An Uber-Transit Partnership?

Much of the recent news about for-hire vehicles, especially Uber, has focused on the conflict between app-based services and both traditional taxicabs and mass transit (see New York, Newark etc). However, a recent study by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), covered in Atlantic CityLabs, found that the two modes may have as many opportunities to partner as need to compete. The APTA study found that for-hire vehicles and mass transit tend to serve groups of riders at different times and making trips with different primary purposes, even if their user populations overlap. The study also found that users of for-hire vehicles have lower rates of car-ownership than those who only ride traditional mass transit.

For planners and other officials and advocates who care about sprawl, energy use, and mobility — among an array of other pressing concerns — these findings are significant. It is exciting to think about services like Uber and Lyft becoming a complimentary part of the ecosystem that enhances the value of transit, rather than serving as fodder for anti-investment voices to argue that public transit is outdated infrastructure with limited utility. To further the argument, some cities have started directly subsidizing Uber and Lyft trips, especially where those trips bring people to transit stations to increase ridership. Whether this potential synergy justifies direct public subsidy in Uber and Lyft trips is an open question. However, the basic idea that this is a ripe opportunity for public-private partnership is compelling.

One of the places where this partnership could be most fruitful is in the area of data-sharing; Uber and Lyft are data collectors by design, and they sit on a treasure trove of information about how people move through cities today, how mobility patterns change in real-time, and where gaps in transportation systems might exist. Uber and Lyft have the kind of trip data that previously took planners months and years of work to collect, and in a more accurate, granular fashion than survey data could ever provide. These companies have an opportunity to add tremendous value to the public discussion around transportation investment by presenting data and analysis that can help planners and communities identify challenges and make more strategic investment decisions. By providing this type of data, in addition to carrying passengers to bus and train stops, perhaps Uber and Lyft can “earn” the subsidy that some cities are beginning to provide them, and begin a shift from their current position as popular political punching bags to indispensable players in a true public-private transportation partnership.