Comments on: Smart Para-Transit + Car Sharing = No Reason to Own a Car http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/08/28/smart-para-transit-car-sharing-no-reason-to-own-a-car/ Covering the New York City Streets Renaissance Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:49:03 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: david http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/08/28/smart-para-transit-car-sharing-no-reason-to-own-a-car/comment-page-1/#comment-55855 david Wed, 03 Sep 2008 16:13:02 +0000 http://www.streetsblog.org/?p=4398#comment-55855 As a car owner with a private spot, I would not miss owning a car, but the main issue to me would be the ease of obtaining the car. Now I can drive to my country house and walk out my door and have the freedom of on the moment travel. I would not want to walk miles to smart car or have to jump thur hurdles to get one. In an odd way having these cars available might lead to more people driving. As a car owner with a private spot, I would not miss owning a car, but the main issue to me would be the ease of obtaining the car. Now I can drive to my country house and walk out my door and have the freedom of on the moment travel. I would not want to walk miles to smart car or have to jump thur hurdles to get one. In an odd way having these cars available might lead to more people driving.

]]> By: Carolyn Konheim http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/08/28/smart-para-transit-car-sharing-no-reason-to-own-a-car/comment-page-1/#comment-55790 Carolyn Konheim Sun, 31 Aug 2008 19:19:31 +0000 http://www.streetsblog.org/?p=4398#comment-55790 We already have a paratransit system w/o adding any more vehicles to our streets--it's called TAXIs. Yellow cabs have GPS systems-albeit, not the kind London taxis and NYC "black cars" have that ID a cell phone caller's location for pick-up. (For the outrageous $5,000 taxi owners paid for their tracking systems, they should get a free upgrade.) New York just needs to establish a group riding fee and zoned fares. This was developed with the taxi industry in 1986 ("Reducing Taxi VMT in the Manhattan CBD," Konheim & Ketcham for NYCDOT): Fares for groups of three or four going to a common zone would be prepaid at 50% of the metered fare, 65% if service became oversubscribed. Everybody wins. With three riders at 50% of the average metered fare, drivers make 50% more; with 4 riders they make 100% more. Riders get a high grade service for half price; a couple pays no more than at present. And the public benefits from more taxi availability without more taxis. With these fares, 79% of drivers and about half the riders surveyed would "definitely use" such service. This assumes groups are preformed when the taxi arrives, mainly to save time. If the system adds 5 minutes to the trip, rider use drops to a third. Thus, there needs to be designated places (not necessarily taxi stands) where groups could form. We could dust off and update the 1986 proposed pilot program for designating peak demand locations for testing group riding pick-ups: - west side of Park Avenue from 4:00-7:00 pm - all midtown hotels between 7:00 and 8 pm, and - Theatre District west side of Broadway from 10:00 – 11:00. We already have a paratransit system w/o adding any more vehicles to our streets--it's called TAXIs. Yellow cabs have GPS systems-albeit, not the kind London taxis and NYC "black cars" have that ID a cell phone caller's location for pick-up. (For the outrageous $5,000 taxi owners paid for their tracking systems, they should get a free upgrade.) New York just needs to establish a group riding fee and zoned fares. This was developed with the taxi industry in 1986 ("Reducing Taxi VMT in the Manhattan CBD," Konheim & Ketcham for NYCDOT): Fares for groups of three or four going to a common zone would be prepaid at 50% of the metered fare, 65% if service became oversubscribed.

Everybody wins. With three riders at 50% of the average metered fare, drivers make 50% more; with 4 riders they make 100% more. Riders get a high grade service for half price; a couple pays no more than at present. And the public benefits from more taxi availability without more taxis. With these fares, 79% of drivers and about half the riders surveyed would "definitely use" such service. This assumes groups are preformed when the taxi arrives, mainly to save time. If the system adds 5 minutes to the trip, rider use drops to a third. Thus, there needs to be designated places (not necessarily taxi stands) where groups could form.

We could dust off and update the 1986 proposed pilot program for designating peak demand locations for testing group riding pick-ups:
- west side of Park Avenue from 4:00-7:00 pm
- all midtown hotels between 7:00 and 8 pm, and
- Theatre District west side of Broadway from 10:00 – 11:00.

]]> By: Car Free Nation http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/08/28/smart-para-transit-car-sharing-no-reason-to-own-a-car/comment-page-1/#comment-55739 Car Free Nation Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:43:29 +0000 http://www.streetsblog.org/?p=4398#comment-55739 I think this is an interesting idea, and I think the next step to verify whether this would work is to take a look at an area of the city, say downtown Brooklyn, where a small number of car services serve the majority of the trips. (I believe Arecibo and Brownstone have the most cars) You could then track the trips to see where people were leaving from and where they were going. I'd be curious to see if there are enough people going to similar places at similar times for this to work. My intuition tells me that only during rush hour would you find this pattern, but in off hours, there'd be quite a long wait for more than one trip per vehicle. In that case, people would still need to own a car (or rely on other methods during the off hours), but it's precisely the off-hours trips that need to be made easier, because once people own a car they take more trips... I also wonder if this would work with families. My family of 5 currently calls a car service when we need to get somewhere close with all of us. It seems like we'd be causing everyone else some annoyance, if they had to 1) wait while we loaded our stuff, and 2) deal with the noise of 3 children in a very enclosed place. I think this is an interesting idea, and I think the next step to verify whether this would work is to take a look at an area of the city, say downtown Brooklyn, where a small number of car services serve the majority of the trips. (I believe Arecibo and Brownstone have the most cars) You could then track the trips to see where people were leaving from and where they were going.

I'd be curious to see if there are enough people going to similar places at similar times for this to work. My intuition tells me that only during rush hour would you find this pattern, but in off hours, there'd be quite a long wait for more than one trip per vehicle. In that case, people would still need to own a car (or rely on other methods during the off hours), but it's precisely the off-hours trips that need to be made easier, because once people own a car they take more trips...

I also wonder if this would work with families. My family of 5 currently calls a car service when we need to get somewhere close with all of us. It seems like we'd be causing everyone else some annoyance, if they had to 1) wait while we loaded our stuff, and 2) deal with the noise of 3 children in a very enclosed place.

]]> By: Glenn http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/08/28/smart-para-transit-car-sharing-no-reason-to-own-a-car/comment-page-1/#comment-55731 Glenn Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:58:28 +0000 http://www.streetsblog.org/?p=4398#comment-55731 Can well behaved dogs travel on Paratransit? This is a major barrier for my wife to let go of her car. Can well behaved dogs travel on Paratransit? This is a major barrier for my wife to let go of her car.

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