A new report over lessons on adapting transit to an on-demand world In the age of Uber and Lyft, many planners and pundits believe the answer to mass transit?s shrinking ridership and service issues must be better technology. But a new study of municipal microtransit?small-scale, on-demand public transit services?suggests the real issue is whether planners and transit agencies are asking the right questions in pursuit of a technological upgrade.
Written by a team of authors and released by the Eno Transportation Institute, UpRouted looked at existing and ongoing case studies of microtransit services in the U.S. By utilizing some form of on-demand service and booking, these pilot programs aimed to address urban mobility?s changing landscape, one radically shifted by mobile technology. A recent University of California Davis study found that a growing number of potential bus and rail riders were utilizing Uber and Lyft services to get around, especially during off-peak hours. ?On-demand, dynamic route, new mobility services have changed customer expectations around transportation and public transit agencies want to be responsive to these changes,? UpRouted notes.
Well aware of these consumer and technological shift, public transit agencies have attempted to adjust. The report analyzed a handful of pilot programs meant to solve the challenges facing urban mass transit: ridership declines, costs and inefficiencies, and insufficient options, especially for resources for u...