In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

Aren’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 despite selecting the pool option.

Am I missing anything?

Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

#9

Post by AlbertoGP » Wed, Jul 20, 2022, 1:05 PM UTC

zeroth32 wrote: post #6

In Asia it is called marshrutka. It is amazing to see how US reinvents wheel and gives it cool names.

Indeed, and in Germany it’s called "Rufbus” and that’s what you have in small villages where a regular bus service is not available. I know there are such in other countries but I don’t know the other names.

Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

#10

Post by Schroedingersat » Wed, Jul 20, 2022, 1:06 PM UTC

kderbyma wrote: post #4

good 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 justify a train or enough buses for a Edit: apologies, responded to the wrong comment