Demand grows in central Pennsylvania for $2 Uber-like door-to-door, on-demand transit rides, so why is that a problem?

Demand grows in central Pennsylvania for $2 Uber-like door-to-door, on-demand transit rides, so why is that a problem?

(WHTM) — In a world of long-term overall declines in public transportation ridership, it might seem like a high-quality problem: On-demand, door-to-door “microtransit” services like rabbittransit’s “Stop Hopper” service are — in some cases — too popular.

But it’s still a problem.

What’s not to like about an Uber-like $2 ride — or a free one, if you’re 65 or older?

The apparent answer, based on ridership levels: Is nothing’s not to like, which is why this seemingly counterintuitive statement by Rich Farr — executive director of rabbittransit, which serves much of central Pennsylvania — makes perfect sense: “Chambersburg is one area that we’re a little worried about as we continue, because it continues to grow.”

On the other hand, Farr said, “Sunbury is a great area for this. We think because it’s dense enough that it needs some form of public transportation, but it’s not so dense or so large that we that we can’t serve it with microtransit.”

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Farr said Stop Hopper’s service area in Chambersburg includes about 50,000 people; in the Sunbury-Selinsgrove area, it includes about 12,000.

With fixed-route transit service, as traditional bus routes are known, it’s generally the more, the merrier — service becomes more efficient and effective as more people use it — explained Eric Goldwyn, program director at the New York University (NYU) Marron Institute of Urban Management and a land-use and transportation professor.

That’s because a bus costs the same amount of money to put on the road, no matter how many people ride it. But then lots of riders mean more fare revenue — moving the service closer to a breakeven level, although virtually all public transportation is subsidized — not to mention more people served and potentially more single-occupancy cars taken off the roads.

Goldwyn said transit agencies hoped smartphone technology would riders going similar places at similar times to share trips, but that hasn’t happened in most places. So unlike with buses or trains, the more rides microtransit services provide, the more money the services cost.

What’s more, Goldwyn said, people like microtransit precisely because of what’s not working well.

“When you interview people who use these services, they often say, ‘It’s really nice when I’m by myself.’ They don’t like it as much when there are other people in there,” he said.

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Lancaster’s Red Rose Transit — considering starting its own microtransit service — can draw from what has and hasn’t worked at rabbittransit and other agencies. In Sunbury, the supply of service is just about right to meet the demand; in Chambersburg, rabbittransit is struggling to provide all the $2 door-to-door rides people want with reasonable wait times. Most rural areas can have the opposite problem: too few people to keep a microtransit vehicle busy.

One potential Lancaster County microtransit corridor — one leader hope will be the area’s Sunbury, so to speak — is between Marietta and Columbia in the eastern part of the county along the Susquehanna River.

“I’m excited about the opportunity to access transportation for people that don’t have it right now,” said Greg Downing, Red Rose Transit’s executive director. “But I’m also very cautiously optimistic about funding, about being efficient with taxpayer money.”

Goldwyn of NYU said he believes some microtransit supporters have been too enthusiastic about the ability of smartphone technology to overcome low-tech problems.

“Historically, we’ve tried to do stuff like this, and we end up coming back to the idea that, ‘Well, you know, it’d be really great if you just walked a block over and you met at this location, rather than us picking you up at your house, and instead of driving you to the doorstep of where you need to go, maybe you get off a block beforehand and you walk the rest of the way,’” Goldwyn said. “And then what a lot of transportation entrepreneurs — I don’t know that they ever realized this — is: That’s just a bus.”

Which, Goldwyn said, is not a bad thing.

“It’s not rocket science: Centralized stops. Central routes. Straight lines — you know, wherever the action is. Activity centers — connect those, and you’re going to do a pretty good job,” he said. “We can tinker and do better, of course. But I don’t think the smartphone has given us a way to outsmart low density just yet.”

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