What If? We Repurpose Ride-Sharing Tech to Solve “First/Last Mile” for Public Transit

I file this under “random civic tech ideas that haunt me.”

Every time I pass people waiting in the heat at bus stops on Gregson St in Durham on my way to Highway 147, I think “When will Uber, Lyft or some other rider-driver market-making software make it so I can choose to pick this person up for free and drop them off on my way to where I’m going (for example, the main Durham Bus Terminal which I pass every day)?.”

Can we solve “last mile” pains for low income folks in a way that still gives drivers flexibility? The more I think about it, the more it seems like an Uber feature. Let’s say you allow drivers to turn on a discount for registered users who are cross-registered for food stamps. We could simply charge enough to give you a little extra gas money — that little extra incentive to give up your 100% autonomy and turn on your car radar. But not so much money that you are quitting your day job.

[Note to self: Find some research surveys of people willing to give other people rides/pick up hitchikers.] Think how many more people would be willing to give rides to pre-qualified elderly or working poor folks trying to get to their jobs? Feeling nice this Monday morning after church? Want to give back? Just turn on your app, which allows you to appear for people trying to go in the same direction as you.

Imagine this possibility: maybe I end up giving the same woman a ride to work once or twice a month and get to know her and her story. Maybe then I would just start picking her up everyday. Get to know her kids.

I don’t think this could eliminate the need for reliable transportation. But I think it could help significantly. Please let me know if you hear anything like this happening…

AFTER SOME RESEARCH

Not Exactly Ride-Sharing: Apps tailored to commute-based ride sharing use cases seems to be gaining some traction now. See https://carmacarpool.com/search/ . In the Triangle, I just signed up for this web-based service: http://www.sharetheridenc.org/.