Ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft have been largely viewed as a threat to public transportation agencies, stealing customers and much-needed revenue. These fears are not unfounded. An October report by the University of California, Davis Institute of Transportation Studies found that urban ride-hailing passengers decreased their use of public transit by 6%.
However, rather than fight ride-hailing services, Bob Sheehan, project manager for Multimodal ITS Research and Deployment for the Intelligent Transportation Joint Program Office (ITS JPO), encouraged agencies to explore “emerging technology solutions and different business approaches.”
