Atlanta university head drives for Uber; Gets schooled in city's transportation woes (Clarkston: cul-de-sac, low income)

[jsvh]

Atlanta university head drives for Uber; Gets schooled in city's transportation woes - Atlanta Business Chronicle

I run a university. I’m also an Uber driver. - The Washington Post

Before becoming a driver, I assumed the people who used Uber fell into three basic categories: young people (including lots of students at my own university) responsibly avoiding drinking and driving on nights out, business people who had switched to Uber for a faster response and lower cost, and folks like me who occasionally used Uber to avoid the hassles of traffic, parking or just because it’s the cool new thing to do.

...

Most often, my rides have been to and from the MARTA train station — about a $5 fare to a $2.50 ride on Atlanta’s meager public transportation system. Instead of getting a glimpse into the new economy, I was getting full exposure to the burdens of the old economy — specifically, how hard it is for regular working people to make it from their home or apartment to a job every day. This is a particularly big challenge in Atlanta, where just 18 percent of job [s] are accessible by transit for residents of the greater metropolitan area.

The last mile connection for transit is already here. Uber showing how it will transform transportation in Atlanta and make it not only possible to give up your car in Atlanta but make it the easy and affordable solution. This will only accelerate once driverless cars make it even cheaper.

[arjay57]

Great links, jsvh. Thanks much!

[bu2]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Atlanta university head drives for Uber; Gets schooled in city's transportation woes - Atlanta Business Chronicle

I run a university. I’m also an Uber driver. - The Washington Post



The last mile connection for transit is already here. Uber showing how it will transform transportation in Atlanta and make it not only possible to give up your car in Atlanta but make it the easy and affordable solution. This will only accelerate once driverless cars make it even cheaper.

Hackers disable brakes on WI-FI-equipped Jeep from miles away in Wired video - CBS News

I made this point a couple of months ago before this happened when we were discussing driverless cars. This wasn't even a driverless car and hackers were able to control it.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by bu2

Hackers disable brakes on WI-FI-equipped Jeep from miles away in Wired video - CBS News

I made this point a couple of months ago before this happened when we were discussing driverless cars. This wasn't even a driverless car and hackers were able to control it.

Sure. Just shows that you are no safer from hacking in a regular car than a driverless car.

People were terrified of "driverless elevators" when they first came around too. But people move past it after getting used to having them around.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Atlanta university head drives for Uber; Gets schooled in city's transportation woes - Atlanta Business Chronicle

I run a university. I’m also an Uber driver. - The Washington Post



The last mile connection for transit is already here. Uber showing how it will transform transportation in Atlanta and make it not only possible to give up your car in Atlanta but make it the easy and affordable solution. This will only accelerate once driverless cars make it even cheaper.

I find it odd that you took positivity from the quotes of the ABC article. If anything, the ABC article seems to support what I and others shared in the thread posted by someone asking if they should move to Atlanta without a car. As it mentions that it is difficult to get around in Atlanta relying solely on MARTA. I don't see how paying an additional $5 when one is already paying a daily, monthly, or weekly fare on MARTA yet cannot get home in a decent amount of time after a long day of work is something that is somewhat celebrated. MARTA should be covering the "last mile." I doubt the person he picked up which is described below paid a normal daily fare. They probably paid either $24 approximately for a weekly pass or $95 for a monthly pass, yet now they are paying again to take Uber and in most cases they are low income.

From the Washington Post:

Another recent fare took me in the vicinity of Clarkston, a city just outside Atlanta that’s become known for its large refugee community, most especially Sudanese.* I picked up my passenger at the end of the work day at the last MARTA station on the line. Atlanta is one of the most sprawling metro areas in the country, and large swaths of the suburbs are inaccessible by public transit.

These suburbs are where many of the city’s poor, non-white residents live. It’s almost impossible for them to get to the city to work — an example of urban planning at its worst. My rider sat in the back seat, eyes occasionally closing, and didn’t say a word to me other than, “thank you very much” when I dropped her at home. I didn’t ask, but my presumption, given the time of day, her dress and the route, was that this was her best alternative to get home to her family quickly and cheaply (a $5 fare) at the end of a long workday.

People who cannot afford to live in the nice areas of the city and don't want to live in the not so nice areas usually move out to the burbs due to affordability and this is when it is difficult to get around the metro without a car due to IMO MARTA not being a true regional transit authority as it does not cover the entire metro region and is pretty slow at night for people who work a non-traditional shift.

Clarkston is in DeKalb County BTW so it is under MARTA's routes. Also, their largest immigrant group to my knowledge is actually the Somalian community, not Sudanese but maybe there have been recent gains in this regard.

And I don't want to get into a debate over MARTA as I have stated before, I like MARTA but it is difficult to live in metro Atlanta without a car and MARTA is slow and doesn't cover a large enough area of the metro. The fact that people have to pay another ride program to take someone home instead of MARTA IMO is indicative of a problem with MARTA, not something to be celebrated. I can understand if they needed Uber to help move something or carry a lot of groceries, but just for a ride home from the MARTA station means they either got off work to late to take MARTA home or the bus wasn't going to leave and take them home expeditiously enough and they were tired and ready to go and in that instance that points out MARTA issues.

[jsvh]

residinghere2007 - It is never going to make sense for MARTA to effectively serve sprawling cul-de-sac subdivisions.

What is your best-case idea of how MARTA will ever effectively serve these subdivisions? A subway station for each street in a subdivision? Even if you buy the thousands of buses needed to stop by the entrance of every subdivision with any sort of frequency you will still be forcing many residents to make a mile+ walk just to get to the main road.

Today's transit will never be able to effectively serve sprawl. Uber and driverless cars are the future of transit.

Sure there will be higher transportation costs if you choose to live further out, but that has always been the trade off. Higher rent or higher transportation costs.

[residinghere2007]

People "choose" to live further out because they cannot afford the higher rates in the city. CoA rents are higher than those out in Clarkston or Stone Mountain.

DeKalb County is covered by MARTA and has stations. IMO they should increase the frequency of bus service to be of better service to customers. I used to work at the Airport until 2am in the morning and actually had to either pay $40 for a cab ride home to go to bed or (most of the time this is what I did) sleep in the airport until MARTA starts running again so I could get home without paying an arm and a leg. I made $6.25 an hour back then. I worked full time while I was in college at the airport and most nights could not afford a ride home in a cab. Lots of people did the same as what I did and slept in the airport because they couldn't afford a ride home.

If MARTA had been 24 hours this wouldn't have happened. And if buses didn't sit in the terminal/station for 30-40 minutes after arriving, people wouldn't feel the need to spend extra money to get Uber to take them home.

The president's experiences show problems with MARTA not something that is "filling" gaps. IMO it is showing gaps that MARTA has in this regard.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

People "choose" to live further out because they cannot afford the higher rates in the city. CoA rents are higher than those out in Clarkston or Stone Mountain.

I agree it is unfortunate that the government subsidizes the suburban lifestyle which is forcing the poor to live there, however the fix is to stop subsidizing one lifestyle over another, not giving even more transportation subsidies to suburbanites.

Also, yes, I hope MARTA trains will become a 24 hour service soon.

[DreamerD]

Originally Posted by residinghere2007

People "choose" to live further out because they cannot afford the higher rates in the city. CoA rents are higher than those out in Clarkston or Stone Mountain.

DeKalb County is covered by MARTA and has stations. IMO they should increase the frequency of bus service to be of better service to customers. I used to work at the Airport until 2am in the morning and actually had to either pay $40 for a cab ride home to go to bed or (most of the time this is what I did) sleep in the airport until MARTA starts running again so I could get home without paying an arm and a leg. I made $6.25 an hour back then. I worked full time while I was in college at the airport and most nights could not afford a ride home in a cab. Lots of people did the same as what I did and slept in the airport because they couldn't afford a ride home.

If MARTA had been 24 hours this wouldn't have happened. And if buses didn't sit in the terminal/station for 30-40 minutes after arriving, people wouldn't feel the need to spend extra money to get Uber to take them home.

The president's experiences show problems with MARTA not something that is "filling" gaps. IMO it is showing gaps that MARTA has in this regard.

It's nice reading your posts as I feel you are giving a voice to the many low-income who depend solely on MARTA and can't afford Uber. Living/working near public transport and surviving can be done but from what I have seen, even minimum wage jobs are wanting and emphasizing that people have 'reliable transportation.'

Some places are quite demanding and will give you shifts that are outside of MARTA's operation hours. I understand that people can look for other jobs that are more accommodating to their schedule but jobs are limited in certain industries so it isn't easy for everyone to just quit their job and find another.

I like that plans are being made to fill in the gaps but the majority of people who depend solely on MARTA will not be able to afford Uber.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by DreamerD

It's nice reading your posts as I feel you are giving a voice to the many low-income who depend solely on MARTA and can't afford Uber. Living/working near public transport and surviving can be done but from what I have seen, even minimum wage jobs are wanting and emphasizing that people have 'reliable transportation.'

Some places are quite demanding and will give you shifts that are outside of MARTA's operation hours. I understand that people can look for other jobs that are more accommodating to their schedule but jobs are limited in certain industries so it isn't easy for everyone to just quit their job and find another.

I like that plans are being made to fill in the gaps but the majority of people who depend solely on MARTA will not be able to afford Uber.

It would be great if MARTA could provide fast, reliable transportation between any two points in the metro 24/7/365 for a flat $2.50, but the hundreds of billions in funding it would take to build a system like that is never going to happen.

So you can sit and wish for that (and I am supportive of MARTA expansion as well), but in the mean time people still have got to live. And that means either taking Uber to keep your job or paying a little extra in rent to live close to reliable transit / job access.