The Future of Uber and Lyft: A Crowded Back Seat

Transportation startups Uber and Lyft have long billed themselves as ride-sharing companies that, among other things, can reduce the number of cars on the road. The argument is that low fares make using such services cheaper and easier than keeping your own vehicle in a congested city. It’s been a shaky claim, given that both companies have attracted new waves of professional drivers who typically carry only one passenger. Uber even helps would-be drivers secure auto loans, putting more cars on the road. In January the Associated Press banned the phrase “ride-sharing” to describe Uber or Lyft, concluding that their services were closer to “ride-hailing” or “ride-booking.” Or, you know, a taxi.

Now both companies are testing services that might finally fulfill their greener promises. UberPool and Lyft Line, available in a handful of cities, match two sets of riders heading in the same direction and charge them a reduced fare. This kind of carpooling, hardly a new idea, may play a major role in the outcome of the San Francisco companies’ furious competition against each other and the $11 billion traditional U.S. taxi and limo industry. “I do think this is the future of ride-sharing—the actual sharing of rides,” says Harry Campbell, an Uber and Lyft driver and author of The Rideshare Guy, an industry blog. “They can lower the price and make the business accessible to people who may not have taken a ride before.”