What is Uber’s Transit Ride Option?

Uber is constantly evolving. The company was trying to find a way to integrate public transportation into their rideshare app and it seems as though they have found a way. Uber introduced it’s Transit Ride option in early 2019 in Denver, Colorado. 

People in Denver now see something different when they open up their Uber app. There’s the word transit and a train car. When the icon is tapped, a list of bus and train routes appear accompanied by directions and fare estimations. Riders still have to buy their tickets at the station, but that could change in the near future. The hope is the Transit Ride option will be a one-stop-shop for passengers. The Uber app can order a car, but it can also be the place someone buys their bus or train tickets, which cuts down on the worry about losing a ticket or carrying cash. 

The Transit Ride option has been incorporated into Uber’s app to encourage people to us public transportation instead of using personal vehicles. This is an effort to help lower carbon emissions by keeping people off the road and making public transit more tempting. Uber has seen backlash recently because there have been dips in public transportation usage. The company isn’t discouraging people from taking buses and trains; instead, they’re encouraging people to use public transit instead of or in tandem with their services. The view is that public transportation is a cheaper and more efficient way of getting around, but people don’t necessarily view it that way currently. 

Uber has been working to incorporate public transportation into their interface for awhile. They have succeeded in various ways in Innisfil of Ontario, Boston, and Nice, France. However, Denver is the first city Uber is able to fully integrate the public transportation system into their ridesharing app. The company is hoping to replicate this in cities around the world, but time will tell!