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Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

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Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#1
Don't dispatch networks seem a lot like infrastructure? The main barrier doesn't seem to be technology, but network effects, and to a lesser extent, government regulation.

Why don't cities/provinces/states make their own?

Adoption wouldn't be an issue, following government code wouldn't be an issue, would probably bring in quite a bit of revenue.

Are any cities doing this already?

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#2
Because they're clueless and they're living in the past. There are notable exceptions but for the most part this applies to public administration in general.

From their point of view, why should they try to find novel solutions to evident problems while they can much more easily just "regulate away" the potential for such solutions (for now, that is) and claim the problem doesn't exist in the first place? Public administration is notoriously bad at both embracing change and long-term planning because its stakeholders' outlook is measured in legislative periods.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#5
Helsinki tried this with their Kutsuplus service, but it ended up proving too expensive and underused for being publicly funded. They are now looking for private companies to run a similar service.

http://www.wired.com/2013/10/on-demand-public-transit/

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#7
City planners are enamored with building stuff. That's why they want to build subways and light rail systems instead of bus rapid transport.

Building stuff is more permanent and facilitates other building--like apartment building or office building near stations.

With IT dispatch systems they aren't building anything physical and aren't affecting the built environment and all their training is about affecting the built environment.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#8
It's not entirely clear yet what long-term effect ridesharing will have on city traffic [1] and cities are very invested in keeping that low. Buses and trains and such keep that traffic lower, at least according to current data.

Of course, if ridesharing proves itself to reduce traffic, I wouldn't be surprised to find cities experimenting with public-private partnerships to implement them locally. We have something very successful in DC called Capital Bikeshare that is focused largely on reducing traffic.

But, unlike bikesharing, if Uber and kin prove out ridesharing as valuable to DC, I cannot see what the local government would add with their own system, something that I know the DC government does consider. Capital Bikeshare is so successful precisely because the government is involved. They can convert a couple street parking spaces or a traffic intersection median into a bikeshare without asking anyone, and have done so with no real complaint.

[1] http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/is-uber-making-nyc-rush-...

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_Bikeshare

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#10
post #8

It's not entirely clear yet what long-term effect ridesharing will have on city traffic [1] and cities are very invested in keeping that low. Buses and trains and such keep that traffic lower, at least according to current data. Of course, if ridesharing proves itself to reduce traffic, I wouldn't be surprised to find cities experimenting with public-private partnerships to implement them locally. We have something v…

Chicago is doing something very similar with Divvy. [1]

[1] https://www.divvybikes.com/

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