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.