Will Barratt, Ph.D.
Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Universiti Malaya
I am relatively new (10 weeks) to my city and to my commute to my campus office so I am just beginning to see patterns. Before I moved here to Kuala Lumpur I had never used an internet based ride service like Grab (the only one available here), so I had a steep learning curve.
Since I like technology I loaded up the Grab app and started to use it to get to work in the morning. I live in a new tower block apartment complex near campus and went to Gate A for my pickup. While waiting I would pay attention to the young professionals who were also waiting for their Grab car. I was curious about the people in my building and people coming to work in the office block near me.
Across the street from my apartment building is a taxi stand, a bus station, and a Light Rail Train stop for the university. The LRT is used by commuters coming from the suburbs into the city. Campus, and offices, are served by the bus system at the LRT station and the same prepaid card works for LRT and bus.
I have three transportation options. I can get Grab from my building, waiting with the young professionals. I can walk 5 minutes to cross the street and jump into a waiting taxi. The taxi riders are typically office workers who have just commuted in from the suburbs. Or I can stand in line and wait for a bus. The bus riders are frugal campus employees or students.
The economics are relatively simple and involve both time and money. Grab and taxis cost the same most of the time, taxis cost less during high volume hours because the Grab rate varies by time of day and demand. The bus is the lowest cost per ride. The wait time for Grab, in my experience, is 5-8 minutes, the wait time for the taxi is typically under 2 minutes, and the wait time for the bus can be as much as 15 minutes, and the bus ride to your destination takes longer than either Grab or taxi.
The cost analysis in time and money, Grab is at least as high as a taxi and has a longer wait. Taxi is middle price and very low wait time. The bus is long wait, long ride, and low cost. The best economic choice, for time and money, is a taxi. And yet, the young professionals take the longer wait higher cost option. Hmmm.
The physical space is remarkably different for Grab, taxi, and bus. Grab is in someone's clean car, a taxi is typically older than a private car and taxis have questionable suspension. The bus, well, is a bus. Our buses are nice, clean, and have padded seats, and they are still a bus.
The transportation market segmenting is a self selection process, and is not based, as my economist friends would argue, on a rational economic choice. As with the purses, transportation has become a positional good, a public marker of social status.
tl;dr - upper class people in my neighborhood spend time and money taking Grab, the expensive option.
Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Universiti Malaya
I am relatively new (10 weeks) to my city and to my commute to my campus office so I am just beginning to see patterns. Before I moved here to Kuala Lumpur I had never used an internet based ride service like Grab (the only one available here), so I had a steep learning curve.
Since I like technology I loaded up the Grab app and started to use it to get to work in the morning. I live in a new tower block apartment complex near campus and went to Gate A for my pickup. While waiting I would pay attention to the young professionals who were also waiting for their Grab car. I was curious about the people in my building and people coming to work in the office block near me.
Across the street from my apartment building is a taxi stand, a bus station, and a Light Rail Train stop for the university. The LRT is used by commuters coming from the suburbs into the city. Campus, and offices, are served by the bus system at the LRT station and the same prepaid card works for LRT and bus.
I have three transportation options. I can get Grab from my building, waiting with the young professionals. I can walk 5 minutes to cross the street and jump into a waiting taxi. The taxi riders are typically office workers who have just commuted in from the suburbs. Or I can stand in line and wait for a bus. The bus riders are frugal campus employees or students.
The economics are relatively simple and involve both time and money. Grab and taxis cost the same most of the time, taxis cost less during high volume hours because the Grab rate varies by time of day and demand. The bus is the lowest cost per ride. The wait time for Grab, in my experience, is 5-8 minutes, the wait time for the taxi is typically under 2 minutes, and the wait time for the bus can be as much as 15 minutes, and the bus ride to your destination takes longer than either Grab or taxi.
The cost analysis in time and money, Grab is at least as high as a taxi and has a longer wait. Taxi is middle price and very low wait time. The bus is long wait, long ride, and low cost. The best economic choice, for time and money, is a taxi. And yet, the young professionals take the longer wait higher cost option. Hmmm.
The physical space is remarkably different for Grab, taxi, and bus. Grab is in someone's clean car, a taxi is typically older than a private car and taxis have questionable suspension. The bus, well, is a bus. Our buses are nice, clean, and have padded seats, and they are still a bus.
The transportation market segmenting is a self selection process, and is not based, as my economist friends would argue, on a rational economic choice. As with the purses, transportation has become a positional good, a public marker of social status.
tl;dr - upper class people in my neighborhood spend time and money taking Grab, the expensive option.
