Lindenites, the
elderly, or those with cognitive disabilities.
IN 36 OTHER CITIES AROUND THE U.S. LAST FALL,
there was a multi-modal transit initiative that
wasn’t aimed at disadvantaged populations
and didn’t come courtesy of the government.
It was offered by Lyft, the $15 billion ride-
hailing company that also owns the nation’s
largest bike-share operator, Motivate.
The program provided 1,900 participants
across the United States and in Toronto with
ride credits and passes for cars, scooters,
and public transit...if the winners prom-
ised to not use their cars for a month. It didn’t
change any infrastructure or shift policy; it
was just a sweepstakes. But around 130,000
people signed up for the chance to solve their
personal last-mile problems.
In a lot of ways, Denver’s Grace Orders
was an ideal winner: She already had a
Lyft account, so she wasn’t going to let her
vouchers languish. And she was already a
ride- share convert. Orders works at a health-
tech startup downtown, in a co-working
space a block from a 1.25-mile-long pedes-
trian mall, which has several nearby train
stations and a free bus that stops every block.
But she doesn’t live near a train stop, so every
morning she took a Lyft Line—the kind you
share with other riders— to avoid a nearly $30
parking fee if she drove to work.
During the free trial, she continued to do
that—but instead of taking a Lyft home, she’d
step aboard a scooter, ride it to a park near
her house, then walk the rest of the way. She
started batching her grocery and social trips so
she didn’t have to call multiple cars. “It helped
me really plan my day and think about what I
was going to be doing with errands,” she says.
“Also to be more efficient with trips, just more
thoughtful about it.” It didn’t change her life
much, and she’s probably not going to con-
tinue to spend $700 a month on Lyft services,
but it did make her rethink her relationship to
her vehicle—as in, maybe she shouldn’t ownone at all. “Having a car is a cost that can be
a little ridiculous,” she says. Maybe she could
Lyft-scooter-walk all the time, and not pay for
an automobile that often sits unused.
Carmakers can see that mental calculation
happening and are trying to respond in ways
that will keep them relevant if someday a 1-to-1
ratio between people and cars is no longer
the American Dream. GM’s Maven program
links car owners and some lessees to driv-
ers who want to rent their wheels short-term.
Volvo’s M will give subscribers on- demand ac-
cess like that of Zipcar. Ford bought big into an
autonomous-vehicle software company.
But perhaps a failed pilot program by Ford
tells the real story: In 2016, the company
launched a scheme that let three to six custom-
ers share the same lease. After three months,
no one—no one!—had signed up.
In general, ride-sharing schemes don’t ac-
tually prompt many people to give up their
cars. Data from a 2016 UC Berkeley study,
supported by the DOT and car2go, a pay-by-
the-hour rental service, suggested that just 2 to
5 percent of car2go members stop owning au-
tos because of ride-sharing options, while 7 to
10 percent chose not to buy one at all. On top
of that, companies like Lyft might actually
make city driving worse: A July 2018 report
by Schaller Consulting found that of U.S.
city dwellers using “transportation network
company” (TNC) cars, 60 percent would have
walked, biked, or stayed home if they hadn’t
been able to summon a ride, and 40 percent
would have sparked up their own vehicle or
taken a cab. “TNCs are used instead of per-
sonal autos mainly when parking is expensive
or difficult to find and to avoid drinking and
driving,” the report states. For every mile a
Grace Orders didn’t drive, a TNC gigger drove
2.8 miles—meaning that TNC systems actually
increase vehicle use by about 180 percent.
Ride-shares, then, do not represent an un-
alloyed good, and on their own are unlikely to
help people navigate cities in new ways. But
they and the bike and scooter and whatever-
comes- next companies they buy up are
going to be part of the first-mile/last-mile
ecosystem. And so some cities are helping
to make them work for people with lower
incomes, as last-mile options. St. Peters-
burg, Florida, subsidizes Uber rides to and
from transit stations. Meanwhile, Detroit
and Austin, Texas, have autonomous shut-
tles. Columbus recently introduced such a (^) Concealed Display - $39
™ - $49 (^) V1connection™ LE - $49
® - $69 Plus Shipping / Ohio residents add sales tax
Mike Valentine
Radar Fanatic
©^2
018
VR
I
http://www.valentine1.com
Valentine Research, Inc.Department No. YGB
10280 Alliance RoadCincinnati, Ohio 45242
Ph 513-984-8900Fx 513-984-8976
Ahead
Beside
Behind
Where’s
the radar? They tell me
every time. A detector
without the arrows is like
a car without headlights.
“
”
Trust ...V1 earns it one ambush at a time.
(CONTINUED FROM P. 69)