Getting around the North Shore without using your car can be fairly difficult.
Thanks to the Spirit Trail, it’s at least easier to go east and west by bicycle, but getting up and down those hills can be tricky and sweaty.
Our public transit system can be similarly frustrating, and while the SeaBus is great, sometimes you can still end up waiting around as the bus leaves the terminal just as you arrive. Wave as much as you want – they’re not stopping.
And, judging by feedback to a recent article pointing out our lack of ride-sharing options, our taxi services are a bit lacking as well. People have been left waiting, particularly during busy evening times, when you’d really rather not try to cycle home in the dark. If you’ve done the responsible thing and parked the car at home for the evening as you thought you’d want a glass or two of wine with your dinner, it looks like you’ll be walking off that fettuccine by hoofing it back home.
The solution, many people say, is to embrace a ride-hailing program like Uber. Uber is convenient, it’s relatively inexpensive, and it would make getting around without a car easy. Further, it would break the lock the taxi companies have on the market, and allow people to make extra money on the side with their own personal cars. All would be daisies and rainbows.
The only problem, as I see it, is that Uber is one of the most ruthless, predatory, and downright amoral companies in the world. They aren’t a mobility solution as much as they are an effort to extract profit on the backs of ordinary working people, turning them into little more than indentured servants. And they don’t even turn a profit.
And, if all that wasn’t bad enough, it appears that services like Uber increase traffic congestion by pulling people off transit and putting them in a car. According to a recent study done in nearby Seattle, residents in the area put an added 150 million miles on the road thanks to ride-sharing services. People don’t just take an Uber instead of a cab, they take it instead of taking public transit, or instead of riding their bike. It’s more convenient, so we don’t really think about it.
We are firmly ensconced in an age where we’re starting to see the side-effects of convenience-seeking, and yet we continue to stumble towards the inevitable cliff. Ride-sharing and ride-hailing companies could come here tomorrow if only they would abide by the rules set in place, but they don’t want to. Why? Because Silicon Valley is a place where every 10 minutes some “innovator” thinks they’re going to “disrupt” the system by trying to use technology to circumvent regulations.
Let’s just list off a few of Uber’s greatest hits, even leaving aside the reprehensible actions of their loathsome founder. They call their drivers “private contractors,” allowing for employment benefits to be excluded. They’ve denied responsibility for their drivers. In March of this year, one of their experimental autonomous vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian.
There are members of our community with mobility challenges for whom not-driving is a requirement rather than a choice. I wouldn’t expect Uber to help them much, however, as these are private cars, not wheelchair-equipped specials. Further, one class-action suit against Uber, now settled, included an allegation that an Uber driver loaded a service dog into their trunk, against the sight-impaired owner’s wishes. Indeed there are many reported instances of Uber drivers refusing to give rides to users with service animals.
I wouldn’t blame the drivers too much. There isn’t sufficient space here to go into the way Uber treats its drivers. Don’t for a minute, however, think that this company is benevolent to the people that work for it.
Further, even if we decided to go with a more reputable ride-hailing company, like Lyft, there are going to be unexpected consequences. Someone being driven somewhere in a hailed car is still riding in a car. Parking might be better, but it’s another car on the road, to and from the pick-up point, burning fuel, clogging up the road, adding to traffic.
Think of Airbnb. It’s a lovely place to book your vacation rental. But it’s also created a dearth of spaces for people looking to rent an apartment long-term. Regulation is frequently annoying, and occasionally misguided, but it exists to try and handle these issues, which are often far more complex than they look.
Ride-sharing and ride-hailing seems like a nice, quick fix for the North Shore’s mobility issues, but it’s a Band-Aid at best, and at worst, a potentially worsening situation down the road. What’s needed is better public transit: more buses (preferably hydrogen-powered), more and safer paths for cyclists, maybe additional SeaBus service, perhaps an east-west tram line.
All of which sounds like pie-in-the-sky, and who’s going to pay for it? However, it depends what kind of life you’d want for your kids on the North Shore long-term, as our traffic problems aren’t going to solve themselves.
For now, getting around here without a car is perhaps inconvenient. But then, life’s inconvenient. Maybe we can look forward to future conversations about how bad we had it in the old days. Uphill both ways to work. We can bore our kids with long stories – we don’t want them to grow up and have to work for Uber.
Brendan McAleer is a freelance writer and automotive enthusiast. If you have a suggestion for a column, or would be interested in having your car club featured, please contact him at [email protected]. Follow Brendan on Twitter: @brendan_mcaleer.
