Are ride-sharing organizations competitors or part of public transportation? Image source: Shutterstock (#382990951) pictures skyline of Philadelphia, US.
The city of Philadelphia recently commissioned a study analyzing the city’s transit numbers. According to that study, SEPTA’s 123 bus and trolley routes lost about 4.4 million ride trips from fiscal years 2014 to 2016. As a result, the bus system is now to be reinvented, but ride-sharig organizations such as Uber and Lyft are not too happy about that.
Arguing that they are not SEPTA’s competition because they discourage car ownership, Uber wants to discourage Philadelphia to overhaul its buses.
A 2017 study by transit analyst Bruce Schaller, however, found that the growth of ride-sharing outpaces the decrease in taxi users, and advises cities to compete with private companies like Uber, which claim they just help solve the first mile/last mile problem and get drunk people home.
Next CityWhy not share this article?
