Catch up with the recording of our online discussion of a Colorado city’s partnership with Lyft
Last week we held a webinar with the city of Centennial, CO, one of the 16 members of our Smart Cities Collaborative, about their six-month partnership with Lyft to connect more residents to their existing transit service. Catch up with the full recording of the session right here.
Centennial is a mid-sized suburb southeast of Denver that has connecting light rail service, but it’s difficult for many of the residents of Centennial to reach the stations from their homes. This pilot project provided free Lyft rides between between the Dry Creek light rail station and nearby homes within a 3.75 square-mile service area with the aim of incentivizing transit use and reducing congestion for trips into downtown Denver.
Did you miss the webinar? Catch up with the full recorded presentation below, and download the accompanying slide presentation here. (pdf)
The pilot project was of the first of its kind in the nation and ran from August through February of this year. The city recently finalized its final report with detailed project results, lessons learned, and next steps. Melanie Morgan, a Data Analyst for Centennial’s Innovation team and the pilot project manager, presented on the report and fielded participant questions on funding, payment, data reporting, scalability, paratransit, and more.
For more on the pilot project and to download the full report, visit http://go.centennialco.gov/.
Comments (2)
The final report contains a number of false comparisons and misrepresentations regarding Lyft and RTD Call-n-Ride (CnR) services.
• The report states that Call-n-Ride service requires at least two-hours advance booking, while Lyft arrives in 5 min 15 sec. However, about 2/3 of CnR customers make no reservation at all and board at a convenient, scheduled checkpoint, thus booking time for them is zero. But the relevant metric for a reservation is how long between the promised PU and actual PU times, and CnR vehicles actually arrive a few minutes early on average.
• The report misrepresents the cost comparison. CnR includes all costs including capital (including accessible vehicle), administration and operations. According to the report the 1,302 Lyft rides averaging $4.70 each cost a total $6,119, the Via accessible vehicle at 13.5 hours per day a total of $47,000 and other administrative costs $9,000 for a total cost of about $62,000 for the six months, or $47.60 per trip. The CnR fully allocated cost was $23.30 per trip. In fact, Call-n-Ride cost 45% less than Go Centennial.
• The report makes a number of incorrect presumptions comparing CnR to Lyft, for example:
o For our customers’ convenience CnR offers spontaneous boarding at scheduled checkpoints, advance booking and subscriptions, all especially convenient for recurring first/last mile commutes. Lyft offers little or none of these options.
o CnR establishes gathering zones, checkpoints and regularly scheduled pickup times to be at the right place at the right time for its customers. Lyft has not indicated it has these capabilities.
o Shared-riding is essential to meet RTD service standards. The CnR scheduling technology facilitates this, but Lyft uses taxi-like dispatching technology with limited capabilities (Lyft Line) for shared riding. Taxi-like productivity does not meet RTD’s standards.
RTD was completely open to this pilot, even promoting it to all CnR riders. The directly comparable services meant that customers were free to make choices according the features, qualities and values important to them. CnR maintained its ridership during the pilot.