Why Taxing Ride Share to Fund the CTA Makes Sense
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It could help level the playing field and stop recent transit ridership bleeding.
Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about Uber
Uber and Lyft Are Cannibalizing Transit in Major American Cities
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New research from UC Davis shows that cities must strengthen transit in response to the growth of ride-hailing services.
Get Ready for Uber’s “Flying Cars” Conference to Generate Lots of Dumb Headlines
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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.
No, Giant Shared Ubers Aren’t About to Solve City Traffic Problems
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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.
No, Uber’s Not Going to Replace Buses, But It Can Complement Them
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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. In a new report, “Private Mobility, Public Interest” [PDF], TransitCenter deflates some of the hype surrounding these services while laying out […]
Today’s Headlines for Friday, October 9
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Opinion: Think Cyclists Are Jerks? Everyone on the Street’s a Jerk (CBS2) Budget Hearing 1: Far South Side Aldermen Want Divvy (DNA) Number of New Workers in Chicago Equaled the Growth in People Using Active Transportation (MPC) Budget Hearing 2: Ald. Reilly Doubts CDOT-Active Trans Partnership While Others Defend It (DNA) Ald. Reilly Proposes Traffic Cams to […]
Study: Uber Reduces Drunk Driving Deaths
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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. The entry of Uber X — driving services offered by people using private vehicles — into a new city decreased drunk driving deaths by an average […]
Talking Headways Podcast: Uber and the Case of the Hidden Gas Tax
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Uber is celebrating. DC passed an Uber-legalization law that Uber thinks cities the world over should follow. The problem is, most cities have much more tightly regulated taxi industries than DC, with a far higher cost of entry. In those cases, letting Uber get away with providing taxi services while complying with none of the […]
Single, Universal Taxi App Could Level Playing Field
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The City of Chicago wants to set up a centralized, online taxi dispatching system that would accept anyone’s request for a cab. This new tool could let the local taxi industry catch up to the user-responsiveness of increasingly popular taxi alternatives like Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar. Those companies’ easy-to-use apps, and sometimes lower fares, are […]
UberFAMILY: Finally, a Taxi Option for People With Kids
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Childless people, let me let you in on a little secret: Car seats are a huge pain in the ass. They’re no big deal if you own a car, I guess, except for the fact that your kid probably squawks at the prospect of being immobilized in that iron maiden too long. For car-free parents, […]
Bus to Zipcar to Divvy? RideScout App Makes Connecting A Bit Easier
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The number of transportation choices available to Chicagoans continues to grow, particularly as shared options like car-sharing and Divvy bikes become ever more popular. Yet these options can turn the simple act of planning a trip across town into a complicated exercise that requires weighing multiple factors, like cost, convenience, time, and ever-changing availability. RideScout, […]