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Ride-Share Service
Ride-Share Service

With customer demand for Via, the ride-share service program of Jersey City, increasing, Mayor Steven Fulop stated that he plans on expanding the service. On Facebook, Jersey City’s Mayor shared a report that details Via’s better-than-anticipated increase in demand. Via has offered workers, visitors, and residents the option to travel in the US city for even $2 per ride. Set up in February last year, the program aims to simplify city-wide mobility for people who live in Jersey City’s so-called ‘transit deserts’. For your information, those are areas without much access to mass transit.

Over 340,000 Via rides have already been completed since the service’s launch. From February to May 2021, it helped to complete about 124,000 trips, with a little less than 10,000 one-of-a-kind riders. The greater demand has played a part in a 31% increase in Via wait times to around 17 minutes on average.

Last September, Jersey City had a similar wait time increase, which made the Via program’s fleet increase to 26 automobiles. Since then, the area has recorded three one-day peaks for ridership in November and December 2020 as well as March this year.

In the Facebook post, Jersey City’s Mayor disclosed plans to utilize the idea of adding more automobiles to tackle the greater demand for Via.

The report suggests that New Jersey’s Journal Square Transportation Center and Downtown’s Newport Centre have been Via riders’ go-to destinations. In the New Jersey hub, people can get the state-owned PATH train or a bus. Downtown is home to over half of the ten best Via destinations.

Jersey City set up the program following resident complaints regarding bus ride experiences in the area. The mayor announced it in September two years ago. Then, he said that when NJ Transit kept neglecting Jersey City’s public transport systems, and with no assistance from New Jersey, the city was making its own solutions that would satisfy residents’ needs. He described it as a way to achieve Jersey City’s goal to get cars away from normal roads, while making mobility for the city’s neighborhoods without enough connectivity options to its other parts.

Ride-Share Service
Ride-Share Service

The Oxford Board of Aldermen considers a new order that would make two designated areas for ride-share service vehicles and taxicabs to pick up and drop off people who come to Oxford Square. The spots would be near the parking garage of Downtown Oxford as well as along 14th Street near Tyler Avenue and Harrison Avenue. As for the ordinance, discussion continued recently about ride-share and taxicab service providers as drivers got their chance to talk to the Aldermen. If the order gets approved, it would be applicable to all private ride-hailing companies, including Lyft and Uber, and taxicab companies.

A reading of this order happened in the recent meeting, with a public hearing, where local Uber and taxicab drivers opposed the ordinance, especially the above-mentioned designated spots.

Zoes Taxi’s Alfonso Jordan raised concern about his business’s present parking areas on Oxford Square being deprived of their power, with a move away from local restaurants and bars. As for Jordan, that move would hinder Zoes Taxi’s business. Jordan informed the Aldermen that Zoes Taxi could not do business through a ride-hailing application like Uber. Therefore, being moved farther would damage Zoes Taxi’s business, as it depends on the walk-up establishments, especially given the coming football season.

If approved, this proposal would make Downtown Square pedestrian-friendly to a greater extent than it is, offer safety for passengers, and lessen congestion on Oxford Square. It would require all automobiles for hire to utilize the designated areas for their pick-up and drop-off services from 07:00 pm to 03:00 am throughout the week.

The Mayor of Oxford City, Robyn Tannehill, mentioned attempting to keep ride-share automobiles from stopping amid the street as they await their potential riders to approach them. Tannehill said that making the stop would hold up traffic in busy weekend hours, like when a home game is on for Ole Miss’s football team.

Alongside other taxi drivers, Jordan acknowledged the concern that the board shows for pedestrians’ safety. However, the drivers also cited the chance for more possible harm to intoxicated pedestrians if they have to cover long distances to reach their taxicab or ride-share automobile.

Describing the event as a public hearing rather than a vote, Tannehill stated that the drivers in the meeting gave the authorities much to consider. Another reading and possible vote on the order will happen in the July 06 Board meeting.