To Share or Not to Share?

Driving Towards Driverless Cars

In recent months, there have been many news articles regarding the introduction of a new transportation mode: microtransit.  If there was a transportation mode spectrum between large, fixed route buses and single occupancy vehicles, microtransit would fall somewhere in-between. Mictrotransit examples include the following:

• Commuter buses (Leap Transit, Chariot SF, and Bridj)
• Dynamic vanpools (Via, RidePal)
• Dynamic and traditional carpools (Carma, Duet, PiggyBack Rides, and Tripda)
• Cab sharing (Lyft Line and Uber Pool)
• Informal ridesharing networks (NYC’s dollar vans)
• Employer Vans (Google, Genentech, Facebook, etc)

These have introduced significant reactions from both the government and communities.  I’ll start with the positive – these many platforms are leveraging technology to improve mobility in cities that have significant mobility challenges. The reason new companies are appearing everyday reflects the fact that there’s a market to serve and…

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