Municipal transit services could increase ridership by co-ordinating with, not competing against, commercial ridesharing companies.
Waterloo Engineering researchers found that transit-ridesharing links in poorly serviced suburban neighbourhoods, where frequent bus service on fixed routes is cost-prohibitive, could help get people out of their cars by making transit more convenient.
Chris Bachmann is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Waterloo.
The results are based on data from a pilot project that offered residents in a low-density area of Waterloo ridesharing trips, and free transfers to Grand River Transit, for the same price as bus trips.
"The pilot demonstrated that integrating ridesharing with transit can work," said Chris Bachmann, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Waterloo.