Transportation Network Companies offering fixed stop DAR.

[Aaron Antrim]

Jarrett Walker published a post on Human Transit that's relevant to GTFS-flex: "The Flexibility Industry Discovers the Virtues of Rigidity" (http://www.humantransit.org/2015/08/uber-discovers-the-inherent-efficiency-of-fixed-routes.html)

I have not followed this closely, but apparently Uber and Lyft are beginning to to offer services are variations on the demand-responsive transportation services that are offered by public transportation agencies. In particular, UberPool and Lyft Line are dynamic fixed-route. Uber is testing "suggested pickup points" which direct people to walk to points (stops) that are easier to reach.

This points to a convergence. There is potentially even more shared in features between traditional demand-responive public transit and TNCs (Uber and Lyft).

[Becker, Jeff]

Jarred Walker’s post and others’ comments are thought provoking.  Below is a blurb from today’s TRB e-newsletter that you needn’t read, but further illustrates the pervasive use of concepts (terms) which have yet to be thoughtfully sorted out, such as, TNCs, shared-use, mobility, public-private, transit, paratransit, demand-responsive, jitney, flexible, technology, dynamic, etc., etc. TNCs are an application of technology, not an innovative transportation service and, indeed, may be overtaken by some new technology next year.  They are said to be disruptive, but to what?  Certainly to the staid taxi industry, but Aaron I think you make an excellent point about convergence … or it could be a continuum or evolution of transportation services.   Regulatory agencies may be panicking, but we can take time to consider how to adopt and adapt.  - JB

 

A. Jeff Becker | Senior Manager of Service Development | Regional Transportation District | 303-299-2148

A Real-Time Algorithm to Solve the Peer-to-Peer Ride-Matching Problem in a Flexible Ridesharing System

The Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Irvine has released a report that discusses the features of a flexible ridesharing system and proposes an algorithm for solving the ride-matching problem of such a system in real-time.

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