Case study Sioux Falls: Flexible, free markets can fix transit failures
Washington Policy Center highlights Mariya Frost’s article on Sioux Falls’ SAM Flex app, powered by Pantonium’s tech. It ditches fixed routes for on-demand bus rides, cutting costs and CO2 while boosting rider access. With similar tech in nearby Sacramento, Silicon Valley has the opportunity to adopt this private-sector innovation and take its transit to another level.
Imagine public transit that picks you up near your home or work and takes you to your destination quickly and without unnecessary stops or transfers, guaranteeing you arrive at your destination by the time you pick. And, not only is it more responsive to rider demand, it costs taxpayers less, and reduces environmental impact.
According to SAM, passengers download the SAM Flex app, provide contact information and set up payment. When people need to take a trip, rather than going to a bus stop and waiting for the next bus, they can book their trip through the app, receiving an estimated pick-up time and location at a bus stop which shouldn’t be more than three blocks away. They can track their bus while they wait.
As a result, low-income workers had more options to get to work. Rather than a traditional hub-and-spoke system, where routes run downtown and then back out to a suburb, the on-demand algorithm can route buses on the fly, allowing people to travel directly to their destination without long detours. Workers tend to look for jobs they can reach in less than an hour and expanding the territory they can reach with transit opens up new job options for them.
The improvement in reliability and efficiency also means a reduction in fuel use and CO2 emissions. Not only are routes more efficient, but because the system is more user friendly and reliable, people can choose transit instead of using their car. Pantonium estimates that by 2022, this system could “help prevent over 6,000,000 car trips,” saving more than 20,000 metric tons of CO2.
Pantonium looked at a microtransit service in Sacramento, California pre-COVID, which generated 3.24 rides per service hour in May-June 2018. They compare this to macrotransit service they deployed in Belleville, Ontario that same year, which resulted in “30 riders per service hour, an increase in ridership of 300%, and service area expansion by 70%.” This greater efficiency was achieved while the transit agency decreased fleet mileage by 30%.
Read the whole thing here.
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