Municipal transit services could increase ridership by co-ordinating with, not competing against, commercial ridesharing companies.
À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Engineering researchers found that transit-ridesharing links in poorly serviced suburban neighbourhoods, where frequent bus service on fixed routes is cost-prohibitive, could help get people out of their cars by making transit more convenient.
Chris Bachmann is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ.
The results are based on data from a pilot project that offered residents in a low-density area of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ ridesharing trips, and free transfers to Grand River Transit, for the same price as bus trips.
"The pilot demonstrated that integrating ridesharing with transit can work," said Chris Bachmann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ.