Mayor takes RTA side in Circulator issue

[Tim Liston]

Mark there’s a ton we could debate on this issue. But to my original point…. The RTA is sclerotic. It cannot adapt in its present incarnation. It doesn’t have the motivation or the ability. It got that way because of the very protections and subsidies you decry when sought by private companies. Keeping the RTA alive in its present form only inhibits transit in the long-run.

I hope the ride-sharing companies have public transit in their crosshairs. I hope they see those 100,000 (?) daily RTA fares and salivate. So they do to public transit what they did to the cab companies. The RTA is not gonna reinvent itself. It's gonna have to get reinvented the hard way. Creative destruction hurts a little in the short run but is healthy in the long run. Like exercise.

But no matter. If I’m Mike Summers I wouldn’t waste my time with RTA.

I would like to hear more about the transportation revolution that you see coming, maybe down below in Urban Dynamics. And I agree with you that “guns-over-butter” has been incredibly destructive to our country.

[Dan Alaimo]

But I wonder if public transportation can be re-thought on the local level. Could something like what Tim envisions can't be invented for Lakewood? I know little about these things, but it seems to be a matter of an app, some drivers interested in making a few bucks, and of course insurance.

We may well wait in vain for the self-driving vehicles to solve this problem. The technology will certainly arrive sooner than later, but regulations will likely mandate some sort of a human presence in the car.

[Tim Liston]

This just in. Floating a trial balloon that is surprising absolutely nobody, the “Clevelanders for Public Transit” (?) are proposing a 27 cent per-ride tax on Uber and Lyft, and the proceeds given over to the RTA.

Cuyahoga County asked to impose fee on Uber and Lyft ride-sharing to help RTA (click here)

Apparently the proposal is being modeled after a similar initiative in Chicago. You know, Chicago. The death spiral in process that people can’t leave fast enough.

The article says that fares provide 16% of RTA revenues. The rest comes from taxes. So a fare ($2.25) pays 1/6th of the actual cost of a ride ($13.50). The taxpayers are picking up the other $11.25. And RTA still loses tons of money.

Why do we continue to reward failure and punish success? Forget RTA. RTA needs to be humanely euthanized. If ever there was a case to be made for privatization, RTA is it. Maybe keep the trains running, but nothing else. Then come what may. But an $11.25 per fare subsidy is simply too much to ask.

[Brian Essi]

This just in. Floating a trial balloon that is surprising absolutely nobody, the “Clevelanders for Public Transit” (?) are proposing a 27 cent per-ride tax on Uber and Lyft, and the proceeds given over to the RTA.

Cuyahoga County asked to impose fee on Uber and Lyft ride-sharing to help RTA (click here)

Apparently the proposal is being modeled after a similar initiative in Chicago. You know, Chicago. The death spiral in process that people can’t leave fast enough.

The article says that fares provide 16% of RTA revenues. The rest comes from taxes. So a fare ($2.25) pays 1/6th of the actual cost of a ride ($13.50). The taxpayers are picking up the other $11.25. And RTA still loses tons of money.

Why do we continue to reward failure and punish success? Forget RTA. RTA needs to be humanely euthanized. If ever there was a case to be made for privatization, RTA is it. Maybe keep the trains running, but nothing else. Then come what may. But an $11.25 per fare subsidy is simply too much to ask.

Wow! Taxation of your competition to subsidize your losses. How can we get in on this? The People's Republic of Cook County spreads its success and wisdom to Cuyahoga County.

Perhaps you could you post some pics with scary faces on them to confuse these futuristic "Big Thinkers" into a different approach?

[cmager]

The article says that fares provide 16% of RTA revenues. The rest comes from taxes. So a fare ($2.25) pays 1/6th of the actual cost of a ride ($13.50). The taxpayers are picking up the other $11.25. And RTA still loses tons of money.

Uber fares pay approx 41% of the cost of the ride. Uber investors pay the other 59%. I don't have a solution, but it's best to be completely aware of the numbers.
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/arti ... cost-uh-oh

[michael gill]

Say you've got a relatively inexpensive car at $17K, and drive it til it nearly drops: 10 years. Say you drive it 17000 miles a year, which a lot of people do.

You're in for a dollar a mile through the life of the car, before you buy gas, change the oil, buy insurance, or repair the transmission.

Say you live in Rocky River and work downtown, about 10 miles each way. Your drive to work in the moning costs $10, even before you buy gas or any of that other stuff.

Transportation is expensive.

[michael gill]

Sorry, 10 cents a mile. I shouldn't post late at night.

[Tim Liston]

cmager – If the rider pays 41% of the fare, and the investors pay 59%, how much do taxpayers pay?

And I understand, and have so forever, that Uber’s current business model involves the use of investors’ money to buy market share and to create vast economies of scale, which the Internet can facilitate. Like Amazon did. It appears that they may be successful, where RTA and the kooks that run it have been an utter failure. In the past I’ve been an Uber skeptic and I still am. But now that Clevelanders for Public Transit (?) has informed me that RTA loses money at $13.50 a ride, even when cherry-picking the routes, I’m less skeptical. Uber’s problems are with execution, not opportunity. Seems like RTA is in a death spiral.

Mike – Innocent mistake. Ten cents a mile on my vehicle cost has been my go-to benchmark cost since I got out of college almost 40 years ago. Back then it was achievable (but not easy) because cars were cheap. Now it’s achievable (but not easy) because cars last a long time. I buy cars and drive them into the ground. And I almost always buy used, the exception being the new Kia that Barky helped me pay for in 2009. I’ve only failed to get my vehicle cost under ten cents a mile one time, on a used Volvo I bought from a friend’s dad 25 years ago.

Transportation is like almost everything else. Whether it’s cheap or expensive depends on who’s paying. If you’re paying it’s probably cheap. If someone else is paying for you, it’s probably expensive. Think healthcare….

I just saw this article on The Verge web site, it’s probably still linked on their home page….

Lyft expands its tax-saving carpooling benefit program to more US cities. Is Lyft Line public transit? (click here, The Verge is a quick daily stop for me)

I’m in greater Denver and catching a plane soon and will read the article on the plane. (And boy, being here where I am now makes me appreciate Lakewood. Even Uber is expensive here because everything is so far apart.) I’d be interested in knowing whether Lyft Line or UberPool could be adapted to become a Circulator? Because one thing for sure, the screwballs that run RTA will never ever operate a cost-effective public transit system. Ever. Unless maybe we stop giving them money.

Let RTA go its own way. If Lakewood wants a Circulator it needs to solve the problem itself. And the first thing I’d do is get in touch with Uber and Lyft and see what they have to offer. And I’d stand willing to be a beta test for something on their drawing board. Because there is something on their drawing board, I guarantee it. Heck even when the RTA was running a Circulator here, it seemed at least marginally successful. Competent management could probably run a Circulator that would attract residents and small business to the city. You just have to think outside the box a little….

[michael gill]

When I lived in Ecuador, there were private bus lines. I don't know how they got organized, but they drove routes reliably through the city. There were also municipal busses.

The private lines were rickety old school busses that commonly were packed shoulder to shoulder in the aisles, at rush hour even with people hanging off the sides. It was a cheap ride.

The municipal lines cost ten times as much to ride. They didn't run nearly as many routes. I've no idea whether they were subsidized, or how much. They were bigger, cleaner busses, and did not allow passengers to hang off the side.

[Tim Liston]

If Lakewood really wants a circulator it doesn't have to wait for the RTA. And it shouldn't. The RTA is dysfunctional.

I read this recently, which is why I am posting here again:

"These posh ride-sharing startups aim to leave Uber and Lyft in the dust" (click here)

It's about a couple newer ride-sharing companies that use larger vehicles that multiple riders share. Nice vans, and they're owned by the ride-share companies, whose drivers are employees, not independents. The app sorts out how to get multiple riders about most expeditiously Right now they operate mostly in Europe. One is owned by Volkswagen I think. They seem like a natural for a Lakewood circulator. Check it out.

Or both Uber (Uber Pool) and Lyft (Lyft Line) offer shared ride versions of their service. Getting a circulator back would be a real feather in Lakewood's cap and a draw. I know that a couple of the council candidates talked it up. The services and the technology are there. So why are we waiting?

[Dan Alaimo]

The Times They Are A-Changin. We will see how much they change.