The new uber shuttle is basically a bus, but worse than that

Every few years, Silicon Valley announcing the economy announcing the “sabotage” that looks like a bus. Uber launched smart roads a decade ago, followed by a short time after Lyft shuttle for its largest competitor. Even Elon Musk tried it in 2018 with the “Urban Episode System” that has never been fulfilled Beyond the Vigas tape. Does anyone remember a vehicle?

Now it’s the role of Uber again. Horseback Company recently announced Road sharingAs the shutters will travel dozens of fixed roads, with fixed stops, picking passengers and drop them at constant times. Amid the inevitable jokes around the Silicon Valley again, the buses discover are serious questions about the meaning of this transit transport systems, air quality, and crowding.

Uber promised the program, which was presented in seven cities at the end of May, will bring the transfer of “more affordable and more predictive prices” during peak hours.

“Many of our users, who live in the same area in general, work in the same area in general, and they move at the same time,” said Sashin Kansal, the company’s chief product official, during the company’s announcement on May 14. “The concept of road sharing is not new,” admitted – although he never used the word “bus”. Instead, pictures of horse -drawn vehicles, vehicles, and Pedicabs appeared on the screen.

The CEO Dara Joshurshahi was a little more coming when He said The whole thing is “to some extent inspired by the bus.” He said that the goal is only to reduce the prices for the consumer and then help in congestion and the environment. “

But Kevin Shin, who studies this type of things in the union of the relevant scholars, wonders whether the “bus of the next generation” of Uber will do a lot for passengers or climate. “Everyone will say,” Silicon Valley is invented by the bus again. “But it is like that they are re -inventing a worse bus.”

Five years ago, the Federation of Primible Scholars issued a a report This has found that the services of cycling are emitted by 69 percent of the carbon dioxide that the planet calms down and other pollutants that replace them-to a large extent because up to 40 percent of the miles that travel by Uber drivers and Lyft are driven without a passenger, which is called “dead heads”. The report indicated that the climate defect is decreasing with the combined services such as the uberx class – but it is still not more green than having a vehicle and its leadership, but the report is Electric car.

Besides the benefit of the IFFY climate, wider concerns are about what this means for transportation in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Viladelphia, Dallas, Boston and Baltimore – and the people who rely on them.

“Transit is a public service, so the goal of the Obour Agency is to serve all its customers, whether they are rich or poor, whether it is the maximum path that stimulates profits or not.” The entities that do all this come with accountability mechanisms – councils, public meetings and vocal passengers – to ensure that they are supposed to do. “It barely any of this is in its place for a opery.” He said this is the focus of the public transport model Without public accountability.

Regarding the threat, Philadelphia and Dallas suffer from transportation systems at risk of discrimination. The situation is so comfortable in Feli that it may reduce the service by approximately 45 percent on July 1 amid a chronic financial crisis. (This, as a Reddit user indicated, indicated It will be good news))

Meanwhile, the federal government reduces support for public services, Including transit systems Many of them are still not fully recovered by the Kofid era budget. Although riding at the country level is up to 85 per cent of prenatal levelsBloomberg News recently estimated that crossing systems throughout the country face Budget deficiency of $ 6 billion. So it is easy to know why companies such as Uber see a job opportunity in public transport.

Khosrowshahi insists that Uber “in competition with personal car ownership”, not public transport. “Public transport is a teammate,” he told The Verg. But a Ticket It was released last year from the University of California, Davis found that in three cities in California, there were no more than half of the ride ride trips to the personal car, they replaced more Sustainable patterns to wrapLike walking, public transport, and cycling.

Then there is the fact that cities like New York are struggling Chronic crowding And you do not need more compounds that confuse crowded streets. During the Grand Uber Advertisement, Kansal’s video clip shows a single track sharing ride in Big Apple. She covered about 3 miles from the city center to the lower Manhattan, which will take about 30 minutes and cost $ 13.

But this is the thing: the titles are presented by three different subway lines. It is possible to move between these two points, avoid congestion, and reach $ 2.90. So, yes, the uber route share is cheaper than the Uber Standard Car Service (Who got 7.2 percent more batch last year) – But sharing the road is far from the most efficient or economical way to get around the largest markets in which it is launched.

“If there is anything, it reduces the efficiency of transit by formulating those same methods with more vehicles.”

This article was originally appeared in Barrier in https://grist.org/transportation/Uber-nourte-buless/. Grist is a non -profit and independent media organization dedicated to the novel of climate solution stories and a just future. Learn more in Grist.org.