Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s Decline

Re:Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s D... by capkutay on Friday January 25, 2019 @02:50PM (#19001786)

Sorry but this is bullshit.

As others have mentioned, public transit beats uber/lyft when its actually the better, faster service (e.g. London, Tokyo).

But when public transit is poorly planned, slow, dirty, crime-ridden like it often is in the US, uber/lyft wins every time. Even when cities like San Francisco choose to spend billions on improving public transit, they mess it up every single time. There's a long list of hilariously short sighted decisions made on projects like the Transbay Terminal, The Central Subway, Geary/Van Ness BRT.

My daily commute literally runs along the t-line in San Francisco, but I never take it because it's basically the same speed as walking, slower than biking, slower than uber'ing. Poor planning and management is the cause of public transit's decline.

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Re:Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s D... by ummonk on Friday January 25, 2019 @03:03PM (#19001944)

Yup. E.g. in Manhattan you'd be crazy to not use the subway. It's just faster than everything else, and extremely liberating. In contrast, in SF, if you want to get to your destination in any reasonable amount of time and don't your start and destination are not near the BART line, you need to use car / Uber / Lyft. Or even a scooter or Go bike is faster than public transit.

SF needs to significantly invest in transit with dedicated rights of ways, preferably along more important routes than the Central Subway. And if subways are too expensive or difficult to build, we need to seriously consider using elevated light rail instead. Geary road, for example, would be perfect for an el.

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Re:Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s D... by awgneo on Friday January 25, 2019 @03:07PM (#19001984)

I really wish Brooklyn had as many latitudinal lines as Manhattan. Whenever I visit Brooklyn, Uber/Lyft is always a better option.

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Re:Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s D... by jkravitz61 on Friday January 25, 2019 @03:37PM (#19002267)

Seattle has been doing this recently. I'm not sure if they have released any studies yet, but my observation has been a noticeable improvement.

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Re:Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s D... by prolikewhoa on Friday January 25, 2019 @03:44PM (#19002317)

I've noticed no improvement, especially now with the viaduct closed which appears to be a permanent decline for people coming in from the southwest and west Seattle.

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Re:Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s D... by jkravitz61 on Saturday January 26, 2019 @05:34PM (#19008989)

That’s a temporary change until the tunnel opens. I’ve noticed that Denny has been much better for buses since they have made a few changes for bus priority.

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Re:Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s D... by ct0 on Friday January 25, 2019 @02:56PM (#19001861)

To add to this, think about the consistent advertising that Uber and Lyft do, always keeping themselves front of mind regarding transportation. If public transportion decided to market their "on time" rate, things would get a lot more interesting.

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Re:Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s D... by Tiktaalik on Friday January 25, 2019 @06:20PM (#19003568)

Public transit fails when it's poorly funded. The existence of Uber/Lyft provides an excuse to transit skeptic politicians to ignore and underfund public transit expansion.

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Re:Another Study Blames Uber and Lyft for Public Transit’s D... by SpicyLemonZest on Friday January 25, 2019 @06:22PM (#19003578)

Sure, but politicians in many cities were ignoring and underfunding public transit long before Uber and Lyft came around. How long should people have waited before trying to come up with an alternative?

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