Uber - the transit godsend that makes me want to walk

Thestar.com
Oct. 17, 2015
By Emma Teitel

If you’re a Torontonian who uses public transit you’re probably used to scowling out the window of a streetcar. Why? Because the streetcar - a prehistoric beast living an eon past its expiration date - breaks down more often than a contestant on The Bachelor.

And when it does break down, usually in the dead of winter, you have no choice but to stew in your ski jacket and count the commuters on the sidewalk who will invariably arrive at work 20 minutes before you do, because they chose the most sensible form of transit in the city of Toronto: they walked.

If, on the other hand you say “screw it” the moment the streetcar breaks down and you exit through the rear doors (pried open reluctantly by the driver, more often than not one of the surlier humans on the planet) it’s very likely that you’ll be forced into a taxi cab where you will pay an arm and a leg to travel four blocks. (Toronto cab rates start at a staggering $4.25).

Such is life in the big city without a car or a bicycle. In fact, such is life in a lot of Canadian cities - big and small - where transit systems fail commuters. According to a company called Walk Score, which last year rated the usefulness of Canadian transit systems, Hamilton, Edmonton and Calgary are some of Canada’s most underserved cities transit-wise. Which is why Uber, specifically UberX, the ride-sharing service that pairs drivers with riders via smartphone technology was such a godsend to people (myself included) when it arrived in Canada and soared to immediate hit status.

The company’s competitive pricing makes it finally possible to get from Point A to Point B in a timely fashion, for a reasonable price. The service is not only cheaper than a conventional cab, and more convenient than transit, it sometimes comes with freebies: bottles of water, gum, juice boxes, and occasionally even cologne samples - handed out by Uber drivers eager to please.

It’s only natural then, that a kind of Uber-evangelism has emerged in the wake of the tech startup’s massive success; members of the Uber tribe are eternally loyal to the tech startup especially in the face of criticism from government bodies and cab companies, some of which have tried to thwart Uber’s operation at every turn. Earlier this year, when Toronto taxi drivers protested Uber by blocking traffic outside city hall honking their horns incessantly, Uber evangelists took to social media to unload their frustration and declare their undying loyalty to the sharing economy - myself included.

But, as is so often the case with godsends, there’s a catch. Not all is well in the world of Uber; the shared economy turns out to be tilted.

Just this past week an organization made up of Uber drivers in the United States, calling itself “UBER Freedom,” issued a nationwide appeal to fellow Uber drivers to boycott the app en masse for the same three-day stretch, in an effort to get the app owners to improve driver conditions. The group wants tips to be allowed, both the minimum fare and cancellation fee raised to $7 and a 60 per cent hike for all UberX fares. This comes on top of a federal court in California granting class-action status to a lawsuit last month against Uber over the payment of drivers.

For the Uber evangelists, the protests by establishment taxi companies and drivers against the app are one thing. These new protests say something else altogether: that by patronizing the app we may be aiding and abetting in the exploitation of a large group of sharers in the shared economy, the otherwise unemployed people Uber-ing us around in their cars.

Anecdotally, I take several Uber rides a week and most of my drivers are recently unemployed people who appreciate the fact that Uber has given them temporary, part-time work, but acknowledge that the company perpetuates and benefits from a culture of precarious employment.

This doesn’t mean riding Uber is necessarily immoral or that the old world of cabs and transit is superior to the new one. The sharing economy is without a doubt, here to stay. But we shouldn’t balk at any mention of its regulation as though it were blasphemy. If a service is really cheap and really wonderful (a $10 manicure in the heart of Manhattan, for example) there’s probably an unsavory reason why.

It looks like the new alternative to the slow-as-molasses streetcar and overpriced taxi is a sharing economy that undervalues its labour force.

Once again, walking may be the best option.