Uber and the Ongoing Erasure of Public Life | The New Yorker - 0 views
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[pop-up] urbain on 25 Feb 19"What is surprising is that Uber's user experience affects not only drivers but also the design of cities, as well as the lives of those residing in them. Jarrett Walker, a public-transit consultant, has noted that ride-sharing apps have "transformed customer experience-by taking the friction out of the hailing, routing, and paying." But those apps don't "seem to be transforming the fundamental nature of the task, or its potential to be profitable." This is because, very simply, "transportation happens in physical space. The dominant element of cost is the time it takes to drive someone to their destination, and to travel empty between jobs. The app does nothing to change this." Think of the experience of waiting for an Uber driver, in which you follow a single vehicle making turns on an empty Google Map. Everything is evacuated from the picture except for streets: there is nothing standing between you and the vehicle but time and empty space. For a consumer, the image is ethereal. But the streets are actually full of buildings, people, and other cars. Getting around in a city requires taking up space, which by nature is subject to scarcity. Every new passenger diminishes the experience for the existing pool of customers."