Newton’s NewMo (Newton in Motion), the city sponsored rideshare system, announced that they are limiting rides to two passengers (rather than three) due to Covid concerns. Offsetting that reduction, the city also announced it is adding a 7th vehicle to its fleet.
The service provides local on-demand transportation within Newton for residents, visitors and commuters to Newton.
Since October the service has provided 7000+ rides with an average wait time of 16 minutes.
Are you a NewMo user? Do you like the service? Tell us what you know.
I would like to know who is using it and where are they getting picked up and going. Commuters? Seniors? Students?
I used it back at the end of October. I was riding home on the D-branch on my way to the 59 bus and saw Jerry’s V14 post “NewMo for everyone,” so I decided to see if I could game NewMo’s geofencing for a free ride from Boston to Needham. I pretty much did, with only about a half-mile of walking!
I hopped off the Green Line at Reservoir and jogged over to a side street (Malia Terrace) in Newton’s far east, as close to Cleveland Circle as possible, over by those mansions owned by the Governor of Sarawak et al.
The NewMo Prius pulled up about 10 minutes after I called it on the app. There was one passenger already inside, probably a BC student, who was headed to Heartbreak Hill. Picking me up at Malia Terrace was obviously a detour for her trip (as it would have been for anybody’s trip, now that I think about it). And dropping her off north of Comm Ave. ended up tacking about 10 additional minutes onto my trip.
Shortly after she exited, we picked up another passenger back down around Beacon and Hammond, a Galwegian in her 30s working at BC. She usually rode her bike to work from her home in Newton Upper Falls, but it was raining that day so she decided to test out NewMo.
It would have been most efficient to drop her off on the way to Needham, but they evidently have a FIFO policy of dropping the passengers off in order. So she had to suffer through a traffic jam down Route 9 all the way to 128, then a ride through the boonies of Needham Heights. But she was an excellent conversationalist and didn’t seem to mind!
According to my camera roll, my ride picked me up at Malia Terrace at 4:13pm and dropped me off at the Needham Heights Commuter Rail station at 4:51. So, a total travel time of 38 minutes (plus waiting) for what’s obviously one of the longest possible trips in the system. Overall I would think it’d be a pretty useful service for most people wanting to travel within Newton – it should probably get you to where you want to go in about 20-25 minutes, so long as you don’t encounter some Needhamite throwing a wrench into things. The banker’s hours of operation greatly limit the addressable audience, though.
The very kind driver, originally from Guangzhou, used to do Lyft and Uber, and by the sound of things, the compensation arrangement from Via is similarly exploitative albeit slightly more stable. Perish the thought that when the City of Newton came up with a transport project to cannibalize (er “supplement”) the MBTA, it would have required compensation, job security, and post-employment benefits in line with what MBTA employees receive. It was evidently far more important to use taxpayer dollars to enrich the Israeli and Italian oligarchs who own Via Transportation, because these days it’s all about properly rewarding capital and inspiration, rather than perspiration.
It’s worth mentioning that the NewMo drivers accept tips, but you need to use cash because the app doesn’t allow it.
I know there are kids at South using it