Some interesting numbers came out earlier this week around ride hailing apps. As WBUR points out, the top three Massachusetts cities account for 70 percent of all ride hailing trips in the state.
Still, with more than 1-million trips Newton ranks 5th, right behind Brookline, as a decent market for where trips begin. In all, according to the state’s numbers, 1,051,030 trips began in Newton and 1,073,900 ended here, that accounts for about 1.6 percent of the total state market. Here is now Newton breaks down:
| Number of Origin Trips | 1,051,030 |
| Number of Destination Trips | 1,073,900 |
| Origin Trips per Person | 12.34 |
| Destination Trips per Person | 12.61 |
On a per-person basis, Newton’s ranking drops significantly.
Another figure I found very interesting was the speed of travel. While the average ride in the state lasts for about 15.4 minutes, goes for 4.5 miles with a speed of 17.7 miles per hour, the fastest trips happen in the lower density areas of central and western mass, while the slowest are in Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, Everett and Boston. You’d expect this given the increased traffic in the denser urban fabric. Those trips are between 14 and 16 mph.
But Newton’s average speed is 22 mph. This could be because a lot of those trips are on the I-90 or I-95, or it could be that our traffic just isn’t all that bad. Waltham’s average speed was 23 mph, while Watertown’s is a slower 19 mph.
Age plays a significant role in ride hailing use, but density remains key. Watertown, with a lower percentage of 18-24 year-old riders (7 percent compared to 12 percent in Newton) but a higher rate of density (7.74 people per sq mile vs. 4.4 in Newton) has more origin rides per person.
There’s a lot this doesn’t tell us. For example, it doesn’t tell us whether those rides were supplemental in getting people to and from the T, or if they’re full trips. It also doesn’t tell us how many people in each vehicle (though, the report suggests that a third of rides include more than one passenger) and it doesn’t tell us where in the city these rides are most common. This makes it difficult, for example, to use the information to create or improve bus routes or to put in ride hailing gathering points in high-use areas.
The whole report is worth a read.
The headline says 5th-highest usage but the text says 4th-highest. Which is correct? I’d look it up myself but I had trouble getting the links to load on my creaky old laptop.
Apologies for the typo. It’s 5th, behind Boston, Cambridge, Somerville and Brookline.
Thanks – we all make typos.
Time for Newton to wake up and realize people are NOT taking the T. They’d rather call an Uber.
Newtoncares
It costs at least 20 dollars for uber to boston, these are likely “night out” trips…. i doubt a majority are using it for work commutes
Why do ppl allow the mbta to hold us hostage with the terrible service?
@Newton Cares – I don’t think it’s either/or. If you’re heading into Brookline or Boston the T works fine. If you’re going to LOTS of places from Newton the T is either impossible or can take hours. Here’s a concrete example for you:
Our Newton theater is employing an actor who lives in Cambridge near Fresh Pond and he’s been rehearing regularly in Waban. He always takes the T from Cambridge to Newton and it takes him over two hours. When he gets out of a rehearsal at 10 PM in Waban, if he can’t get a ride a home with someone, he takes an Uber. He’s home in about 20-25 minutes. At that hour of the night, especially with the reduced night time T service schedule, he’s not going to start a multi-hour T journey. If he would have to rely on T for those nighttime multi-hour rides home he wouldn’t have taken the job.
Here’s another: We had a friend visiting us one night who was staying in West Roxbury. It’s a 15 minute Uber drive. Trying to do that same trip on the T would be a few hours long, involve a number of changes and a long walk. Similarly, he wouldn’t have come to see us if it would involve a 4+ hour round trip from West Roxbury.
In terms of its impact on the T, Uber is really no different than the taxi service that’s been around for years -i.e. you may have taken a taxi to West Roxbury but you would never commute to Kenmore Square in one.
From the report, while the state saw 64.8 million ride hailing trips in 2017, there were 408 million public transit trips. The average trip was 4.5 miles, which would suggest that people aren’t using it for longer commutes (the 10 to 15 miles from Newton into Boston).
There has been other evidence that people are using ride hailing to create new trips and are not supplementing the T, but the T remains the most efficient way to move the most people. It’s also necessary for our future and our tax base. I’m regularly told by co-working companies that they simply won’t consider opening in parts of Newton because we lack the public transportation and density necessary to make their business model work. The issues of housing, public transportation, and economic development are entirely intertwined.
Yes, the T can be better, but we can’t just throw up our hands and walk (or Uber) away.
Chuck,
Would companies consider opening offices in Newton if they were within 7 minute walk of the commuter rail?
Golden opportunity to consider more office buildings along washington st?
To add to what Jerry said, I wish Uber had been around when my son was at Brandeis. It was so frustrating that he couldn’t live 6 miles away at home and easily get to a summer job there – it would have taken 2 hours to go those 6 miles by T (and we live 3 blocks from the D line).
@bugek The commuter rail, as it is now, isn’t usually considered at all. If you look at the schedules it stops infrequently in Newton, at best. Boston Landing is doing well with a stop, but there is also a lot more housing and density being built there as well. It’s worth watching in that way.
The place that has been most popular, in my experience, is Newton Centre, but there isn’t enough commercial property there right now that will meet the needs of the typical co-working company. Other models may work (one does a retail-oriented model, but they haven’t been successful in the Boston area), but given who is in the market now and what they demand, we haven’t found the right solution. We’re working on it, and I’m hopeful, but the key issues are the same: easy transportation and density of both housing and retail.
Chuck,
One model which works well in San Francisco is the private shuttle(downtown to suburbs) Newton should try to offer first class office spaces and commit to public/private ondemand shuttles to and from Boston. Preference given to employees during hour…
Why do we allow ourselves to be held hostage by the mbta?
@bugek that is in the works now. More when we can announce it.
Chuck,
Appauld the leadership on this, what matters is that Newton tries to get infront of issues rather than letting the world pass by. Our residents are more than qualified for any business who want to open in Newton
We cant be afraid to fail
Newton gets 10 cents for every ride hail trip that is initiated within its limits. What is the city doing with the ~$100k it’s receiving?