Was it really so long ago that “uber” was just a German word for something exaggerated or elite, a “sidecar” was something that officers road in on the Western Front, and “lyft” wasn’t even a word unless you counted it as a spelling error?
Now these names are the headliners on the increasingly popular stage of ride-sharing. Uber, Sidecar, and Lyft are the three fastest growing ride-share services made possible largely by our love of smartphone technology – and they are sending cab drivers howling and legislators scrambling to decide how best to regulate this emerging new industry. While ride sharing has been around for quite some time, it has never benefitted so much from modern technology.
Until a recent trip to California, I knew next to nothing about these companies, nor the latest concept in ride sharing in which all three of these services operate. Having lived most of my life in suburbia (and not being much of a traveler), I do not have extensive experience with cab rides. Climbing into a car with a random person e-hailed from my iPhone seemed insane. Weren’t we taught not to accept rides from strangers? Isn’t this the very same thing we’re teaching our children not to do?
Evidently, it is not so insane after all (for adults!). For many people, ride sharing has become the preferred way to travel. During its four-month test period in 2012, SideCar logged more than 10,000 rides, just within the city of San Francisco. It now operates all over California, as well as in Seattle, Chicago, Charlotte, Boston, and Washington D.C. Lyft, whose motto is “Available Locally, Expanding Globally, operates in more than 20 cities nationwide. Uber, the proverbial 800lb gorilla, can be used in 30 U.S. cities, as well as 32 other counties.
Can ride-sharing provide consumers with a better alternative to the traditional cab? Do cab drivers need to worry about lost fares? Could ride-sharing even replace the household car? The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article in its Tech section documenting a study pitting Uber, Lyft, and SideCar against a cab ride in six cities. What they found was that while all of the services got them safely to their destinations, they were not all as cost effective nor as quick as a traditional cab ride.
One thing is certain, though: e-hailing is a lot more fun than calling a cab. Your smartphone is smart – it knows where you are. While you wait for your ride to arrive, you can watch your vehicle’s avatar weave across the map. Since you use your credit card through the app, there is no need to have cash or even your card on hand. Plus, you look far more sophisticated climbing out of a sleek black Prius (or SUV as your party size might necessitate) than you do exiting a taxi cab. Perhaps your taste leans towards the more whimsical? Lyft cars sport a huge pink mustache on the front grill (really).
Now if I could just silence the little voice in my head that keeps insisting that accepting rides from strange amateur drivers is a bad idea…
I have some time to wrangle with my reluctance. Although Uber has plans to push up into Boulder from Denver, I think it will be some time before e-hailing makes itself ubiquitous in suburban Boulder County.