Act now to stop the death of public transport, says researcher in The Guardian

Transport authorities need to act now to stop ride-hailing apps from replacing public transport, according to an article in The Guardian by an international non-profit organisation.

New Cities Foundation writes that Uber and other apps could "kill" public transport, pointing to this week's London tube strike as "a harbringer of what comes next," if apps are allowed to supplant public transport in some areas as US magazine Slate claimed was happening last month. Greg Lindsay, senior fellow at the foundation, says that stranded riders this week reported fare surcharges as high as 450%.

Lindsay calls on transport authorities to compete with ride-sharing by re-thinking the best use of parking and land around rail stations, offer real-time incentives to eliminate or defer trips, and in more suburban areas where transport struggles to compete working with 'micro-transit' services such as small buses willing to share data or, in the Global South, "legitimise and upgrade" informal transit services.