Uber
Basics
Uber’s Latest Feature Reinvents the Wheels on the Bus
Uber is rolling out a new feature that will encourage people who use its shared-ride service in New York to walk to the nearest intersection, instead of getting picked up at their door. The company hopes that by avoiding looping through congested Manhattan to pick up and drop off multiple people, it will make trips faster and easier -- but Uber is trying to solve a problem that buses solved generations ago.
May 24, 2017
Get Ready for Uber’s ‘Flying Cars’ Conference to Generate Lots of Dumb Headlines
Whizzing above the city may sound appealing in a Jetsons sort of way, but Uber's thinking on this technology is completely untethered from its impact on the cities and towns below, where the people are.
April 25, 2017
The Trouble With Uber
It's been a bad few weeks for Uber, with CEO Travis Kalanick recently caught on tape in a shouting match with a driver over the company's diminishing pay. Joe Cortright at City Observatory says that beyond the public meltdown, there are a growing number of signs that Uber's business model just isn't sustainable.
March 3, 2017
No, Giant Shared Ubers Aren’t About to Solve City Traffic Problems
MIT researchers got a ton of press for a mathematical model that showed sharing for-hire vehicles could replace 85 percent of New York City's taxi fleet. But their conclusions were built on shaky assumptions, says economist Joe Cortright.
January 6, 2017
Uber Can’t Replace Transit — Here Are 3 Reasons Why
The latest line from anti-transit types is that ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft are going to make fixed-route bus or rail service obsolete. If you find yourself arguing with someone about why transit is essential, a new fact sheet from TransitCenter can help.
December 19, 2016
No, Uber’s Not Going to Replace Buses, But It Can Complement Them
Not a day goes by without a raft of stories about "new mobility" providers -- ride-hailing companies like Uber or car-share services like Car2Go that have tapped into recent technological advances to provide new ways to get around.
September 9, 2016
Does It Make Sense for Transit Agencies to Pay for “Last Mile” Uber Trips?
Should transit agencies subsidize short "last-mile" Uber trips to expand transit access for people who live outside comfortable walking distance of a train station?
April 28, 2016
Subsidizing Uber for the “Last Mile”? An Orlando Suburb Is Trying It
In a January 2015 paper, the Yale Law professor David Schleicher and Yale Law student Daniel Rauch published a paper on how local governments might regulate “sharing economy” companies, such as Uber, in the future.
March 16, 2016
Study: Uber Reduces Drunk Driving Deaths
There's an unexpected upside to the introduction of Uber into more and more U.S. cities, according to a study published earlier this year: the service helps reduce drunk driving fatalities.
August 13, 2015
Technology Can Help People Go Car-Free, But Don’t Forget the Basics
Last week, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group released a ranking of the top 10 cities for "wired" transportation, where newer technologies like bike-share, real-time transit data, and app-based ride-hailing services are helping people get around without a car. After rating 70 metro areas based on the availability of 11 different technologies, Austin came out on top.
February 9, 2015