If you’re commuting home in Los Angeles on the bus, that means waiting an average 20 minutes or more at a stop. Uber, by contrast, has an average wait time of five minutes. While the growth of ride-hailing in the city probably isn’t entirely responsible for its steep drop in bus riders, it’s a factor. So L.A.’s transit agency is in the early stages of considering another option: public transit on demand, called up via an app.

It’s not the only city thinking about the possibility of Uber-like city shuttles. Some, like Kansas City, have run trials with private companies. Others have already switched to an on-demand service for paratransit (transit for those with disabilities or the elderly) which typically uses an old-fashioned scheduling system. For cities planning a shift in services, a new simulator could help them visualize how agency-owned “microtransit” would work in their locations.

“Cities know this is necessary,” says Rahul Kumar, VP of revenue at TransLoc. “They see the success Uber and Lyft are having, but they have so many things on their plate that it’s really difficult for them to solve this problem.”

That doesn’t mean that traditional public transportation will disappear, but in the future it may be more seamlessly connected to microtransit, and later, self-driving cars. “There is still going to be a place for fixed-route transportation, high-capacity transit, whether it’s a subway, heavy commuter trains, or even buses,” says Kumar.

Read the source article at fastcompany.com