City partners with Uber to provide public transportation

 The city council formally unveiled it’s solution to public transportation in Kyle during its meeting last night, announcing a partnership with Uber that allows anyone over the age of 18 with a smartphone to ride from one spot within the city limits to another inside the city for $3.14.

There are a couple of catches, however. One, the city will subsidize the cost of any ride over $3.14, but only up to $10. That means the rider will be responsible not only for the first $3.14 of a ride, but also for any amount in excess of $13.14. Second, it appears riders just can’t reserve one ride and then say “That was nice, but I’m done with that.” To secure a ride, a patron must use the smartphone app that is part of the city’s new app and, according to Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix, “download a voucher for eight trips.” 

Why $3.14? The answer is almost too cute, but here it is: The ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is approximately 3.14159 and that mathematical constant has been represented since the mid 18th century by the Greek letter ∏ which is spelled out as “pi.” And since Kyle bills itself as “The pie capital of Texas” … well, you get the picture.

“This gives back to everybody in Kyle,” Mayor Pro Tem Rick Koch, one of the architects of the Uber partnership, said during last night’s council meeting. “This is a program that everyone can use. It’s adopting something the world already uses and it just makes great financial sense for us to embrace technology and find the most value for our dollars.”

“This is such a perfectly tailored program to slide right in where our situation is,” Mayor Travis Mitchell added. “I’m thankful and very happy that we were able to put this in this year’s budget. I’m excited to see where this goes.”

Hendrix said Uber will be able to provide special vehicles for customers needing wheelchairs and that all its drivers will wear masks (riders will be required to wear masks as well).

“We wouldn’t be partnering with Uber if they didn’t have the reputation for being safe,” Hendrix said.

Taking the “mass” out of mass transportation

I read recently — in fact, it might have been just yesterday in the Hays Free Press — that the city of Buda is conspiring with Austin’s Cap Metro to develop a mass transportation plan for our neighbors to the north. As I recall (I actually just skimmed the story), some city official — it might have even been Buda Mayor Todd Ruge — was quoted in the story as saying, at the very least, the city needed mass transportation services between Buda and Southpark Meadows in South Austin.

Good for Buda. I really hope there’s a demand for mass transportation services between Buda and Southpark Meadows because there isn’t any such demand for those kind of services between Kyle and that particular Austin shopping venue. How do I know what? Because Kyle not only already offers that service, but it’s one that will pick you up right at your front door. And do you have a guess as to how many local residents have availed themselves of that mass transportation service between Kyle and Southpark Meadows? The answer is zero. Zilch. Nada. Not a soul. No one.

For the life of me, I can’t see any reason why Kyle officials should enter into any kind of strategy sessions involving developing more mass transportation options when there seems to be little demand for the one that already exists.

Kyle/Buda Taxi provides taxpayer-subsidized mass transportation services two days a week for Kyle residents who want those services and a handful of people actually do. But you can count the number of people that do on the fingers of one hand and still have most of your fingers left over and those passengers only want to go to other places in Kyle. When I first reported on the ridership of Kyle/Buda Taxi about six weeks ago, ridership averaged 1.75 persons a day. It would figure, as more and more people became aware of the service, that ridership level would increase. Sure. Fine. Whatever. Since its inception through yesterday, the service has averaged 1.73 riders a day. Talk about taking the "mass" out of mass transportation. And, to date, no one has sought the service to travel to either Austin or San Marcos.

Come to think about it, those numbers don’t suggest a pressing need for Lone Star Rail either. If no one is going to use a transportation service that will come to your home, can you imagine anyone using one that required them to drive to a station? Of course, they could always use Kyle/Buda Taxi to take them to the local Lone Star Rail station (the thought of anyone actually doing that cracks me up).

It will be fascinating to see how this service fares (pun intended) during the upcoming City Council budget sessions. If money is tight, I could easily see this item first up on the chopping block. After all, the City is just billing this service as "a pilot" program. 

Thanks to Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix for making the following taxpayer-subsidized Kyle/Buda Taxi ridership numbers available:

Tuesday, March 1: 1 rider
Thursday, March 17: 1 rider
Tuesday, March 22: 2 riders
Thursday, March 24: 1 rider
Tuesday, March 29: 0 riders
Thursday, March 31: 2 riders
Tuesday, April 5: 3 riders:
Thursday, April 7: 3 riders
Tuesday, April 12, 1 rider
Thursday, April 14:, 3 riders
Tuesday, April 19:, 0 riders
Thursday, April 21: 2 riders
Tuesday, April 26: 2 riders
Thursday, April 28: 1 rider
Tuesday, May 3: 3 riders
Thursday, May 5: 2 riders
Tuesday, May 10: 2 riders
Thursday, May 12: 1 rider
Tuesday, May 17, 2 riders
Thursday, May 19: 4 riders
Tuesday, May 24: 1 rider
Thursday, May 26: 1 rider

For mass transportation programs to be successful in a community, that community needs to have population numbers significantly larger than what Kyle currently has and a population density far greater than Kyle’s. It would also help if the city didn’t have an interstate highway cutting right through its heart. The above figures reflect a ridership of 3.5 passengers a week. By comparison, Austin’s Cap Metro claims 103,000 boardings a week. Of course, you can argue, Austin is much larger than Kyle and you would be right about that. Austin’s population is actually 26 times larger than Kyle’s. But Cap Metro’s ridership is 29,429 times greater than Kyle/Buda Taxi’s taxpayer-subsidized service. That’s the real story of why mass transportation issues need no further discussions in Kyle. At least not for the next decade or so.

Good/bad news about city’s pilot public transportation program

As expected, there hasn’t been an overwhelming, or even a whelming, demand for the City’s pilot mass transportation program during its inaugural four weeks of operation. Kyle/Buda Taxi, which is providing the service, is averaging only 1.75 riders per day.

The good news is that service has not been the terrible drain on the City’s financial resources that CARTs was, because, as Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix said today in announcing the ridership numbers "The advantage we have with the pilot program is that the hourly rate that the city reimburses the service provider is tied directly to the amount of time spent providing the service to Kyle residents." And so far that hasn’t seemed to be a lot because all the trips provided by the taxi service to date have been local. There have been no requests for service to either Austin or San Marcos, the two other destinations served by Kyle/Buda Taxi in its agreement with the City.

However, not only does this sparse ridership guarantee the City will not be looking into any more sophisticated mass transit plans within, at least, the next decade, it may also mean the City Council could revisit whether even this plan is worthy of taxpayer subsidies because the purpose of the hourly rate was the hope that the service could be providing transportation to several riders simultaneously.

One positive trend to note: Last week, six riders used the service which is only one less than the ridership of the first three weeks combined.

Here is the daily breakdown on the number of passengers using the city’s transportation services:

• Tuesday, March 15 1 rider
• Thursday, March 17: 1 rider
• Tuesday, March 22: 2 riders
• Thursday, March 24: 1 rider
• Tuesday, March 29, 0 rider
• Thursday, March 31: 2 riders
• Tuesday, April 5: 3 riders
• Thursday, April 7: 3 riders

How Kyle’s public transportation system likely will work

Beginning Monday, March 14, Kyle residents will have access to a public transportation system of sorts, although they won’t be able to actually catch rides on it until the next day. The system will be operational on Tuesdays and Thursdays only, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., but requests for the service will need to be made the day prior to when the trip is desired/required.

All the exact details are still to be worked out, but Kyle Chief of Staff Jerry Hendrix has outlined how the service will most likely work. Potential riders can call Kyle/Buda Taxi at 512-253-4834 no later than the Monday or the Wednesday before they want the transportation and request to be picked up at any Kyle location during that 8-5 window. They can request to be driven to any location within the city limits of Kyle for a cost of $3. (Although it would certainly not be required, it would be courteous to offer the driver a tip of say, another buck.)

Riders can also request a trip to either San Marcos or Austin, but there are significant differences with those trips. First, riders must depart no later than 8:30 a.m. and, if they want same-day return service, they must return to their drop-off points in those respective cities in time for a 4:30 p.m. pickup. The drop-off points are the transit station at Southpark Meadows at the southwest corner of Slaughter Lane and I-35 in South Austin and, most likely, a location in downtown San Marcos near the convergence of at least two bus routes. A trip to San Marcos is $5 each way, $6 each way to and from Austin..

Hendrix cautions that none of this is carved in stone and could be adjusted at any time depending on the levels and/or patterns of ridership. He also adds "Kyle/Buda taxi may schedule routes to pick up and drop off other riders along similar routes. This means that one shouldn’t assume they won’t be sharing a ride with others and also they should schedule abundant time if they are trying to make an appointment."

Of course, Kyle residents can also call Buda Taxi for transportation to any other location, such as Austin Bergstrom International Airport, but those trips won’t be subsidized by the city and riders will have to pay Buda Taxi’s full rates.

Those individuals living in rural areas outside the city limits of Kyle still have access to CARTS’ curb-to-curb service that operates 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. That service requires a request at least 24 hours prior to when service is desired and that request can be made by calling 1-800-456-7433. CARTS also operates a limited fixed-route service from and to the Seton Medical Center in Kyle. CARTS Country Bus route 403 leaves Seton three times daily on Tuesdays and Thursdays — 9:25 a.m. and 1:05 and 3:25 p.m. — taking riders to the CARTS station in San Marcos and then, if desired, to the Wal-Mart at 1904 S. Colorado St. in Lockhart for $4 each way.