In an Ideal Bay Area...

The Bay Area has lots of ways to beat traffic. And yet, it seems like traffic always wins.

There are many reasons for this. One major problem--I think the biggest--is what Transportation planners call the "first-mile/last-mile" problem: if you want me to take a train, is there a convenient, reliable, direct(ish) way for me to get to and from the station(s)? Maybe I can drive to the station near my home; then what? Unless my train takes me within walking distance of my destination, I'll have to transfer again. UBER, Lyft, and an increasing number of shared micro-mobility solutions (many of them struggling) might fill that need, but will my car be safe while I'm away? Unless parking is prohibitively expensive, like in downtown SF, I'll just bite the bullet and brave traffic.

The Bay Area's train and ferry network is extensive, but not nearly as extensive as our highway and road network, and too remote for most commuters. Unless you live and work within walking distance of train stations on the same line, not driving entails a 2- or 3-leg itinerary. Such a trip only makes sense if

• your commute is relatively long (over ~30 minutes)

• additional legs are fairly direct

• transfers don't require a long wait

As extensive as our train network is, trains don't run frequently enough; missing your train by minutes can cost you an hour or more. And the local bus service to/from the station, if it serves you at all, likely travels a painfully circuitous route with frequent stops, and also on a schedule that will have you waiting too long.

But there is hope. At LinkedIn, I helped implement an extremely popular program that subsidized rideshare to/from any transit station. LinkedIn's campus shuttles provided the connection to campus at the other end. Together, these programs solve the first-mile/last-mile problem for anyone's commute, while leveraging (and supporting) the train and ferry networks. Unfortunately, managing each of these legs required two or three different apps, and coordination was left up to the commuter.

The solution CommuteSource is committed to bringing into existence is called Demand-Responsive Transit. Picture the app-based convenience of UBER or Lyft, but using small shuttles driven by professional drivers, with timed transfers to/from the most effective public transit when necessary. Introducing timed-transfers at transit hubs aggregates demand, and introduces network effects to the transit system. Such dynamic hubbing of vehicles need not be reserved for longer trips leveraging the train system. For shorter trips, riders could transfer from one local shuttle to another. Luxury coaches could be added to the network for longer trips that are not connected via the existing train network.

Picture such a system at scale, operating with a critical mass of supply and demand: you and a few neighbors would be picked up and brought to your local transit hub, just in time to get on a train, another local shuttle, or a long-haul commercial coach, where you'd join your coworkers. Rides would be affordable enough for everyday use, thanks to the economies of scale inherent in the system, government and other subsidies, and company incentives.

The user experience would be like turning Google and Apple Maps transit directions on its head. Rather than these apps telling you what transit options are available, the app would be telling commercial service providers what demand they need to serve. UBER and Lyft once offered shared rides, but only in the densest populations at the busiest hours might you get paired up with someone to save a fraction of the fare--and even then, you're sharing a ride with yet another stranger in a very small vehicle. Not everyone is comfortable with that. For shared rides, vehicle size matters, both for rider comfort and for economies of scale.

Now realize that at scale, such a system enables any property with sufficient demand--retail centers, office complexes, hospitals, campuses, etc.--to serve as a transit hub, and we just might get a substantial share of rush-hour traffic out of the single-occupancy vehicle commute.