Data Makes Strange Bedfellows

How Cities and Rideshare Companies Can Work Together

This isn’t another post bashing on Uber. This is about transportation — the company’s original mission, which seems to have gotten lost under its $17+ billion valuation and bro culture. But if you’d like a nice recap, I’d recommend this one.

This is about the need for radical transparency around ridesharing data.

For the last few years, I’ve been cautiously optimistic about the rise of these companies. Living car-free for the last 6 years, the convenience of on-demand drivers has been fantastic. It’s perfect for getting home late at night, solving the last-mile dilemma at transit hubs, and helping me carry all my groceries.

But as a transportation planner, I’ve also wondered if the convenience was actually detrimental. Does the relative ease of hailing a car on a phone lead people to abandon other modes of transportation like walking, biking or public transit? Are we actually creating more car trips, and in turn, more greenhouse gas emissions?

No more empty seats: on-demand carpool

Fortunately, these companies are getting smarter around trip aggregation. This, I believe, is what can make or break the claims about rideshare being an “environmentally friendly” service.

It began this summer with the birth of Lyft Line and UberPool, carpool services that pick up riders heading towards the same destination.

And today, Lyft released Driver Destination, a ridesharing service focused on daily commuters. As explained in TechCrunch, the service is a platform for matching rides during peak hours, not creating long-shifts like a taxi driver. This is about trip consolidation, folks!

But this is only the beginning. A recent opinion piece by David Alpert in the Washington Post posited how deregulation of the transportation networking companies (a.k.a Lyft and Uber) could actually be a good way to foster innovation and enforce public safety. The secret, he believes, is in the data.

Cities are starting to get smarter about ride sharing, too. For example, New York City just voted to require data sharing (pick-up locations and times, and the license numbers of drivers and vehicles) between ride sharing companies and taxi regulators.

And in Washington DC, a councilmember is proposing accessibility requirements on ridesharing fleets. The legislation would require at least 12 percent of fleets be accessible to people with disabilities by the end of 2016. To do this, the legislation also includes tax credits of up to $10,000 for drivers. There is also a data sharing requirement so the city can track demand for disability-accessible vehicles.

These are big steps.

Deep down, I believe that as the rideshare industry continues to develop, we will move closer towards solving our real urban mobility challenges. Not how to deliver a box of kittens to my door or how to get a ride with Batman, but how to make greener, safer, more livable cities.

This is largely because ridesharing challenges prevailing attitudes about owning a personal vehicle.

As ridesharing become a more legitimate choice in the city’s transportation network, people are starting to think twice about the hassles of owning a car. In fact, some researchers believe that ridesharing services will likely reduce car ownership among users, similar to car-sharing services like Zipcar and bike-share.

Such a trend could trigger a return to designing cities for people, not cars.

If car ownership goes down, city rules around parking standards and ubiquitous parking lots can be revised. In turn, the space in prime downtown locations can be re-purposed for other — and arguably more meaningful — uses. The pie becomes larger and the community is no longer relegated to carving out tiny slices for amenities like bike lanes, public art, community gardens, dog parks, and patio dining space. You know, the things that make living in a city so enjoyable.

But cities need more transportation data.

Making this data public presents incredible opportunities. To do this, it begins with the California Public Utilities Commission passing new regulations around transportation network companies, and cities negotiating more data sharing requirements into their contracts.

Here are some ideas I have around how transportation planners would benefit from ridesharing data (with a heavy focus on California specific legislation):

Travel data

Under the Sustainable Communities Act (SB 375) and Assembly Bill 32, cities and counties are required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from passenger vehicles. In fact, a region’s ability to meet these reduction targets is connected to state and federal funding, which pays for infrastructure projects like road paving, bike lanes, and bridges.

Part of SB 375 requires cities and counties to work with their regional planning organization to create a “sustainable communities strategy”. This is a collection of land use, housing and transportation strategies that create a roadmap for how the region will reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

If cities had access to travel data, they could better understand how ridesharing companies affect the region’s total vehicle miles traveled (VMT), a proxy metric for greenhouse gas emissions.

Pickup data

Learning where people want to be picked up can be a great proxy for measuring demand for other public services like transit. It can be used in a gap analysis to identify underserved areas for transit, and even help play into a city’s Unmet Transit Needs process, as required by the Transportation Development Act.

Fleet data

Insight into the vehicles that drivers use could provide valuable information about the overall fleet performance. If most of the drivers are using older vehicles, a city could provide incentives for drivers to use cleaner vehicles.

A logical connection would be to tie this information to zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) legislation. For example, Governor Brown passed an executive order to get 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on the road in California by 2025 and other long-term air quality goals. Through their EV Infrastructure Plan, metropolitan planning organizations are planning for (and monitoring the progress of) widespread ZEV adoption.

Additional Negotiations

I don’t think ridesharing will ever (or should ever) replace government services like public transportation. For starters, a model that relies exclusively on mobile technologies raises legitimate equity concerns. But I do think that this rideshare services should operate with a more “civic” focus and help local governments deliver services. This might mean:

Ubers as Ambulances.

As Los Angeles’ Chief Data Officer Abhi Nemani has said, it’s time to rethink how ridesharing can have a more civic function. His best idea? Using on-demand ridesharing to connect people to critical services, such as flu shots or heart attack victims with an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

A deeper commitment to accessibility.

Water bottles, gum and phone chargers are nice for passengers… but let’s provide a transportation that everyone can enjoy, including a city’s paratransit community. This includes making sure ridesharing fleets have wheelchair ramps and lifts, allowing service animals into vehicles, making the app and website accessible to visually impaired users, etc.

So, what’s next?

I work at Code for America, where we believe that open data and data-driven decision-making are defining features of a 21st century government. Let’s start bringing the wealth of data that ridesharing companies collect into citywide transportation conversations. We can use this data to better understand the access and mobility needs of our residents, prioritize investments in our local transportation network, and get a better understanding of where we stand on regional sustainability goals.

Part of the Code for America network is planning to draft boilerplate language around open data policies for contracts with ride sharing companies. We’re interested in partnering with cities, transportation planners, researchers, and civic hackers who might benefit from this kind of ordinance. We’re also looking for leaders in ridesharing companies who want to help set a precedent on public-private parnterships working towards a shared goal of improving transportation.

Want to get involved? Want to continue the conversation? Tweet at me. @debsarctica