[URBAN NOTE] Two Spacing Toronto links about UberHop

[rfmcdonald]

First is Sean Marshall's "King Street: How the TTC can strike back against UberHop".

On Friday, John Lornic made an interesting case that UberHop, the controversial new service launched by the San Francisco-based “ridesharing” business, is the kick in the behind that the TTC needs to take seriously the problem of getting across the downtown core.

Lornic makes an important point: UberHop will be susceptible to the same congestion that plagues the 504 King Streetcar, the TTC’s busiest surface route. The King car carries nearly 65,000 passengers a day, but congestion and overcrowded streetcars and shuttle buses along the line have made it difficult for commuters along the line. This is why private-sector alternatives, like the short-lived Line 6 shuttle bus, seem so appealing. Now Uber is giving the private jitney service a try, looking to fill a need in the marketplace for $5 a ride.

But there is a solution that the TTC has looked at and proposed — a King Street Transit Mall — but sunk by local opposition and City Council’s indifference. I wrote more about the idea on my blog.

Rapid residential growth, both east and west of the downtown core, have overloaded the 504 King Streetcar. With 64,600 daily riders, it’s the busiest surface route in the system. The city has done little to facilitate this highrise boom in neighbbourhoods such as Corktown and the Distillery District in the east, and CityPlace, Liberty Village, Niagara, and Queen/Gladstone in the west. Further west, the highrise condos built at Humber Bay Shores must either rely on a painfully slow and unreliable ride on the 501 Queen Streetcar, take an infrequent double-fare express bus, or ride a bus up to the Bloor Subway.

John Lorinc's "Why UberHop will help the TTC" is the article referenced.

When I look at the wonderfully clean map that Uber has provided for its new jitney service, it’s not hard to see how frustrated commuters from transit deserts like Liberty Village might be lulled into believing that the San Francisco sharing monster will solve their morning problems.

After all, the routes look like they could be drone flight paths, all converging on King and Bay.

But as the Uberati will soon discover, those shared cabs must navigate the same core streets that are already so clogged they have slowed transit service to a crawl.

What does Uber know that the TTC doesn’t know?

Nothing, really, except how to use its considerable marketing savvy to capitalize on turning point moments the TTC should ordinarily have to itself, such as the introduction last week of the proof-of-payment rear door access on streetcars (this isn’t the first time Uber has piggy-backed on transit news to market itself).