Ride-sharing services like Uber “could well transform transportation the way Amazon has altered shopping—by using slick, user-friendly software and mountains of data to completely reshape an existing market,” the Times suggests. “Uber could pull this off by accomplishing something that has long been seen as a pipe dream among transportation scholars: It has the potential to decrease private car ownership.” Uber is already cheaper than car ownership in some markets, and up to 30% less expensive than cabs. So ride-sharing “could help lower the cost of living in urban areas, reduce the environmental toll exacted by privately owned automobiles (like the emissions we spew while cruising for parking), and reallocate space now being wasted on parking lots to more valuable uses, like housing.” (h/t to Sustainable Cities Collective)
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