Wed 26 / 07 / 17
Uber's visions for the future of urban mobility
Chamber Members Uber are sponsoring our Indian Summer curry social on Tuesday 14 November. Fred Jones, Head of Cities UK & Ireland, writes about the importance of Uber in today's society, and their vision of the future that allows people to have equal access to affordable transportation.
It’s easy to demonise the car. There are more than a billion in the world today: equivalent to the populations of the US and Europe combined. But the problem is not so much cars themselves. It’s how we use them: individually. Next time you stop at a red light, look at the cars to your right or left. The chances are they’ll have just one person in them: the driver. When you drive alone, you’re in good company.
Sadly, that’s just 5% of the problem, because cars sit idle 95% of the time! As a result, up to a fifth of the land in some cities is used to store these hunks of steel. Not homes or schools or parks—but parking spots and parking lots. In the US, there are eight parking spots for every car, covering an area 12 times the size of New York City.
There is a tremendous opportunity cost to parking, though it’s something we often don’t count. It’s space that could otherwise be used for bike lanes or more affordable housing. But, today, in most cities, parking is encouraged not discouraged. New homes and offices need to have a minimum number of parking lots: space that may not be needed and only increases costs.
This is the insanity of the way we design cities today.
The good news is that using new technology and today’s infrastructure we can cut congestion, pollution and parking, as well as improve access to transportation, by using private cars for public good. The rise of apps (like Uber) is also raising the standards of safety in getting from A to B; there is no need to carry cash to get around, there no anonymous passengers or drivers and service transparency and accountability with every trip GPS tracked.
We are seeing that services like ours can challenge people’s need to own and use their own car. A recent piece in the FT showed we have an important role to play with 1 in 3 people ready to ditch private car ownership in favour of an app. MIT also released a report on how ride-sharing has the potential to reduce traffic by up to 75%. Indeed, a YouGov poll a few months ago found that 28% of Londoners who used to own a car say they no longer do so because they can use alternatives like Uber instead (rising to 42% among recent Uber users) and 1 in 5 Londoners say they are less likely to buy a car in future because of alternatives like Uber.
Imagine our transportation possibilities if everyone in Brighton & Hove could summon a car at a push of a button wherever they are instead of using their own? The exciting opportunity for Brighton & Hove is that we already have the technology and infrastructure in place in the city to get more people sharing fewer cars and that it is working.
A better future is within our grasp—it’s one where people share rides and take public transit simply because it’s a better option to owning a car. It’s a future: where people have equal access to affordable transportation; where they spend less of their income on cars or commutes, and less time stuck behind the wheel; and where parking spaces are replaced by parks and affordable housing.
Thanks to Fred Jones for providing us with this blog. For more on Uber and their story please go to https://www.uber.com/en-GB/our-story/.
Our Indian Summer curry social is on Tuesday 14 November at Indian Summer. For more information and to book your place click here.
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If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk