Uber bus just round the corner for public transport
Transit systems are teaming up with ride-hail software for post-pandemic needs
Urban transportation’s transformation has shifted up a gear as the coronavirus crisis turns travel habits on their head, with Uber making allies of public transit systems by offering to sell them its software expertise.
In the San Francisco Bay area Marin County’s Transportation Authority will next month allow passengers to book a trip through the Uber app, but they will ride wheelchair-accessible public vans rather than a private car.
From the streets of Utah’s Salt Lake City to Missouri’s St. Louis and New Jersey’s Jersey City, more than 120 US transit agencies have launched collaborations with ridehail firms in the past two years, data analyzed by Reuters shows. “Providing software is a highermargin service for us. We’re leveraging technology we’ve been building for years,” David Reich, Uber Technologies Inc’s head of transit, said.
Uber is talking with dozens of worldwide transit agencies to implement software-based projects, Reich added.
Lyft Inc, Uber and other ride hailing companies have previously been competing with public bus and train services for revenue from commuters.
But during the coronavirus crisis they are leaning on each other in an search for cost savings and new business opportunities, with many cities planning to expand or permanently implement services operated by ride-hail companies.
They hope this will save costs and improve access to business districts and convince transitwary commuters and shoppers to ditch their cars. Replacing low-use routes allows cities to offload insurance costs or move existing buses onto more profitable routes. As states reopen trip requests are still well below last year’s levels and the companies have had to make massive cost cuts and lay off thousands. Meanwhile, transit officials are struggling with the costs of running largely empty buses.
“There’s a need for us to work together and the flexibility their technology provides really plays a big role,” Carlos Cruz-Casas, assistant director of Miami-Date
County’s department of transportation said of Uber and Lyft.
The county began replacing night buses with subsidized ridehail trips during the pandemic, when ridership dropped as much as 80 percent. Now, Miami-Dade plans to offer the option permanently as part of a larger bus route restructuring program.
Uber has partnerships with more than 30 global transit agencies that use its ride services to connect riders to hubs, replace low-use bus lines or offer wheelchair-accessibility.
Lyft, which only operates in the US and Canada, launched its transit program in 2016 and is partnered with more than 80 cities to provide transit hub connections, night and weekend support, its head of transit and micromobility policy, Caroline Samponaro, said.
Via, a privately-held transportation company, is operating consumer ride-hail services in a joint venture with Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz in six cities and has struck transit partnerships with more than 90 agencies around the world.
Some 80 percent of Via’s transit projects are purely softwarebased, its chief executive Daniel Ramot said, with transit agencies using its routing technology. “There’s a recognition that transit budgets will be very thin for a long time and demand much more volatile,” Ramot said.
HIGHLIGHTS
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Uber expands in transit with higher-margin software.
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US transit agencies have worked with Uber, Lyft, Via.
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Coronavirus crisis has accelerated need for change.
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Cities save costs by replacing low-use bus routes.