Uber to introduce fixed-route shuttles in major US cities

I know everyone thinks this is a bus, but as a regular bus commuter in the bay area, I think there is room to expand here that a bus can't always meet. A few problems:

  * Bus stops are often far from homes and offices
  * There’s rarely parking near stops so you can't drive to it
  * Routes are fixed and rarely change. 
  * The process for petitioning for a new stop is painfully slow and done based on rough approximation of demand, community input, budgeting, and other red tape. I can't even guess what data they use to decide.
  * Many people can’t or won’t walk long distances to reach it.
  * The websites, maps, and schedules for buses are often very bad and hard to interpret

  * They have hundreds of thousands of users in a metro area.
  * Get those users to enter where they live, where they need to go, and roughly at what time.
  * They find a group ~30 people with similar locations, routes, destinations, and times to create a route
  * It doesn't have to be door to door. Just an acceptable walking distance at both ends.
  * Dedicated stops don't have to be approved and built. Just pull over on a major street.
  * It is extremely easy to use Uber

Uber Shuttle works in my home city since 2019. It's Kyiv, 3mil population, ancient public transportation network but probably a bit better than USA (by hearsay).

While it was working in normal conditions (before Covid and war) it wasn't that good. Routes were limited and timing iffy. Inside it was a regular small bus, so nothing fancy. And more expensive that public transport. So it is a serviceable transportation if there are no normal bus available at your route and at the same time uber shuttle route is matching yours. But any proper city transport beats them on all counts.

PS: from the article it seems this is not about Uber Shuttle feature, but a different new ride share feature. Anyway, I'll leave my comment, but consider that it is not quite relevant.

For everyone saying this isn't a bus service because they pick you up and modify routing; that concept is called a Telebus and is over 50 years old.

So its like a more expensive version of public transportation, that also causes more traffic congestion and pollution because you've got a ton of cars on the road doing the job of a single bus/trolley/train

- Uber builds a bus

- Uber asks to use bus lanes because because once again, and ITT, private sector frames public sector as “a peer product” that should have competition because this is America and so on

- Uber gets access to bus lanes

- pub transit degrades bc now it shares service with competition that operates under an entirely different model. A lion is introduced into a zoo with house cats, but hey they’re both cats and think of the zoo observers, they deserve options!

- Taxpayers fund Uber and buses, only one has the revenue model to provide unbiased social good

- Buses, like Amtrak and pub transit, degrade and degrade and degrade - look how government can’t do anything!

Turning a profit” for public services is the most harebrained meme that is simultaneously deeply damaging and continually propagated by certain folks, to include ITT.

Or we could just all get mercenaries for our burbclaves. Not like police turn a profit either!

No one here wants to admit that personal safety is a major factor in avoiding some forms of public transit in many cities in America.

This model has the chance to succeed based on that alone.

they rolled this out to NYC a month or two ago. They were airport shuttles with an initial price of $10 and will go to $25. It was dramatically more comfortable than taking the subway and then transferring to the air train and the normal price is honestly fairly competitive against the subway + air train (~$12).

Seems fine to me, just charge them a fee to use bus lanes, which can then go into funding public transit. Win-win.

So will this end up destroying public transit for them to eventually 6x the price?

> The routes, which are selected based on Uber’s extensive data on popular travel patterns, might have one or two additional stops to pick up other passengers.

This is a blindspot Uber will have on traffic that’s not currently serviced by their taxi model but maybe could be serviced by a shuttle. But maybe that traffic is riskier / more volatile since it’s not on Uber already. Interesting optimization problem.

Isn’t this what public transit is supposed to provide?

In San Francisco, I just hope Mayor Lurie will work to make riding Muni a less intimidating experience. I understand some people still find it convenient, and that’s great—but unfortunately, safety has seriously declined in recent years. Personally, I just can’t bring myself to ride it anymore.

Maybe it’s because I live near a Walgreens, and I often see the same groups of “shoppers” (aka shoplifters) frequently hopping on and off at the same stop I use. It’s hard to feel secure in that environment.

This sounds like marshrutki. These are very common in post-Soviet countries to fill the demand left unmet by public transportation service.

>> ...fixed-route rides along busy corridors during weekday commute hours in major U.S. cities

>> The commuter shuttles will drive between pre-set stops every 20 minutes ... there will be dozens of routes in each launch city ... To start, riders will only ever have to share the route with up to two other co-riders

This sounds like there are going to be people driving empty cars (and later empty large SUVs) on a loop in already busy and congested areas. Do the drivers at least get paid whether or not they have riders?

Major US Cities already have services like SuperShuttle and other car pooling for shared rides with people going the same way, as an added bonus, you can get picked up in front of your house -- no "turn-by-turn directions to get them from their house to the corner where they’ll be picked up". This Uber service seems wasteful when they already have shared rides.

I commuted in public transport my whole life until I moved to SF, saw a bunch of violence and mugging my first times riding the bus and decided to never ride the bus ever again here.

This sounds like something Via is doing

https://ridewithvia.com/

I signed up for Via in Chicago but it didn’t quite work out for me. I guess Uber’s network is bigger so high probability of coincidence routes.

San Clemente (south of LA) replaced local bus service with subsidized ($2)lyft rides for a select list of pickup/dropoff spots a few years ago. I receive vouchers every month just for having used Lyft in the town.

Similar; surely more expensive big picture, but far more convenient.

Uber have been running fixed route shuttles in London since 2020

albeit they use boats https://www.thamesclippers.com/plan-your-journey/route-map

Casual carpool has been doing this in San Francisco for 30 years, no billion dollar corporation needed:

https://sfcasualcarpool.com/

Uber invents … the bus.

I wonder if this could put a real dent in rush hour?

(Letting my imagination wander a bit)

If everyone on the highway did this...

Could Uber be more convenient than public tranit?

Would they be able to regularly group passengers so that people are picked up and dropped off nearby?

Could Uber be cheaper than parking garages in large cities?

Could this put such a large dent in the number of cars on the road that traffic moves faster?

Interesting to see the contrast with this other post here [0].

US offers a more "bus-like" service and Shanghai offers a more "Uber-like" bus service.

Like some kind of carcinization in public transport.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43980845

Reminds me of Chariot from back in the day. That was nice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chariot_(company)

> In Europe this is called public transportation

Just kidding! This comment reminds me of how Uber's leadership underwent a complete overhaul due to their questionable business practices. It seems like not much has changed, and they're still trying to exploit the public for their own profit.

To learn from them, i can highly recommand: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321080908_A_REVIEW_...

Project 2025 calls for massive cuts to public transit and instead give money and tax breaks to companies like Uber and Lyft to provide transit instead. This is just Uber getting ready for that phase of the plan.

Um no i'd rather that money go towards actual buses.

> Ride-hail and delivery giant Uber is introducing cheap, fixed-route rides along busy corridors during weekday commute hours in major U.S. cities

Note that Uber is not introducing this in Europe or other cities where they have good public transport.

Instead of bus or trams that carry X people at once, reducing congestion, emissions, etc., you still have individual cars carrying one person at a time.

I can't believe the techcrunch article didn't mentioned the word bus at all.

Good idea for certain routes: But

"like between Williamsburg and Midtown in NYC" -- That's route is baffling and probably not needed. There is already a subway, (L then Transfer to 1-6 lines, or R/W). During peak hours, the subway is faster.

Chariot?

Great idea

Uber’s next step should be to connect the shuttles together to increase volume and create a dedicated, isolated route to increase efficiency. Then they can call it “Transport AI Network” or TRAIN for short

Guess the sarcastic response would be: "so a bus?"

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