Metro Magazine, September/October 2015

between 3 and 5 Bridj will serve customers between two direct points in the region if enough people indicate a willingness to share the ride Bridj says that the trips it provides are approximately 20 slower on average than the automobile but as much as 40 faster than traditional transit and it prices the services to be less than the combined cost of operating and parking a car at local rates A similar service has begun in San Francisco called Chariot Unlike Bridj however Chariot operates routes on schedules Bridjs routing is dynamic based on the destinations of riders at any given time Both Chariot and Bridj offer more comfortable seats wireless Internet and ports to recharge electronic devices Both also insist that their business models are cooperative with traditional public transit services and at least Bridj actively seeks cooperative agreements However Chariot takes the Bridj and UberPool a similar service of Uber concepts a step further and is fostering what it says are the first crowd sourced transit routes Users input their desired commute route and if enough people want to go the same way Chariot will begin the service Until then it will attempt to attract interested riders into an existing route A new cooperative agreement has been reached with Uber and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority MARTA The agency did so to improve first last mile links particularly for guaranteed ride home programs and late night services MARTA passengers can link directly to Ubers site from the MARTA app while they are using the MARTA system In turn Uber drivers have information about when the bus or train will arrive so that the car will be waiting This takes the idea of taxi hailing services pioneered in Germany a step further This is the kind of service and technology strategy that transit will need to stay competitive particularly as the industry seeks to attract the next generation of riders MARTA CEO Keith Parker says TRANSFORMING TRANSIT As with MARTA the real time vehicle tracking and passenger information technologies that make ride hiring services viable are also enabling traditional public transportation agencies to transform themselves in other ways In Helsinki Finland the transportation agency has launched an Uber like smart phone application for public transportation which pools riders on a public minibus which like Bridj customizes the route of each bus in real time In the U S some transit agencies are looking to subsidize ride hailing fares as part of their transportation demand management programs Thus the competition against or cooperation with these new rapidly evolving services is on multiple fronts and fares are often not a major consideration Wait times on time performance inviting vehicles and amenities to make travel more convenient are the usual battlegrounds Two other cooperative ways that transportation policy makers are exploring include charging these companies as a new revenue source and obtaining their data for traffic congestion management policies Many airport authorities 18 mETRO mAGAZINE SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2015 metro magazine com THE UBER EFFECT Real time ride hiring companies are wreaking havoc with the business models of the taxi and limousine industries and now they are entering aspects of public transportation MARTA signed a cooperative agreement with Uber to improve first mile last mile links particularly for guaranteed ride home programs and late night services MARTA Henrique Pinto Flickr