Micro-Transit is not a free-for-all

Micro-transit (privately operated transit) is seeing a new rise as Lyft-Line and Uber-Pool bring together each company’s ride sourcing model with the power of combining different riders along a route. As more people choose these options, the system becomes more and more efficient as there are greater chances of finding a few people who want routes similar to yours.

While some have envisioned this as a free-for-all where micro-transit now operates from any destination to any destination, eliminating some of the hierarchies inherent to fixed route transit, this is not exactly the case. Both Lyft and Uber have recently made moves to make their ride services more efficient by having riders walk to higher volume streets. Lyft has introduced ‘Pickup Suggestions‘ and Uber has their ‘walk to the corner system‘ – incentivizing people to walk to the nearest avenue or arterial instead of being picked up on a more minor street. This reduces travel time which allows more people to be picked up (without becoming frustrated at the wait).

From a city development perspective, this points to the continued importance of higher volume streets as transit hubs (even if it is not traditional transit) and begs the question of how to make pickups and drop-offs most efficient along these high volume routes (a designated spot on each block?). There are obvious benefits to having some kind of hierarchy in micro-transit – how should we design streets that can accommodate this?

Image Source: Uber