Yellow taxi cabs and New York City — what could be more iconic? Successfully hailing a cab has always been a rite of passage for New Yorkers. It has bewildered out-of-towners but was traditionally handled with little effort by seasoned residents of the Big Apple: spot an on-duty cab, raise a hand, hop inside, enjoy […]
Disruption, blissfully happy digital nomads, the sharing economy and oh yes — the “Gig Economy” sounded good on paper, but it seems to not be all it was thought it might become. As the U.S. economy finally and painfully slowly recovered from the great recession of 2008, the supposed unemployment rate fell to record low levels in […]
During the very successful IRU Taxi Forum in Cologne, the IRU also emphatically pressed the ‘reset button’. The IRU press release about the Forum even claimed that “the IRU is taking charge of the future of taxis.” Nothing is further from the truth. The organization has – after some internal difficulties – been virtually invisible […]
By Mac Urata, International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) inland transport secretary Who uses ride-hailing services in the United States and why? A recent report by UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies draws up an interesting picture of young, affluent and highly educated riders that e-hail Uber or Lyft for their trips to bars and parties. […]
Ben Smith, BuzzFeed’s Editor in Chief wrote this interesting and critical piece on the growing distrust of Silicon Valley companies – including Uber. The blinding rise of Donald Trump over the past year has masked another major trend in American politics: the palpable, and perhaps permanent, turn against the tech industry, BuzzFeed writes. The new […]
There’s a pattern that’s becoming clear: a news story breaks revealing Uber to have been engaged in illegal, unethical, or just downright gross behaviour. Uber half-heartedly swears it’s an exception, or it’s in the past, or that actually it is the law that is wrong anyway. Everyone expresses outrage, arguing that this is surely the […]
Is Uber Bleeding to Death?” Many readers must have asked the same question in recent times. Yet there always seems to be more money in the Uber-coffers. Jared Carmel, Managing Partner of Manhattan Venture Partners, put his thoughts in a piece he recently posted on Linked in. Jared Carmel, Managing Partner, Manhattan Venture Partners Uber […]
Danish lecturer and commentator Jonathan Løw happily uses Uber but he says “it’s decidedly wrong” when people see Uber as an example of disruption. It’s more about the deliberate use of a legal grey area, he writes. There are at least three reasons that Uber is not a disruptive company. Before you get totally annoyed […]
With space increasingly at a premium in today’s cities, high quality public transport combined with a broader mix of mobility services is the answer to cutting car dependency according to the latest position from UITP (the International Association of Public Transport). The new position entitled, ‘Public transport at the heart of the integrated mobility solution,’ […]
This opinion piece was written by Hanif Patni, president and CEO of Coventry Connections in Ottawa, Canada. The piece omits to mention the vast experience Patni has in working with cab companies and taxi associations also in other countries, like for instance in London, Great Britain. When city councillors consider the future of Ottawa’s taxi […]
