The so-called FMLM problem (First Mile - Last Mile) has been discussed recently in an article of the american TRANSPORTIS Blog.
The FMLM describes the way a passenger of Public Transport Means of Transport has to go in order to find the means of transport at the starting point and finally at the end of the trip to find the target place.
Transport associations have started already pilot projects together with taxi transport companies like UBER, Lyft or Juno. What do they have to do in order to make such transfer means attractive?
According to TRANSPORTIST Blog are such projects profoundly dependent on the costs, even if they are subsidized by the main transport mean. If ticket prices increase by 1 percent, then demand for usage of Public Transport Means will already be reduced by 0,3%. Question is, wether passengers would be willing to pay a transfer to the main mean of transport additionally. Transfer on the first to the last mile has to be reliable as well and waiting times must be acceptable. Also, such transfer deals must be a benefit for the transport association in order to subsidize it. Growth of passenger numbers has to prove that.
datagon director Wolfgang Sprick pleads in this case for the development of an App with intermodal approach: "Every kind of transport is possible at every point of the mobility chain. In many cases there are single offers but the passenger has to find them by searching them explicitly and has to collect the transport means for every part of his trip and to combine them himself in a cumbersome way. If systems would supply their data in an Open Data Format, it would be possible to provide the passenger with the best deal referring to time, price and distance.
The article in TRANSPORTIST Blog: What do we know about the “First mile/last mile” problem for transit?