Integrating ridesharing with transit in poorly serviced suburban neighbourhoods is an effective way to get people out of their cars and boost ridership.
Researchers at the University of Waterloo found two-thirds of people who took advantage of inexpensive rideshare trips in a pilot project used them to travel to or near bus stops.
“The pilot demonstrated that integrating ridesharing with transit can work,” said Chris Bachmann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Waterloo. “The challenge now is designing an integrated system to make it work as well as possible.”
The study involved six months of data from a pilot project in a low-density, car-dependent area of the City of Waterloo with infrequent bus service and low transit ridership rates.
Dozens of virtual ridesharing stops were designated in the pilot area so that almost all residents lived within 400 metres, or about a five-minute walk, of one.
Read more at University of Waterloo
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