UK transport authorities urged to team up with cab-hailing and car-sharing apps

UK transport authorities such as TfL should work alongside smartphone mobility providers such as Uber and BlaBlaCar to offer the public one mobility platform, urbanist and futurist Greg Lindsay has urged.

Lindsay, speaking to the BBC at the Cities on the Move conference at Google's London offices, said that rather than fighting Uber and other 'disruptive technology' transport companies, the public sector should team up with them. "How can the public sector lead again? How can they work with private entities to provide mobility as a service?"

TfL is consulting on proposals to tighten regulations on Uber and other private hire vehicles which the former has been reported as saying are "against the public interest".

Lindsay hailed Helsinki Regional Transport Authority's drive to make the car obsolete by providing an open platform that combines public and private data on all potential providers of mobility. "Let's see all the options together," he urged.  The BBC World Service's Click programme then featured a discussion on the idea, with Phil Thompson saying that "if everyone is given the same optimal route, [on a smartphone platform] than it will become less optimal".