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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: 5, Interesting) by SanityCheck on Wednesday November 18 2015, @02:29PM
I'm in the US and can vouch that it is utterly disgusting. If you touch the hand rail on the train, hand sanitizer is not gonna make things OK, trust me.
Worse yet, it was the most inefficient use of my time and money, ever. I lived 2 towns over from college, a distance of 8 miles. It took me sometimes upwards of an hour to make it to class, average 45 minutes, 25 minutes if I was super lucky. I had to take a bus, a train, and then light-rail. Most of the time was spent waiting for transport, which was often late, but even if it wasn't, I would still spend good 10 to 15 minutes waiting. The two monthlies I could get totaled $115 combined with student discount, but most semesters I wouldn't get them if I was only on campus 3 days a week, so one way was $4. Sometimes I would take a private shuttle which didn't take monthly pass because the bus that takes monthly pass was so infrequent, that cost extra $1.50 one way.
Mind you while traveling I was often at the mercy of the weather, because of all the waiting. Weather in NJ is disgustingly hot in the summer and bitterly cold in the winter. And of course there is the added chance of robbery, which occurred frequently near the campus where the light rail was (luckily I was not robbed). By Senior year I had enough, especially after the sweaty summer commutes. Once I got the car my commute went to consistent 25 minutes, cost went way down. I could come as I please, I wasn't being assaulted by the weather, and I largely didn't have to deal with any nonsense that goes on on the train or station. You could not pay me to go back. Compared to how it was and how I felt once I had the car, there is simply no way you can force me to use public transport.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday November 18 2015, @04:23PM
Apparently the concept of the pedal bike hasn't reached america yet. It's like an e-moped, but without even the electric engine. Best of all, it's almost steam-punk with its "cogs", I think they're called, so can be very fashionable.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SanityCheck on Wednesday November 18 2015, @05:03PM
Right, let me ride a bike on a highway with NYC bound traffic, taking lungs of diesel exhaust with every breath, sometimes at night, in shitty weather, through neighborhoods where people get beaten to within an inch of their lives for bikes all so I can look like a snob and smell like a hobo. Please take your stupid, sarcastic, holier-than-thou attitude somewhere else, I am not interested in biking, and certainly not to my early grave.