Uber's Accidental Argument Against Itself
The ride-sharing company produces a terrific illustration of how bad Bangkok traffic can be, but not how Uber would help.
Uber's new Bangkok ad makes a great point, writes Angie Schmitt, but not in favor of Uber:
"By stripping away the gloss, anonymity, and cultural connotations of car exteriors and leaving only their bulk, the ad brilliantly highlights why moving around in single-occupancy vehicles is so absurd in an urban context."
The argument the ad fails to make is how the same people taking the same trips in someone else's car would have any impact on the number of cars on the road; and in fact, there is evidence that ride-sharing apps may do just the opposite.
There’s certainly a place for these services in the transportation ecosystem, Schmitt writes, but "no app, no matter how user-friendly, can turn cars into a congestion fix."
Published on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 in
Topics
- Google's San Jose Transit Village Plans Revealed
- The Varied Career of a Transit Service Planner
- The Life and Death of Neighborhood Rebrandings
- 150 Acres of Undeveloped Land to Become 2,350 Homes Outside Denver
- City to Bicyclists: Berkeley Not in Idaho
- Anti-Development Forces Strike at L.A.'s Transit Oriented Communities Program
- New York City 'More Congested Than Ever'
- Kanye West's Unpermitted Vision for Housing Utopia Has Been Demolished
- What Walk Buttons Do (and Don't Do)
- Jersey City Building More Apartment Than Manhattan
- 28.3 Million Acres of Public Land at Risk in Alaska
- First-Time Home Buyers Look Different Than They Once Did
- Consumer Group Accuses States of 'Punishing' Electric Vehicle Drivers
- L.A.'s New Tool for More Efficient City Asset Management
- Pedestrian Planning Changing the Public Realm in Vancouver
- Digital Transportation: The Future of Urban Mobility
- Frequencies Restored on L.A.'s Expo Line After Rider Backlash
- A Traffic Safety Commitment for Chicago's West Side
- Report: Shared Bikes and Scooters Could Reduce Car Trips By 50 Percent in Downtowns
- The Great Flood of 2019, Visualized
