October 18, 2017

Transportation Lessons from a Summer in Suburbia

Over the summer I completed an internship in Washington D.C. working for Toyota North America. I learned a lot, not just about Toyota but also about using mobility services for suburban commuting.

While looking for summer housing, I wanted to live close to work in the downtown area. I soon realized this was not going to be realistic due to the high cost of rent. Thankfully, I was able to rent a room from a great family that lived in a suburb in Virginia two miles from a newly added metro station. With limited public transportation options to the subway, I planned to buy a collapsible bike and use it to and from commute to the subway station.

On my way to my new home I realized that there were no sidewalks in the area, the streets were narrow, and they had high speed limits. Suddenly I went from being an enthused and confident biker to a no way no how biker. As an inexperienced cyclist I decided not to take the chance on this road for a whole summer.

At this point, my only options were to use a ridehailing company to get to the metro or to buy a car and pay for parking. I opted for the cheaper and less complicated option of hailing rides using Uber and Lyft. To minimize costs I tried to check both apps before riding and to request shared rides from Lyft Line or Uber Pool. Unfortunately, Line and Pool failed to optimize multiple passenger trips;I only got matched with another customer one time all summer. Unfortunately, my suburban troubles were not over yet. Even hailing a ride was difficult. Typically in the early morning, I would have to request multiple rides. This uncertainty became frustrating because I would wake up very early and then have to sit and wait for a ride to match. I also experienced many unsafe trips where the drivers often weren’t paying attention and made illegal moves.

In total, I took 48 trips to and from the metro and the house I was living at, before my host family generously allowed me to use one of their cars to get to and from the metro. I took 12 trips with Uber and 36 with Lyft, and prices ranged from $2.83 to $6.30 each way. . As a student, this was a lot to spend twice a day. I found ridehailing very inconvenient because of reduced flexibility and the delayed pickup times.

As someone who has grown up and lived in densely populated areas my entire life, it was hard for me to fully understand the transit struggles of suburban areas. It seems that all modes besides driving are destined to fail due to the lack of density and demand. Most buses operate well below capacity, while using a service like Lyft Line and Uber Pool will rarely link trips. At the same time, biking is unsafe thanks to narrow high speed roads. Although my situation may be unique, one thing did become clear to me; if you want more people to use sustainable transportation, you need to give them reasons and ways to use it.