good for small towns.....cities no....not a good deal at all...
Why?
Answered you in comment below by accident.
In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus
11–20 of 176 posts
Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus
#12Aren’t these just subsidized taxis? They don’t help with congestion, they don’t help with pollution, I don’t see how they ultimately bring down costs since you still need individual cars and drivers... Perhaps in some limited cases, multiple people going the same way at the same time can share a vehicle, but how often will that work out in practice? I basically never end up sharing an Uber/Lyft with anyone else despi…
I think you’re missing that the demand dynamics are different in underserved areas. They’re an alternative to a fixed bus route, so there’s a much greater tolerance for flexibility, i.e: 30 mins for one of these micro-transit buses to show up, and a 50% longer journey time vs. an Uber is very acceptable as a bus alternative, but an Uber rider would be very unlikely to accept that, which means Uber Pool is very unlikely to find a co-passenger whereas micro-transit is.
Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus
#13In Asia it is called marshrutka. It is amazing to see how US reinvents wheel and gives it cool names.
We already have this in my rural area in the states. There's a shuttle that picks people up to funnel them to either the local parking lot near the interstate (to catch a larger bus to the closest city center) or to disperse them to the 5 or 6 large employers across 3 counties.
You call the company, they send a van. Usually you get picked up with two or three other people and it might take an hour to get where you're going (when a car could do it in 30-45 minutes in a direct route). Or you schedule a regular pick up, and they coordinate to have you ride with 10 or so other people, but the ride is a lot shorter.
And it's 100% free. The large employers pay to subsidize its use for the entire area because they get such a value from it. You can get the shuttle to take you anywhere.
Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus
#14good for small towns.....cities no....not a good deal at all...
Berlin had an on demand ride sharing shuttle service, called BerlKönig, that has been run by Berlin's public transport provider BVG. Unfortunately it was recently discontinued, but apparently the BVG is planning a new on demand service.
BerlKönig was automatically following routes that would optimize for a higher load factor.
For me it was the best option for certain scenarios.
Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus
#15We have this in Jerusalem.
At busy times the van takes up to around 6 people and at quiet times you're by yourself.
At busy times your ride can take up to triple what it would have taken otherwise, because it makes stops for other people. Like 45 mins instead of 15, which makes it pretty unpredictable.
You also often have to wait a while for it.
They're called TikTak here.
It's mainly useful for getting a direct ride where you'd otherwise have to take more than one bus.
Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus
#16good for small towns.....cities no....not a good deal at all...
Cities have the demand to support real transit which is vastly more cost and energy efficient. They have congestion which isn't helped much by shuttles compared to a bus or other high capacity transit. Congestion also slows the shuttle down so you need more shuttles and more depots. They also have more destinations at cyclable distances. Paratransit is for mobility for theose who can't drive in areas that can't justi…
> They have congestion which isn't helped much by shuttles compared to a bus or other high capacity transit
Multiple simultaneously driving taxis can be replaced by one shuttle van at times or for routes where large busses would run mostly empty, because they lack flexibility.
Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus
#17In Asia it is called marshrutka. It is amazing to see how US reinvents wheel and gives it cool names.
Also “jitney” in the Philippines (and formerly USA) or “dollar van” in NY
Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus
#18Aren’t these just subsidized taxis? They don’t help with congestion, they don’t help with pollution, I don’t see how they ultimately bring down costs since you still need individual cars and drivers... Perhaps in some limited cases, multiple people going the same way at the same time can share a vehicle, but how often will that work out in practice? I basically never end up sharing an Uber/Lyft with anyone else despi…
> They don’t help with congestion, they don’t help with pollution,
So what? The first and only point of a public transport system is, you know, transporting people. Limiting congestion and pollution comes very far in terms of priority, and only once the core mission is fulfilled.
Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus
#19Aren’t these just subsidized taxis? They don’t help with congestion, they don’t help with pollution, I don’t see how they ultimately bring down costs since you still need individual cars and drivers... Perhaps in some limited cases, multiple people going the same way at the same time can share a vehicle, but how often will that work out in practice? I basically never end up sharing an Uber/Lyft with anyone else despi…
I think you’re missing that the demand dynamics are different in underserved areas. They’re an alternative to a fixed bus route, so there’s a much greater tolerance for flexibility, i.e: 30 mins for one of these micro-transit buses to show up, and a 50% longer journey time vs. an Uber is very acceptable as a bus alternative, but an Uber rider would be very unlikely to accept that, which means Uber Pool is very unlike…
Also woth noting in many cases these are intended to help link one in further out areas to existing mass transit infrastructure - IIRC Via in seattle has its service area to help one get from home to a link light rail station.
Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus
#20This is amazing. Of course a full train or bus can be an order of magnitude more efficient, and so should be installed and run where there’s demand, but replacing the prohibitively-expensive private option of Uber with an affordable, if slower, city option is just… lovely!