it easy to arrange taxi trips, and subsidises them:

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/taxis-and-minicabs/taxicard-and-cap...

Dial-a-ride is a shared minibus:

https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/dial-a-ride/

As the names hint, they have been running for years and years. I am lucky enough not to need them, and can't comment on how good they are, but i think it demonstrates that a sensible public transport authority can help less able people have the same freedom to travel as everyone else.

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

#298

Post by btian »

wolco wrote: post #293
ghaff wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty typical price range for a cocktail in a major (or even not so major) city. Even a beer is, outside of happy hour prices, getting near $10 with tip.

For a pitcher?

For a bottle.

Or in a German restaurant, 500ml. 1 liter of beer goes for $16-18

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

#299

Post by gburt »

oculusthrift wrote: post #23
darawk wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would also solve congestion, though.

yeah but the point is do we really want to reduce congestion by making poor people unable to afford transportation

No one said it has to raise revenue. This whole process could be revenue neutral. Give direct cash injections to the bottom 20% to offset the cost. This is about incentives, not revenue.

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

#300

Post by jdavis703 »

noobermin wrote: post #264
ScottBurson wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Caltrain doesn't need to compete with multiple-occupancy vehicles. Most of the people riding it would otherwise be driving solo. That said, reducing fares might attract more riders -- but whether it would increase revenue overall is more questionable.

No, the answer is city and state governments need to get serious about public transit. Every other major countries' cities invest in their public transit, it's just the city governments here in the US treat it like any public service, a barebones skeleton of a safety net for the poor that politicians target for cuts.

The median Caltrain rider makes $129,000 [0]. Unless a six figure income is considered poor, there's no way this is a safety net for the poor.

0: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://...

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