A couple of interesting developments happened this week in the world of transportation options that fall somewhere between a bus and a taxi or private car.
First, Uber Express Pool launched in several cities, including Washington D.C., which requires users to walk to a designated point to make those Uber Pool trips a little less loopy and indirect.
And in London, the long-admired Citymapper app began an on-demand minibus service that consists of a fleet of eight-seater Mercedes Viano buses that also travels along fixed points.
With the Uber Express Pool launch, Aarian Marshall at Wired reports:
Instead of providing door-to-door service, the product asks app users to walk a block or two to a meeting spot. They might be dropped off a block or so away from their destination, too.
Uber Express Pool is the service’s first new significant product in three and a half years, and it’s available in Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia, San Diego, and Washington, DC—along with Boston and San Francisco, where it’s been running as a pilot for the past three months.
It should save riders money as well as time: Express Pool fares are as much as 50 percent cheaper than your standard shared Uber Pool ride and up to 75 percent compared to UberX fares.
And in this way, Uber launches itself into your commute, putting its fares in range of what you pay to ride the bus or subway. The company is going after the people people who move from the office to the house and then back again every day, with a product that mimics the public transit systems many already use.
City agencies aren’t quite sure what’s up. Preliminary reports from independent researchers aren’t clear either.
In London, using the Citymapper app, people will be able to book and pay for rides. But there will be bus-like, pre-defined routes, pretty much the same concept as Uber Express Pool in the U.S.
Citymapper is launching the service with a free trial in a small area of central London that includes Euston, St Paul’s and Blackfriars but Omid Ashtari, the company’s president and head of business, said it plans to expand the service soon. It has a licence for up to 500 bus drivers, who will be self-employed and operate their own vehicles.
Drivers will be restricted to driving on a “responsive network” of assigned roads, but the app will direct them along routes that respond to demand, which will make it easier for passengers to share rides.