Uber will expand its price-saving uberPOOL option in the Bay Area for Super Bowl week, an effort that may help fans fight the dreaded surge pricing fare hikes.
Users will be able to get cheaper fares by sharing rides to and from Caltrain stations throughout the Bay Area – from San Francisco to San Jose, Uber announced Wednesday. The carpooling option was previously only available within San Francisco. The new service, dubbed POOLtrain, will be available 24/7 from Saturday through Feb. 7.
UberPOOL, which matches riders with other nearby users heading in the same direction, is about 15 percent cheaper than UberX, according to the company. The rates still are subject to surge pricing.
The ride-hailing app inevitably jacks up prices to several times the normal rate during big events, such as New Year s Eve and Outside Lands. Disgruntled festival-goers have reported paying hundreds of dollars for rides out of Golden Gate Park to destinations within San Francisco, according to SFist.
This is the first time we are expanding a POOL product in conjunction with a mass transit agency to help solve the puzzle of getting more people from A to B for a big event, Wayne Ting, Uber s Bay Area general manager, wrote in an emailed statement. We are thrilled to be piloting this kind of partnership in our backyard, because more people in fewer cars can help relieve some of the expected traffic gridlock.
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