Suspicious as I am, I wonder about Uber inspiration of that item.
Probably.
GO DIAL-A-BUS II Reborn, The Sequel.
For readers not aware, GO one-upped Uber in the 1970s with
GO Transit DIAL-A-BUS, an early UberPOOL equivalent from 1973-1976. It behaved like a UberPOOL, except you called in by landline or payphone. And CB radios at the call centre dispatched the nearest short bus to deviate from its route to pick you up on its way at your location, to bring a pool of people towards a transit node such as a TTC station.
Just today, it's an easier app button press (homes onto your current GPS location) so you don't need to speak to anyone. And automated back ends that automatically dispatches without a call-centre. Instead of expensive staffing-heavy 1970s call centres and CB radios dispatching a fleet of shuttlebuses. Today, it's much more practical (and getting increasingly cheaper) to deploy ride-share systems thanks to widespread use of smartphones & automated dispatching.
Micro transit definitely can cover pooled ride hail services. It could also be a hybrid -- a loose route -- a fleet of vans and shuttle buses running a loop visiting transit nodes -- that is allowed to deviate to pick up app ride-hails within a small radius. It would be designed to handle perhaps, a 3 kilometer rectangle around the GO station, enough to cover lots of connecting bus routes & also handle ride hailing too.
I imagine an open RFQ / bidding could occur. In fact, UberPOOL could be allowed to "bid" as the microtransit service of choice -- basically, a minimum of commissioned permanent UberPOOL vehicles (GO-hired drivers) to ensure minimum capacity so that it can be marketed as part of GO materials, etc -- but also permitting additional (approved drivers, even you, but slightly more rigorous process as required by the RFP / RFQ) to "join in" on the fun. Or another vendor (other than UberPOOL) might be approved as the microtransit of choice.
There seems to be precedents forming already in this world, where select pre-existing ride hail services are being chosen by public transit agencies, as integrated first/last mile connectors now.
Uber/Lyft/etc is already built into Google Maps app (the new ridehail icon next to the car/transit/bike icon) and things like Transit App which is the official TTC app integrated into ttc.ca ... So unavoidably, you're only one or two degrees away from using a ridehail service from a transit agency's integrated map/widget, and the next step is to sanction/fare-integrate a pooled ride hail service once they meet the criteria (liability/safety/etc) required such by the transit agency.
Then when that happens -- you now only need to press a button in, say, Google Maps, to automatically add a fare-integrated rideshare pool (UberPOOL, etc) to the beginning of your public transit journey, etc. Things like that -- we're already headed in that direction...
It's very cost-effective for suburban settings in situations where there is low-density and large fixed-route buses are potentially far more expensive than the 100% subsidized cost of even providing free (fare-integrated) rideshare carpool service as an incentive. Done properly with several passengers per vehicle, operating cost could potentially be low enough to be fully fare integrated, or a very small co-pay -- and still cost less taxpayer money per passenger than adding/modifying a bus route to gain the same passenger increase -- while being much more convenient (door-to-door first/last mile service).
The cost of a UberPOOL actually is less than a GO train trip, and that's what riders like me pay -- and that says nothing of the wholesale cost that a GO-transit-hired pool driver (e.g. essentially a chartered UberPOOL for a specific station's microtransit) -- now with a shorter microtransit-type pool with enough ridership -- it may fall to under a dollar taxpayer operating subsidy per rider in certain cases -- low enough to fare-integrate.
It could come in many forms. If Uber wins the bid, they could call it "UberGO", and the specific micro transit choices would be "UberGO Aurora" and "UberGO Richmond Hill". It'd show up everywhere, TransitApp (as a choice), Google Map (as a choice), Apple Maps, Bing Maps, as a "transit route choice". They'd show up as choices if you are originating anywhere near that specific station. Tap on it and you've begun your fare-integrated journey as they come to pick you up, the UberGO ride automatically becomes free or lower-price (low one-dollar or two-dollar co-pay) one you tap your Presto onto the GO Train.
We're technologically nearly there; it's just not fare-integrated yet, and still three or four button taps. All it will take is some municipal/provincial agreements, and the rideshare leg could show up inside the Transit tab (as a fare-integrated rideshare hop for the first/last miles on a "Transit Directions" route) instead of the new Rideshare tab of Google Map.
Even if that does not happen, the market will possibly solve the problem for GO Transit soon. As one example, see the Google Map example -- with the right stuff (and agreements in place with a winning pooled rideshare bid), it could become part of the official GO-branded service.
One button press on your smartphone -- and a fare-integrated rideshare pool service (as the micro transit) immediately drives to your your current GPS position -- to pick you up to drive you to the GO station. All at hopefully relatively low taxpayer cost.
Essentially -- bringing back a modern equivalent of
yesterday's GO DIAL-A-BUS service
