Uber Just Reinvented the Bus … Again

This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate office collaboration.

Every few years, a concert-economy company of Silicon Valley announces a “disruptive” innovation that looks very much like a bus. Uber deployed smart roads a decade ago, followed shortly after the Lyft shuttle of its biggest competitor. Even Elon Musk tried in 2018 with the “urban loop system” which has never been completely materialized Beyond the strip of Vegas. And does anyone remember the cart?

Now it’s Uber’s turn again. The carpooling company recently announced RouteIn which the shuttles will travel dozens of fixed roads, with fixed stops, collecting passengers and placing them at fixed hours. In the midst of inevitable jokes on Silicon Valley, bus discovery is a serious question about what it will mean for transit systems in difficulty, air quality and congestion.

Uber has promised that the program, which has deployed in seven cities at the end of May, will provide “more affordable and more predictable” transport during peak turnipping hours.

“Many of our users, they generally live in the same field, they generally work in the same area, and they move at the same time,” said Sachin Kansal, Director of Uber products, when the company’s May 14 announcement. “The concept of sharing a course is not new,” he admitted, although he has never used the word “bus”. Instead, photos of strollers, rickshaws and pedicabs fired by horses appeared on the screen.

CEO Dara Khosrowshahi was a little more to appear when He said to the rod The whole is “to a certain extent inspired by the bus”. The objective, he said, “is simply to reduce prices to the consumer, then to help congestion and the environment.”

But Kevin Shen, who is studying this kind of thing to the union of the scientists concerned, wonders if Uber’s “new generation bus” will do a lot for commuters or the climate. “Everyone will say:” Silicon Valley reinvents the bus again “,” said Shen. “But it’s more as if they reinvent a worse bus.”

Five years ago, the Union of Scientists concerned released a report This noted that the carpooling services emit 69% of carbon dioxide warming planets and other pollutants than the trips they move, because up to 40% of the miles traveled by the drivers of Uber and Lyft are driven without passenger, something called “imprint”. This climatic disadvantage decreases with grouped services like Uberx shares The car is electric.

Beyond the uncertain climate benefit, wider concerns about what it means for transit systems in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston and Baltimore – and the people who count on them.

“Transit is a public service, so the objective of a transit agency is to serve all its customers, whether wealthy or poor, whether it is the maximum route or not inducing profit,” said Shen. The entities that make all this come with empowerment mechanisms – cards, public meetings, riders – to make sure they do what they are supposed to do. “Barely all of this is in place to Uber.” This, he said, is a pivot to a public transit model Without public responsibility.