Are you tired of paying for other people’s “Free Uber” around Park City?

There is an interesting article in The Atlantic called The End of the Millennial Lifestyle Subsidy. It describes how everything from Uber to Postmates has been cheap because of VC funding, a great economy, and low-interest rates. However, it posits that the gravy train is ending due to inflation and a turn in the economy. Therefore the costs of these services are skyrocketing.

It makes me question High Valley Transit around the Snyderville Basin. You have likely seen their black and purple buses and minivans driving around the Snyderville Basin. A little over a year ago there was a split with Park City Transportation, who used to manage ALL of the bus services in Park City and outlying areas. Now Park City has its own transportation services, and Summit County’s High Valley Transportation manages transit where most of us live (the Basin).

What is interesting about High Valley is that they basically copied Uber with their “Micro” service. You can use an app to have High Valley take you almost anywhere in the Basin. The difference between Uber and High Valley Transit is that Uber costs the rider something. High Valley Transit Micro Service costs the rider nothing. It is “free.”

Let that sink in for a minute. Uber has always cost something. Now their prices are increasing dramatically due to higher fuel charges and other inflationary factors. High Valley Micro Transit costs nothing to the consumer. Are they immune to inflation? No. It’s just that Summit County residents are subsidizing every free ride given away. Now we are subsidizing it even more.

Generally, when looking at public transportation in Summit County we look at the number of cars taken off the road. A bus can do that. However, If a minivan drives to your house/apartment, picks you up, and then takes you where you want to go, have they taken a car off the road? No, they have actually added more traffic to roads because they had to drive to where you are to pick you up. Perhaps they have reduced parking, but they have not reduced the number of cars on the road.

One could argue that perhaps High Valley Transit is taking people to a bus stop where they could board a bus and reduce congestion in our most populous areas. However, a May report from High Valley shows that only about 5% of pickups and 5% of drop-offs from Micro Transit occur at the Kimball Junction or Canyons Transit Center. So, generally, it appears that Micro transit is not taking people to a bus — where traffic could be reduced.

Instead, High Valley Micro Transit is providing Fruber — Free Uber. I suppose when times are good, the public won’t notice and many will be happy they didn’t have to pay for a ride. Yet, it seems, that times are changing. How long do we, as taxpayers in Summit County, want to pay for other people to get an “Uber” for free? I don’t want to do that anymore.

I understand what Summit County is trying to do. They want to prove that their split from Park City Transit was successful, but they are latching on to Micro Transit as their success factor. Of course, if an Uber-like service is given away for free, people will use it. The numbers sound great. Yet it doesn’t make the end goal of reducing traffic at peak times any better.

The truth is that few people take public transportation. However, everyone that takes a bus helps our transportation situation. So, why doesn’t High Valley Micro Transit drop riders at the nearest bus station for free? The answer is that far fewer people would ride it if that was the only option.

Yet, those who did would be riding the bus and reducing traffic. Isn’t that the goal? Shouldn’t High Valley be doing everything they can to take cars off the road?

I believe that Summit County and High Valley Transit have taken their eye off the ball and been self-congratulatory for the last year when celebrating the micro-transit service. They have sound-good numbers such as 148,000 passengers who used the micro-transit service this year. However, to me that says I as a taxpayer paid for hundreds of thousands of rides. What did I get? Did that take cars off the road? Or did I actually add cars to the road? Either way, did I just pay for a lot of Fruber?

It’s probably the latter.

As inflation rages, we need to reconsider what we are offering with High Valley Transit. We should continue providing the bus service. This serves a large portion of our community that may not have other transportation options. In addition, it reduces traffic at our peak times. However, subsidizing micro-transit no longer makes sense — if it ever did.

I’m sure some people will be upset that they can’t get a micro transit ride for free, or tip an extra $20 and get to Main Street, but it doesn’t serve our broader needs. Worse, every time one of those rides is for “free,” we are all paying for it.

The end should be near for High Valley’s Fruber lifestyle. High Valley should return to its mission. They need to provide innovative bus solutions and find ways to get as many people onto buses as possible. They need to leave traditional ride-share to Uber and Lyft — who will actually charge a commensurate rate for their service.