Bridj announced its closure after three years of trying to make its on-demand bus service work. The company was in service in Washington D.C., along with San Francisco and Kansas City. Interestingly, another transportation option launched at the same time Bridj was closing: AAA announced Gig in Berkeley and Oakland, but it’s a lot less TDM-y than Bridj. Gig is a car-sharing service that is much less about sharing or pooling and simply more like Enterprise CarShare or Zipcar.
Jim Aloisi, a former state transportation secretary who still closely monitors transit in Boston, said the public clearly has an appetite for finding ways to use technology to improve transportation. Big companies have taken notice, too: Last year, Ford acquired Chariot, of San Francisco, which offered a service like Bridj’s.
“For everyone who wonders why public transportation has historically required a subsidy, this is the answer to their question,” Aloisi said. “Mobility is expensive, and it doesn’t make a profit.”
Casey Vemis, of South Boston, said she started using Bridj after she became pregnant and grew increasingly frustrated with crowded city buses.
“I can wake up in the morning and reserve my seat and just know that I was going to have a comfortable ride to work,” she said.
For Vemis and others who relied on the startup, Monday’s commute will be back to the ordinary.