Uber or Lyft
 

People have often referred to either Uber or Lyft as alternatives to owning a car for local transportation here in The Villages.

I downloaded the two apps yesterday and checked the cost of a couple of local rides. Uber’s price for a pickup at Spanish Springs for a trip to Cane Garden CC is $17.15… from The Sharon to Rohan Rec Center is $22.61.

Checking Lyft’s pricing for the same trips shows $17.77 from the Sharon to Cane Garden CC and $27.73 to Rohan Rec Center.

I thought both Uber and Lyft were supposed to be economical alternatives to other forms of transportation. Those prices sure don’t sound very economical to me.

If someone living near Rohan wanted to go to a show at The Sharon—about $50 round trip, plus tips both ways, doesn’t sound like an attractive transportation alternative to me. What would that be, $60-65 round trip including a tip? That’s approaching the cost of two tickets to lots of shows at The Sharon.

If someone living near Spanish Springs wanted to go out to Cane Garden for lunch or dinner, the cost to get there and back might be as much as the cost of meals for two people .

Thoughts? Alternatives?

I would suggest a golf cart for all the trips inside the villages, and the Uber or Lyft, or other local taxi services for trips outside TV, considering all of the costs associated with owning and maintaining a vehicle, the rates do not sound outlandish.

Only as a last resort.

Dam, maybe I can start a business called goober, kind of like Uber except I can charge to give people rides in my golf cart?

Their prices fluctuate according to the time of the trip, obviously, evening and nighttime prices are much cheaper.
Plus there is a peak charge between 8 am -12 pm when many people are going to work or doctors appointments.

No matter what it's cheaper than a DUI.

I took an urber in Minneapolis a few days ago $27.00 for 5 of us with luggage for about 6 miles. I'm guessing it's so high here because they are driving from say Ladylake to the Villages and the home again. It's not like going from the airport to someone's home back to the airport and so on.

Uber needs to show profitability for its investors. The days of huge fare subsidies is over. Prices often like a taxi

Limited Supply = High Prices.

:thumbup:

Its true that the demand and the supply is low here. Almost everyone has a car or cart.
Not so in the bigger cities with younger populations (especially college towns). Young kids are often facing $200 to $250 per month for auto insurance. They find that Uber is much more economical than owning a car because they tend to go out in groups and share Uber ride costs

I often use these services when traveling in dense cities where I prefer not to drive rentals or pay high parking fees.

Very true, this became well known during pandemic.

Break out your old pair of roller skates.

I know you’re joking, but that might actually be viable…Guber. ;-)

I still think both services are a great alternative, even if a little pricey, for the occasional need. We choose to only have one car, mainly just for saving space in our garage and because we rarely need two cars at the same time. For us Lyft or Uber is the answer. Even for other situations, it's worth it considering the other options, which are few.

You’d have to actually make a comparison to decide if these ride share services are too expensive. Add up the cost of buying a car, insuring it, fueling it and maintaining it for a year. Then divide that sum by the number of trips you make in a year. Compare the quotient to the ride-share prices. Only then can you determine if Uber/Lyft are too expensive.

I guess you haven't taken a ride in a golf cart from way down in the new sections all the way to The Sharon and back at night to see a show. It is a good 45 minutes to an hour each way.

That does seem a bit daunting. Check at other times and let us know. I assume this would be of special interest to those not able to drive, including golf carts, for various reasons. If one drinks too much at a restaurant and needs a ride home, Uber or Lyft might be good ways to get there. As a steady thing, to get to where one needs to be, it’s less affordable, especially for those barely scraping by on Social Security and nothing more.

On the other hand, I have a friend who leases a Lexus SUV with full service. (The dealer sends people from Wesley Chapel to pick up her car when it needs an oil change and leaves a replacement for the day.) That and insurance costs her around $1,000 a month. That would pay for quite a few Uber rides. Not several a day, but enough to go to the grocery store every week and doctor appointments. Still, it’s not easy or cheap.

I wonder what would happen if a group of Villages residents started their own ride service, using their own cars and more affordable rates. There might be, say, hourly rates with a driver waiting during visits to various stores or even accompanying the rider to appointments or into stores if desired. Some drivers and riders might even work out scheduled weekly rides to the beauty parlor or whatever. For people who are just rattling around here or are lonely and have a hard time making friends, it could provide a reason for being and a lot of pleasure.

This is not a great area for Uber drivers. Most can’t afford to live here. I live near 466A and Buena Vista, and for me, a drive to and from Sam’s Club takes twenty-five minutes each way, but it’s not many miles. If the driver lives in, say, Leesburg or Ocala, it takes a long time to get here, and the driver is probably driving home without a fare. I took a couple Ubers from Denver airport to my dad’s house—a forty-five minute drive. Depending on the time of day, that cost between $50 and $90. Ouch! I might suggest that this would be a good place for driverless taxis, but then I think of our roundabouts and the many people who don’t know how to navigate them. It could make matters worse.

The days of throwing someone a couple of bucks “for gas” are over !

The costs associated with operating a legitimate business are astronomical !

The prices you quoted in your mock trips don’t seem to be unreasonable.

Still much less expensive than owning a car! Hey the Uber/Lyft driver is using their vehicle, paying big time insurance, fuel and don’t forget about their Time. It is a service to make money! Your comments are ridiculous.

You are right — Lyft is expensive! There were times when we used it exclusively to get around The Villages. You have to weigh the cost of trips on Lyft vs. what it would cost to rent a car. And btw, car rentals increased in price during the pandemic, and afterwards. Another factor is insurance — if you don’t have it, then it’s added in to the cost of renting a car, thereby jacking up the cost of a car rental.

Actually, I have, once in the rain, I have also ended up going 30 minutes or more for golfing, or dinner occasionally. I do agree that from the far south areas to the northern areas is a long trip by golf cart. Fortunately, we currently live just north of the geographic center of TV, so we rarely have to go more than 45 minutes by golf cart.

Instead of using Uber or Lyft, why aren't the trolleys used for public transportation? The initial route would be from Spanish Springs to Sawgrass with stops at Lake Sumter and Brownwood.

If you left at 8 am, you should be able to return from Sawgrass at 9:30.

You would leave at 8 am, 11 am, 2 pm, 5 pm, and 8 pm and return at 9:30, 12:30, 3:30, 6:30 and 9:30. If it works, you could add additional routes.

Or if you had two trolleys, one could start from Spanish Springs going south and one could start at Sawgrass going north.

This would allow people to go to the Squares, restaurants, grocery stores, shops, and doctor appointments without having to drive.

You would charge a small amount $3 to $5 a trip and perhaps the government would provide some funding to stop global warming.

It would be interesting to see what each charges for a longer ride within TV - say Spanish Springs to Brownwood.

I suspect that, like a cab, the cost per mile would be less as the distance increases.

If so, adopt VillageTinker's proposal to use a golf cart for the shorter trips, but use Uber/Lyft for the longer ones.

That is one of the reasons that people that Cannot drive will have difficulty getting around that live there. They need affordable community travel transportation.

Wait a couple of years for self-driving cars. In the meantime get an E-bike, E-cart, or E-vehicle. And pretty soon they will have E-wives and E-husbands with MUTE buttons.

Do it! HA! you'd get some takers for sure.

You can buy a 10 mph Segway for about $500 and a VERY good 22 mph RAD mission E-bike for about $ 1,000.

It sounded like a good idea to me. Good for both the retired driver of the Golf Cart AND the retired rider going to a Doctors appointment or wherever. Sounds like the classic.......win / win !!!! And if the rider had a tee time, the golf cart has an area for their golf bag.
..........Even though I personally NEVER approve of the so-called sport of Golf.

Sumter and Lake county also have van service although you have to book in advance. It's good for doctors' visits or already planned trips. It's also wheelchair equipped.

I believe it's like $2 a trip.

Apparently, there are only a handful of cities in the country with a population over 100,000 that do not have public transportation.

Yahoo

The study only considered incorporated cities with a population over 100,000 so The Villages would not have been included. However, The Villages is unique in that it is a 55+ community so the need is probably greater here than in other cities. Not having public transportation in a non 55+ community is not as important as having it in a retirement community.

I don't have much of a problem with the cost, but what about the availability? Getting a ride for a 7 o'clock show at The Sharon may not be a problem but what about the ride back.

I think that if the developer thought this was economically viable they would have done this already.

True, but if public transportation had to be economically viable to exist it wouldn't.

I am not sure if everything has to be economically viable. I think that the developer could save money by not having executive courses or putting in pickleball courts or changing the flowers every three months, etc. However, they are part of the overall atmosphere. Having one or two trolleys operate would not seem to be that much of a cost. I think they have limited operation now and they are free so you wouldn't have to buy the cars. Just pay for salaries and maintenance.

Best idea that I have heard in a long time. To piggyback on that, another advantage would be that every rider on this north south service would take ONE car or truck or golf cart off the CROWDED wreck prone highways that we have going on now. Just yesterday we had fog and Hwy 441 got backed up BIG-time and the ambulances were rolling to pick up victems.
........TV Bubble Land has NEEDED a mass transit system for years!!!!!!!

Personally, I would NEVER have any reason to go from the northern area to the southern area. So, I would NOT GO in either a golf cart or a car. The Villages down south are NO better or worse than those up north. So, for me there is no reason to go except sightseeing and to say, "Golly gee this TV Bubble Land is really BIG"

People moving here know they need their own transportation or use UBER. You need to stop kicking a dead horse.

I agree that people know they need transportation when they get here. But things change - eyesight gets worse, you may be partially handicapped where you can't drive, or a spouse dies.

There should be some method for these people to go to and from medical appointments, grocery stores, the Squares, etc. It would probably make The Villages more attractive to many people as it would allow people to stay in their homes after they can no longer drive. And it might make it safer on the roads for everyone else.

The county recently paid $2.4 million to put a roof on the horse arena at the County Fairgrounds. I think that the money would be better spent on a form of public transportation.

Other cities have public trolleys that are either free or affordable.

Florida’s Transportation Options for Travelers | VISIT FLORIDA.

You are absolutely right. That is why my aunt had to sell her house because there is not any sort of public transportation. But I have to ask you, WHO benefits from the turnover of all the houses that have to be sold by people who have no transportation?

One thing about LIFE I do KNOW - life is NOT constant, it is ALWAYS changing.