This week, travel app Citymapper is launching a new service to Londoners. They will soon be able to use the app to book seats on the company鈥檚 new eight-seater 鈥溾�� minibuses 鈥� a cross between a bus and a taxi. Meanwhile, Uber has rolled out a new scheme in the US that asks people willing to carpool to 鈥� serving as bus stops, essentially.
These are the latest in a steady stream of pilot services launched by tech companies seeking to disrupt the way we travel around cities. By using up-to-the-minute data on customer demand, location and traffic, firms like Citymapper and Uber say they can offer new, convenient travel options that public networks can鈥檛 match.
If these services work out as promised, that鈥檚 great news for everyone. City dwellers will enjoy a wider choice of transport, public transport providers will find their burden eased a little, and the tech firms themselves will profit.
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But will they work out? Tech companies are highly competitive and notoriously impatient. And while some are currently working with regulators, it seems they are doing so only grudgingly.
What鈥檚 more, some of the most vulnerable people in society rely on buses. How can we be sure that profit-driven enterprises really have their best interests at heart?
Shifting demand
Citymapper describes its service as filling in the gaps on London鈥檚 existing public transport. By analysing reams of travel data 鈥� both collected from Citymapper鈥檚 app and freely provided by the government body Transport for London (TfL), the company is able to spot shifting customer demand.
In a pilot trial last year, Citymapper ran a weekend night bus along a popular East London route that the company says was . TfL has arguably responded to demand, too. As part of its growing provision of night-time transport, TfL is about to start a weekend overnight service on part of the London Overground rail network, .
Either way, the newer approaches will only succeed if companies work with transport regulation authorities. We have seen what happens when they don鈥檛. Uber鈥檚 licence to operate in London was revoked by TfL in September, amid concerns over, among others, the company鈥檚 failure to report sexual assault by its drivers and the use of software that may have blocked regulators from accessing the Uber app. Uber has appealed the decision, and continues to operate in London in the meantime.
Given this situation, it鈥檚 disappointing to see Citymapper complaining that regulations have slowed them down. In a , the company states that 鈥渞egulation leads bus services to run on outdated models鈥�, and 鈥渞egulation is ancient鈥�. The company also seems upset that TfL鈥檚 bus regulations mean that, for now, Smart Ride services are limited to eight passengers at a time.
The complaints seem especially unfounded considering TfL鈥檚 apparent openness to new technology. Even Citymapper as 鈥渢he most forward-thinking public transport agency in the world鈥�, one that freely shares its travel data. And although, for the time being, Citymapper鈥檚 Smart Ride will run on a handful of fixed routes, TfL has granted a license that allows them to develop future routes that shift in response to real-time demand.
And let鈥檚 not forget that those complained-about regulations are in place to protect users of transport services, not only but also to guard against unfairly high pricing, says at University College London. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important that [these companies] don鈥檛 just look for the highest margins to be made, but actually look at need,鈥� he says.
So it really is in everyone鈥檚 best interests for tech companies to toe the line when it comes to being regulated by public transport authorities. We can welcome the innovation without the whining.
