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DENVER – On Tuesday, the Regional Transportation District announced that 1,200 tickets for RTD races were purchased via the Uber app.
The ticket purchase feature
was launched two months ago
as part of a unique partnership between RTD and Uber Transit.
At a press conference, the leaders of Uber and RTD presented the partnership as a success and a mutual benefit.
"It's a great way to give people choices," said Dave Genova, Managing Director and CEO of RTD. "And you will usually find that public transit options are cheaper," he said.
The partnership began in January with a trip planning function on Uber before expanding to purchase tickets. Users simply open the Uber app and decide whether they want to book a ride in an Uber vehicle or a transit ticket.
A third partner, the technology company Masabi, provides the mobile ticketing software.
Uber says that he wants to be the "Amazon" of the transport and is happy to be able to use the Uber app to give cyclists options. RTD, meanwhile, indicates that more and more Uber users will now see public transit as a viable option.
"For people who would never think about public transit, it opens up a whole new market for us, especially the visitor," said Genova.
RTD and Uber see the partnership as a step toward solving the "last mile" problem with public transit. Uber explains that since the start of the partnership, the number of Uber trips that start or end at a transit stop has increased by 11.6%.
"We can not cover everything; we do not want to cover everything, "said David Reich, head of Uber Transit. "There are many ways for Uber to fill in the gaps and make a compliment, and that's really what we're aiming for."
According to RTD, since the partnership began in January, the number of passengers on buses and commuter rail has increased, while the number of light rail has decreased. According to RTD, more analysis is needed to see how the Uber partnership is changing user habits.
1200 tickets purchased via Uber may not seem like much, since
RTD's customers in 2018
has exceeded 97 million runners. But RTD thinks that Uber can help attract even more drivers to the system.
"We have made this massive investment in infrastructure and we want people to use this system," said Genoa. "So this is another tool that we can use in our toolbox to help us with this first and last mile," he said.
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