“There’s an alternative to a world that looks like a parking lot and feels like a traffic jam.” At the 2017 Propelify Innovation Festival Jason Post, Director of Public Policy & Communications at Uber Technologies, Inc, detailed several trends he believes will change the face of transportation and mobility today. Here are the top 10 takeaways you need to know about cars, transportation, and pollution, according to Jason:
- There are 1.2 billion cars on the road today.
- 95% of the time personal vehicles are parked.
- Transportation deserts are areas, typically outside of cities, that do not offer adequate – or any – public transportation options to residents. These transportation deserts mean residents cannot get to economically viable employment or easily access social or cultural centers.
- The more someone uses ridesharing services like Uber, the more likely that person is to use other shared transit options, like bikeshares.
- Car ownership is expensive, especially once gas, parking, and insurance are factored in along with the purchase of a car. This expense is part of the reason why Millennials are buying less cars than older generations.
- Carpooling has been “a thing” since the oil shocks of the 1970s. Today, ridesharing represents 4% of miles driven globally.
- Experts predict that in as soon as 15 years, more than 2 million people could give up their cars and rely on ride-hailing or ridesharing services for their transportation needs. Why the mass ditching of personal cars?
- Self-driving cars are coming en masse to our roads. And when autonomous, self-driving cars become the new norm, ride-hailers will no longer have to pay for the driver’s service and the ride in the car, but only their ride. Not paying for a driver could reduce rideshare fees down to possibly half the cost of a rideshare today. In this way, ridesharing could potentially become cheaper than owning a personal vehicle in the future.
- The transportation industry creates smog, pollution, air toxics, and carbon emissions that negatively impact human life. Putting more electric cars on the road and creating more mass transit options are critical components to reducing pollution and protecting society in the coming years.
- Today, plug-in cars are 1/10 of 1% of the global car market. But, experts predict electric vehicles could make up 30-35% percent of new car sales globally by 2040. And that’s some serious disruption.
Watch highlights from Jason’s talk at the 2017 Propelify Innovation Festival:
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