The Platform Economy and the Smart City by Austin Zwick

Author:Austin Zwick [Zwick, Austin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

8

A New Public-Private Partnership for the Platform Age? Uber as Public Transit

Zachary Spicer

•  A growing number of municipalities are exploring use of ride-hailing firms to complement transit options or replace new transit plans. Many are low-density, suburban communities.

•  Partnerships with ride-hailing firms are effectively forms of public-private partnerships (PPPS), but, unlike other PPPS, these relationships do not transfer risk to the private sector. Instead, operational and policy risk are carried by the municipality

and those recruited to drive by the ride-hailing firm.

•  Such partnerships will likely increase in the future, given the small capital costs needed to engage Uber as a “transit provider” on a limited basis.

INTRODUCTION

Ride-hailing services, such as Uber, generally court controversy in every market they enter. To overcome challenges from hostile taxi companies and drivers and often equally hostile local politicians and regulators, ride-hailing companies have typically resorted to aggressive tactics to secure a place in local transportation-for-hire markets. Firms such as Uber have been blamed for safety violations (Saner 2017; Kerr 2014; Feeney 2015), increased congestion on roadways (Leblanc 2018; Bliss 2017), environmental degradation (Galbraith 2016; Hawkins 2015), consumer protection violations (Calo and Rosenblat 2018; Cleveland 2014; Koopman et al. 2015), and labour market precarity, amongst other issues (Rogers 2015; Malin and Chandler 2016; Younglai 2015). Some municipalities, however, have overlooked the poor reputation of many of these firms and are beginning to see ride hailing in a very different light. To many, Uber is no longer a rogue transportation outlaw, but rather a partner and potential solution to transit challenges.

How did ride-hailing firms become a partner for local governments? How do these partnerships come about? To answer these questions, this chapter examines four jurisdictions that have pursued partnerships with Uber: Innisfil (Ontario), Almonte Springs (Florida), Pinellas County (Florida), and Edmonton (Alberta). Overall, we find that ride hailing is seen largely as a solution to the “last-mile” problem in regional transit networks in several of these markets. However, the municipalities examined are partnering with ride-hailing firms to reach a scattered array of policy ends with little consistency. We conclude that such partnerships will likely increase, given the small capital investment required to engage Uber as a transit partner on a limited basis. However, we also find that these relationships depart from a typical public-private partnership model, as they do not spread risk among private sector actors.

This chapter proceeds in four sections. First, we examine the growth of Uber and detail some of its initial struggles to find legitimacy in several markets. We then explore the literature on public-private partnerships and present ways of understanding the attraction to partner with ride-hailing firms for public transit. In the following section, we examine four case studies, exploring the dynamics in each community that eventually brought about a cooperative relationship (or in one case led to an aborted partnership) with Uber. The final section concludes the chapter.

FROM OUTLAW TO PARTNER: UBER AND RIDESHARING IN NORTH AMERICAN CITIES

Ride-hailing firms like Uber and Lyft are known commodities in most North American cities. Uber, which operates in

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