Second in a series

Re: “Two Reasons Culver City Bus Ridership Rises, Falls”

It only seems as if Uber and Lyft quietly have entered the Culver City transportation derby.

In reality, they have stirred shattering noise in the offices of Culver CityBus.

The arrival of Uber and Lyft “has been bad for us,” says Transportation Director Art Ida. “They have affected our ridership.”

With the constantly changing gas prices and the granting of driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants also hurting bus ridership, Mr. Ida said it is impossible to accurately measure the negative impacts of Uber and Lyft.

“Depending on the Uber ride, our fare costs a dollar to go from Point A to Point B. It’s a shorter distance.

“Let’s say someone is using Uber on their app. A car will get there right away.   It may cost them $3. But they will get there directly (faster),” Mr. Ida said. “It will be more on demand, as opposed to having to wait until a bus gets there after a period of time.”

Here is a conundrum that spells h-e-a-d-a-c-h-e for the Transportation director.

“Uber and Lyft are something we will have to deal with,” said Mr. Ida. “We are trying to figure it out.”

What stumps the Transportation solution people most is, “we don’t really know how much of an effect Uber and Lyft have on us – because Uber and Lyft don’t share their data. They are very proprietary about their data.

“So,” Mr. Ida said, “it is hard for us to quantify.”

(To be continued)