Q&A: Is there a future to marrying South Bay public transit with ride-hailing that leads to cheap rides?

The Sunnyvale Caltrain station is Cupertino’s gateway for tech commuters coming from San Francisco to Apple’s headquarters. But riders looking to finish the last four miles of their journey from the station to Apple face an additional 30 minutes on public transit with plenty of walking in between.

It’s part of a gap in Cupertino’s transit infrastructure that the city is now addressing with a technology that is only recently making headways in public transit: ride-hailing.

With a few clicks on a phone, you can summon a shared-ride van for a flat rate of $4 – or $2 for seniors and youth – and ride anywhere within Cupertino city boundaries or to the Sunnyvale Caltrain station. That is a lot quicker than taking the bus and upwards of 70% cheaper than similar Uber rides. In recent weeks the service is becoming even more cost-competitive as gas prices drive up the price of traveling by car.

Via is the company behind the fleet of on-demand vans. Dozens of transit operators in California have contracted Via to integrate ride-hailing technology into bus and rail networks to fuse the convenience of on-demand cars with the affordability of public transit.

Krista Glotzbach, the director of West Coast partnership at Via, is overseeing a team of 60 people in her San Francisco office with partnerships that span the mountains of Northern California to the beaches of Southern California. There’s a $1.75 on-demand bus in Los Angeles and a free shuttle in Shasta County, all using Via’s algorithms to pair riders with vehicles.

On a recent Tuesday Glotzback rode in a Via van with a reporter from this news organization to explain the company’s unique model of modernizing public transit and the challenges of getting riders back on shuttles temporarily halted by the pandemic.

Q: Why does Via partner with public transit agencies instead of rolling out a more conventional ride-hailing service like Uber or Lyft that competes with transit providers?

A: Our goal is really to improve accessibility and equity in transportation services. If there’s a fixed bus route that serves the community our goal is not to overtake that. What we want to do is help get people get where they need to go or to get them to public transit. By working with public transit agencies, we can complement the existing transit system, help them serve communities that need better transit access, and get single-occupancy vehicles off the road.

Q: Many riders have fled public transit due to health concerns and remote work. How has that affected Via services?

A: Many people really stopped moving around like they were before. But the need was still very much there for essential workers to get where they needed to go. Some of our transit partners chose to shut down their on-demand rides. Other transit agencies reduced the service. But a lot of agencies expanded their services. LA Metro, for example, pivoted and they decided that instead of moving people around, they were going to deliver food. They took our technology and moved it to a food delivery service.

Q: Cupertino’s on-demand shuttle originally started in 2019 but it was halted during the pandemic. Now that it restarted in October, how are you convincing riders to once again share a small space with strangers?

A: Since the very beginning of the pandemic, we have put a lot of protocols in place to help reassure people. Including putting a plastic barrier between the driver and the passengers so no one is sitting in the front seat.

We are now bringing back the ride-sharing in a way that matches what is appropriate for the region. In West Sacramento, we just recently opened back to five riders per car. But these decisions are very local and our transit agency partners make the determination. The technology knows how many seats are in every vehicle and we can toggle any given service to adjust the number of people allowed to share a ride.

Q: How are you getting people back on the Cupertino service?

A: Well, we have a promotion for five free rides and when you refer someone you get a free ride. So there are definitely incentives to come back and get your routine going again. (The Cupertino shuttle operates through the Via app from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. Vehicles typically arrive within 10 minutes of a request.)

Q: Who were the people using the service before the pandemic? And who has returned?

A: Originally, in Cupertino, we predicted that it would be mostly commuters and while there were a lot of commuters, there was a very large proportion that were seniors and a very large proportion that were high school students.

The seniors and students are all back in full swing again. The commuters are slowly coming back online.

Via typically has a high level of low-income ridership – almost half of our riders make less than $50,000 a year and 40% are over 65 years old.

Q: Gas prices are very high right now, but unlike other ride-hailing services that may adjust to gas prices, Via riders are paying the same amount. How does that impact your business?

A: Gas prices do bring additional riders because it is obviously cheaper to ride the service, so that is great and we have to absorb that extra cost either alone or with our partners.

Q: The loss in ridership during the pandemic has caused a big dropoff in revenue for transit agencies. How does that affect their ability to hire or expand with Via?

A: We spend quite a bit of time looking for state and federal grants and working with our partners on applying for those grants. The City of Cupertino will know in June if they are awarded a grant to expand Via service and transition it to electric vehicles. Richmond and Calexico are also launching services later this year with state grant funding.

When we’re applying for these grants, it puts a focus on how we provide additional transit with a reasonable cost-per-trip that will reduce the number of people taking single-occupancy vehicles. If you have a program that can help achieve all those goals there is a lot of grant funding available.

Krista Glotzbach
Position: Director of West Coast Partnership at Via Transportation
Age: 50
Birthplace: San Diego
Residence: Menlo Park
Education: Stanford University, Bachelor’s in Economics and Japanese

Five Things About Krista Glotzbach

1. Krista has deep roots in San Jose. Her parents grew up near Alum Rock Park – both attending San Jose State. Krista’s dad became an aviation professor at SJSU while her mom taught at LeyVa Middle School.
2. She loves cycling. Every five years Krista rides with her parents to the top of Mount Hamilton – the last ride was for her dad’s 75th birthday.
3. Growing up in San Jose, a fancy night for Krista and her family was a meal at The Old Spaghetti Factory for Shirley Temples and the Manager’s Favorite.
4. Krista completed two Ironman triathlons in her 40s and ran a double marathon up the Jungfrau mountain in Switzerland to raise $200,000 for the charity Room to Read.
5. She fell in love with public transportation while living in Switzerland with her husband, Matthew, the CEO of edtech company Quizlet, and their two daughters Alex, 17, and Reese, 15.