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Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s Decline

citylab.com

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Re: Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s Decline

#61

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #59
capkutay wrote: post #21

Sorry but this is bullshit. As others have mentioned, public transit beats uber/lyft when its actually the better, faster service (e.g. London, Tokyo). But when public transit is poorly planned, slow, dirty, crime-ridden like it often is in the US, uber/lyft wins every time. Even when cities like San Francisco choose to spend billions on improving public transit, they mess it up every single time. There's a long list…

Public transit fails when it's poorly funded. The existence of Uber/Lyft provides an excuse to transit skeptic politicians to ignore and underfund public transit expansion.

Sure, but politicians in many cities were ignoring and underfunding public transit long before Uber and Lyft came around. How long should people have waited before trying to come up with an alternative?

Re: Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s Decline

#62

Post by TheCoelacanth »

goldcd wrote: post #16
pulisse wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither Uber nor Lyft is currently profitable. They can't truly be said to be winning a market competition until they're not effectively running on subsidization. Additionally, until more cities implement congestion pricing, they benefit from a negative externality not being priced in.

Neither are the nationalized public transport systems they're competing against.

Don't forget to count the subsidized road infrastructure that Uber/Lyft use (and don't say "but gas taxes", they only pay for about half of road spending).

Re: Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s Decline

#63

Post by cozzyd »

malandrew wrote: post #58
cozzyd wrote: post #45

Uber and Lyft increase downtown congestion (like sometimes up to one third of cars I see are Uber/Lyft in downtown Chicago) and routinely block bus stops and in bus lanes. This further slows down buses even more and screws up schedules. I wish bus drivers could automatically ticket the drivers. I have a CTA pass so I almost never use Uber/Lyft because it's so much more expensive.

TNCs are not the only ones contributing to congestion. Private cars do as well. We should address all road users and not just cherry-pick one scapegoat when everyone sitting in traffic is traffic. Congestion pricing is the solution here.

Sure but private cars aren't generally on the road all the time. They go to their destinations and park. TNC's spend a substantial part of their time between fares. If they were displacing all private car trips they would only marginally increase congestion by 1-utlization factor but that's certainly not the case in places where public transport exists.

Re: Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s Decline

#64

Post by baddox »

mikejulietbravo wrote: post #28
baddox wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll go a bit further and say that, while Uber/Lyft probably contribute to decline in public transit, those companies exist precisely because of how bad public transit was in those service areas.

100% agree. If you look at SF, there's to get from SOMA to the Marina, you can either take multiple buses plus walk (~50 minutes of travel), or take a lyft/uber which will bring you door to door in less than half the time.

I took a Lyft from Soma to the Marina last night at 5:30pm, which is pretty close to peak weeknight traffic. It cost $14 and took 17 minutes.

The Muni bus would have taken 31 minutes according to Google Maps (with much higher expected variance, based on my personal experience) and would have cost $2.50 (or $2.75 if I didn’t have a preloaded Clipper card).

Because of that expected duration variance; the probability of sharing a bus or bus stop with a profoundly troubled, violent, or dirty person; and the fact that the difference between $2.50 and $14 is not very significant to me; taking a Lyft was an extremely easy decision for me.

Re: Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s Decline

#65

Post by jkravitz61 »

prolikewhoa wrote: post #55
jkravitz61 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle has been doing this recently. I'm not sure if they have released any studies yet, but my observation has been a noticeable improvement.

I've noticed no improvement, especially now with the viaduct closed which appears to be a permanent decline for people coming in from the southwest and west Seattle.

That’s a temporary change until the tunnel opens. I’ve noticed that Denny has been much better for buses since they have made a few changes for bus priority.

Re: Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s Decline

#66

Post by goldcd »

so33 wrote: post #51
goldcd wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither are the nationalized public transport systems they're competing against.

It's important to note that public transport systems are often forced to run unprofitable routes. Late night routes and paratransit are inherently unprofitable but improve accessibility. Of course, there are more unsavory reasons, usually political (for instance, the "Downtown Express" bus routes in Toronto were created to fulfill a political promise, and are vastly unprofitable as a result). Ride-hailing services do…

I think the issue here is just the 'size of solution' between private and public transport offerings. i.e. If you've got tens of thousands of people in a place - an underground line isn't a bad idea. If you've got tens - then that's not even enough for a bus. However an Uber driver (or even a pool route) is actually happier with the latter, as they're not having to compete with an underground. Different types of transport tend to be poorly integrated. Maybe airports being the only example I can think of where private and public play nicely together.
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