Browsing by Subject "Transportation network companies"
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Item Reinvention and disruption : Austin’s immigrant taxi drivers in the age of Uber(2018-10-04) Lundstrom, Kathryn Marie; Dahlby, Tracy; Lentz, ErinDesalegn Gemechu and Elsabet Guangul are musicians from Ethiopia who came to the United States for a better life –– and now, Gemechu drives a cab. The taxi industry has long served as an important steppingstone for immigrants like Gemechu trying to rebuild a life in a foreign country. But since Uber and Lyft flooded the market and pushed down industry wages, even the workers’ cooperative –– an attempt by immigrant drivers to save their livelihood through a low-cost, democratically run taxi franchise –– is struggling. As Gemechu and Guangul look to the future, they’re resolute about their decision to come to the U.S., but at a loss for how they’ll cope with an industry that is slipping awayItem The value of data : analyzing transportation network company trips for transit planning(2018-07-27) Evans, Robert James; Walton, C. MichaelPrivate transit in the US has evolved over the last decade to include car-sharing services like car2go and Zipcar to Transportation Network Companies (TNCs) such as Uber, Lyft, and RideAustin. As these services become more convenient and cost-effective for users, they continue to increase in popularity. However, despite some initial studies, there is not yet consensus on why people choose to use TNCs or what their effects on existing transit systems or society at large will be. RideAustin, a non-profit ride-hailing company that began in May 2016, emerged to fill a gap left when Uber and Lyft stopped operations in Austin. Can TNC trip profiles and rider profiles be developed based on the RideAustin dataset to determine when and where people choose to use TNCs, and what the characteristics of such people are? Where are transit and TNCs competitive, and where are they complimentary? This study aims to answer the questions raised by the emergence of TNCs by analyzing trips in the RideAustin dataset along with land use and Census data to develop trip and rider profiles. Downtown trips are shorter than the average trip, concentrated on Friday and Saturday nights, and primarily internal to the downtown area. Airport trips are much longer than the average trip, spread out during the week, and to a mix of low-density residential areas and hotspots like downtown. Downtown presents a good market for a transit circulator or TNC pickup zone. Airport trips to hotspots may be served well by transit if hours are extended, but trips to low-density residential areas are better served by TNCs.Item Transportation network companies as cost reduction strategies for paratransit(2018-06-26) Minot, Aysha Lauren Elysabeth; Sciara, Gian-Claudia; Sletto, BjørnParatransit service is an auxiliary type of public transportation provided for people with disabilities and older adults. Federal ADA regulations require all transit agencies receiving federal funding to provide paratransit service, but the per trip cost to transit operators is extremely expensive. Many transit agencies are looking for ways to reduce costs without limiting services. For many agencies, this results in providing the minimum services as required by ADA regulations. However, Boston’s Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) has taken a different approach to cost reduction by entering into one of the first partnerships with transportation network companies. In September 2016, MBTA’s paratransit service, The Ride, began a partnership with both Uber and Lyft as a cost reduction strategy for paratransit provision. Since the beginning of the partnership, MBTA has been able to reduce costs of providing paratransit while maintaining the same level of service. This report will examine the benefits and limitations of such partnerships between transit agencies and transportation network companies, using MBTA’s The Ride partnership as an example for potentially successful partnerships throughout the United States.