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Given the proliferation of microtransit services trying to match drivers and passengers, you might think they had ride-sharing and carpooling all figured out. But the recent demise of Leap Transit in San Francisco—to say nothing of the other transportation start-ups that have failed without a media whimper—reminds us that even in a big city it’s not easy to fill empty vehicle seats. And in the suburbs, it’s downright mathematically impossible.
Or just about, anyway, according to a provocative new thought-experiment by Steve Raney, principal at a smart mobility consultancy called Cities21. In a working paper, the former Silicon Valley tech product manager crunched the numbers on ride-sharing in the Palo Alto area and found the odds of matching drivers with passengers long, to say the least. Raney calls it the “Suburban Ridematch Needle in the Haystack Problem.”
“I wanted to gently inject some reality into this,” he tells CityLab.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2015, @02:07PM
Its a fundamental attitude difference between the groups. Americans are tend to be individualistic (to a fault), Europeans tend to be communal (to a fault).
The default American transportation position seems: "I'll do it myself."
The default European transportation position seems: "What options has the community made available?"
As a byproduct of these two opinions, consider a sample responses to proposals:
"We, the Government, are going to use your tax dollars to build a train. It will run on its own schedule, determined by the Government, and carry many passengers, including you. All will travel at the same rate."
European: "This sounds attractive, and will add a new option to my transit, where I can travel faster to new locations."
American: "This sounds like the Government is going to take my money to build a system that will primarily serve others."
"We, the Government, are going to use your tax dollars to build a road. You can use the road whenever you want, whether you bike, walk, or drive, because you paid for it. Those with more economical power will travel faster."
European: "This sounds like the Government is going to take my money mostly to subsidize people who own cars."
American: "This sounds attractive, and will enable me to transit myself faster to new locations."
I was at a dinner once where a European said: "Americans have no freedom, the transportation is horrible, it is difficult to gather in groups, and the Government provides few benefits to its citizens to expand their options."
An American countered: "I believe that I have virtually unlimited freedom. I live on 5 acres, own a shotgun, and drive a car. I do what I want, when I want."
(Score: 1) by tftp on Wednesday November 18 2015, @10:40PM
Private ownership of houses and land is very common in the USA; that includes cities. Often you have to look hard for rental property. You cannot maintain an owned house without at very least having a personal car (better, a truck.) Bags with salt for the water softener, bags of soil for the backyard, buckets of chlorine tablets for the pool, 10' lengths of PVC pipe for irrigation... all that cannot be delivered on a bus. In the UK cans of paint cannot be transported in public buses "for health and safety reasons."
European population is significantly urbanized. Perhaps someone from EU can extend this comment from the other side of the ocean and give their side of the story - how common privately owned homes are, and what it takes to maintain them. Obviously, if you live in a rental apartment then all your maintenance duties consist of vacuum-cleaning the house.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Thursday November 19 2015, @09:40AM
European population is significantly urbanized. Perhaps someone from EU can extend this comment from the other side of the ocean - how common privately owned homes are, and what it takes to maintain them.
Private ownership of property is very common in the UK. Most houses are owned by the occupiers (though usually mortgaged), and a high proportion of flats [apartments] are leasehold where the occupier owns the occupancy (more or less indefinitely - like 99 or even 999 years) while the landlord maintains the outside for a "ground rent". I believe ownership is much less common in Germany and Eastern Europe though.
then all your maintenance duties consist of vacuum-cleaning the house
Thta's meant as a joke? The tenant is usually responsible for interior decoration and maintenance - which he must do. The whole rental thing is a Pandora's box of issues, and there are nearly wall-to-wall TV documentaries on it, with titles like "Landlords from Hell" and indeed "Tenants from Hell". A high proportion of landlords are crooks and extortionists.
None of which has anything to do with car sharing.