Who Tore Up the Tracks? · Episode 22 of 24 · 23 min
The Household That Doesn't Own a Car: Testing the Last Mile
The host has argued that the cheap fix for the American city was never more buses but tunnels and self-driving cars, because the real problem with a bus is getting to it. This episode states that argument at full strength, then tests it. Door-to-door service helps disabled riders, but evidence says service supply moves ridership, and a free rides-to-rail experiment carried about ten trips a day.
Where it happens
- Centennial, ColoradoFree Lyft rides to light rail carried about ten trips a day
- Los Angeles, California+13 more episodesLA Metro Micro cost $25 to $33 a boarding
- Sacramento, California+4 more episodesOn-demand service discontinued for cost, then restricted
- Innisfil, OntarioCapped its on-demand ride subsidy at $10 a trip in 2026
- Lisbon, PortugalSimulation of shared vehicles that kept the metro running
Timeline
- 2016Lisbon simulation finds shared vehicles free 97 percent of parking, with the metro kept running
- August 2016Centennial, Colorado begins free rides to a rail station
- 2018Fourteen-year study of 25 agencies finds service supply dominates ridership
- December 2024Sacramento discontinues its on-demand service for cost
- May 2026Meta-analysis of 606 studies finds walking penalized at 1.67 times in-vehicle time
- July 2026Innisfil caps its on-demand subsidy at $10 a trip
Still debated
The disabled-rider study covers sixteen people in two cities, establishing the mechanism rather than the magnitude. Carless household figures come from city geographies, not metro areas, and the 30.6 percent income figure depends on whether before-tax or after-tax income is used.