Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

New Research on How Ride-Hailing Impacts Travel Behavior

planetizen.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 458 posts

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

#361

Post by racer-v »

curun1r wrote: post #355
gcr113 wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BART does not have duplicate tracks, unlike the transit systems in most other major metropolitan areas. The few hours that it stops overnight are required for maintenance. It's basically not an option for BART to run 24/7.

24/7 isn't required. Since last call is at 2am, running until 3am on Sat and Sun would make a huge difference and cost them 5 hrs of maintenance time. That's probably still a problem, but it seems like a solvable one.

BART published a study a few years ago saying the tracks need to be closed 4 hours every night. They said since people riding early in the morning are more likely to be people of color than those riding late at night, that shifting service times later would be "racist" because it would have a disproportionate effect on people of color. Typical 21st-century bureaucratic tactic to stifle discussion.

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

#363

Post by jchb »

kuschku wrote: post #265
smsm42 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most likely reason is to avoid drivers being robbed - if there's no (easy and accessible for the driver) way to take money out of the thing, local addicts won't get an idea "let's jump on a bus and take money from the driver" because driver can't really give the money. Also a bit of avoiding fraud from driver's side - if the driver is allowed to take money out, it's impossible to control whether all the payments actu…

The European busses solved that ages ago. Driver presses the button for a special ticket, customer inserts coins or bills, the machine automatically gives exact change. Alternatively, pay with NFC, card, etc.

Well, in some European countries the drivers do not handle any cash or tickets. Both for safety reasons and for the fact that having a queue of people waiting to buy tickets from a single driver introduces latency. Instead, there's a ticket machine on the bus stop, or sometimes inside the bus. Alternatively you can buy a ticket using a mobile app. This means you can board without a ticket. Then ticket inspectors randomly board vehicles to check peoples tickets.

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

#364

Post by racer-v »

abalone wrote: post #107

tl;dr People use ridesharing mostly to go out to eat and drink (62% of trips). Riders are actually more likely to own cars. They don't want to drive when they're going out because they don't want to deal with parking or drive drunk. They don't ride the bus because it's too slow, unreliable or unavailable. If ridesharing didn't exist, two fifths of the time they'd walk, bike or use public transit instead, and a fifth…

They don't ride the bus because it's too slow, unreliable or unavailable.

Yes - Uber showed up the inadequacy of public transit in the US just as much as they disrupted the taxi industry. Transit seems designed only for consumers who can't afford any other option. If public services want people to choose to ride the bus over taking a car, they need to substantially increase the quality of the riding experience.

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

#365

Post by api »

racer-v wrote: post #364
abalone wrote: post #107

tl;dr People use ridesharing mostly to go out to eat and drink (62% of trips). Riders are actually more likely to own cars. They don't want to drive when they're going out because they don't want to deal with parking or drive drunk. They don't ride the bus because it's too slow, unreliable or unavailable. If ridesharing didn't exist, two fifths of the time they'd walk, bike or use public transit instead, and a fifth…

They don't ride the bus because it's too slow, unreliable or unavailable. Yes - Uber showed up the inadequacy of public transit in the US just as much as they disrupted the taxi industry. Transit seems designed only for consumers who can't afford any other option. If public services want people to choose to ride the bus over taking a car, they need to substantially increase the quality of the riding experience.

Part of the issue with buses is the maps. Trains usually have nice schematic style maps but there seems to be a law mandating that bus maps be illegible tangles of purple lines with little hard to read numbers and a table of what those numbers mean on a different page.

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

#366

Post by abalone »

TrinaryWorksToo wrote: post #358
abalone wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the study is "faulting" anyone. Clearly ridesharing is a very popular and convenient alternative to driving and public transit which are both rife with problems. It is however contributing to traffic and emissions. Those are important facts to establish because previously it was thought that maybe ridesharing is helping with those too, like a dream come true. It concludes, "substantial policy action may…

If we want ridesharing to decrease emissions and traffic, someone should subsidize it as first and last mile transit. That way cars are always at capacity (always picking up or dropping off users) and traffic gets reduced on highways (people will be on transit). In addition public transit will fill to capacity, allowing them to run more often.

At best that would only help with relatively long distance trips, and the study notes it has already led to and increase in commuter rail use. (Which is offset by greater VMT in other cases.) Also it probably still involves deadhead trips within those last miles.

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

#367

Post by jakecopp »

api wrote: post #365
racer-v wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't ride the bus because it's too slow, unreliable or unavailable. Yes - Uber showed up the inadequacy of public transit in the US just as much as they disrupted the taxi industry. Transit seems designed only for consumers who can't afford any other option. If public services want people to choose to ride the bus over taking a car, they need to substantially increase the quality of the riding experience.

Part of the issue with buses is the maps. Trains usually have nice schematic style maps but there seems to be a law mandating that bus maps be illegible tangles of purple lines with little hard to read numbers and a table of what those numbers mean on a different page.

Is that because buses stop more frequently, and so don't lend their routes to geographically simplified schematics as well as trains?

What do you think would be the perfect bus route map design? I'm really interested in this!

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

#368

Post by blueline »

tradersam wrote: post #262
stuaxo wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being on a busy road surrounded by cars all burning petrol is not exactly a healthy place to be either. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35504768

At least I rarely have to fear for my life while driving through a bad part of town, which is definitely not the case while using public transportation or walking. Which is my main point, health was a side note.

>I rarely have to fear for my life while driving through a >bad part of town >which is definitely not the case while using public >transportation Source? Are you sure that this perceived difference in safety in 'the bad part of town' is not completely in your mind?

thousands of people take public transit through 'the bad parts of town' in places like Chicago and NYC every day and they (relatively speaking) don't have to fear for their lives either.

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

#369

Post by blueline »

noddy1 wrote: post #320

I really think that an 8 seater vehicle running uberpool will be the sweet spot here. Buses are slow and annoying and crap. I think algorithmically directed minibuses will be the gamechanger.

buses are largely slow and annoying because they rarely if ever have designated space to operate effectively.

In correct conditions they're an incredibly effective and space efficient (especially relative to cars) way to move people around, but 'correct conditions' can't happen if every square inch of street space is reserved for use of private cars.

Don't let your experiences with presumably crappy underfunded bus systems cloud your perception of a good means of mass transit.

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

#370

Post by CydeWeys »

foota wrote: post #301
hkmurakami wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was reading about the history of Paris cafes, and apparently this has contributed to the demise of many cafes there as well (in particular the ones that relied on alcohol sales and didn't adjust to serve good coffee, among other more modern clientele tastes)

Really? But Paris has such fantastic mass transit?

Not really. The trains stop running at an hour well before people stop going out. I was just in Paris in May going out with a bunch of Parisians and we all had to Uber back. They love Uber there -- once the trains stop, that's how you get home.
Post reply on HN