Last summer, Uber approached the AMS in the hopes that they would advocate for ride-sharing through policy. While the company wasn’t necessarily seeking advocacy of Uber — but rather on behalf of ridesharing in general — the answer was still a no.
“I told [the Uber representative] that I understand that it’s not Uber asking us to endorse Uber but to keep in mind that any information that [they] send us will be seen in that light if it’s not properly third party sourced,” said Jude Crasta, AMS VP External. “The data was provided from … Uber with very few independent sources and others were working with Uber.”
The timing might have seemed ripe for a new transit option with the transit plebiscite having failed only a month prior when the AMS had been hoping for a "yes" vote. However, the University and External Relations Committee made the final call not to endorse a company seemingly at the behest of said company.
The AMS is looking into other short-term transit solutions to assist with Vancouver’s congestion issues that were not be relieved by a Broadway metro line or Pattullo bridge that were proposed in the plebiscite.
“The biggest [option] that we’re doing right now is working with Translink and the ministries for the funding for increased service hours, optimization of bus routes and schedules to basically accommodate the here-and-now need,” said Crasta.
As talks continue, Crasta emphasized that the "here-and-now" is what needs help since, in the case of the Broadway subway line, “even if the shovels hit the ground right now as we speak, we’re not gonna look at it for ... nine, 10 years."
Despite that Uber wasn’t thought to be the best way to help that city-wide issue, another group has suggested a different option to AMS Council.
Spare is a ride-sharing app in the way that Uber is, but has one critical difference: no one can make money off Spare. The concept of the app is grounded in the fact that drivers do not go on trips that they weren’t already going on — it’s like carpooling with friends, except you meet via the app.
According to Kristoffer Vik Hansen, UBC engineering alumnus and one of Spare's creators, the idea can from waiting in lineups for a bus only for a full one to pass him by — an experience many Vancouverites can relate to.
“The idea is that you have two options — you have your ride and you have your drive,” said Alexey Indeev, a computer science major also working on Spare. “[You] put in your route and then you get a list of drivers that are going in the same direction and can request them — both people have to accept each other.”
According to Hansen, so long as drivers cannot make money from the service — not being able to charge more than the price of gas — then they don’t need extra insurance nor will Spare have to combat the legal issues in dodging Uber.
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The issue of passenger safety was discussed in Council and the Spare creators say they are still working on how best to screen drivers. Still, Crasta thinks “it’s definitely a very novel idea.”
“Bugs will be unearthed and they’ll just have to fix it. But right now, it seems like a pretty solid idea,” he added.
The app’s launch date is somewhat up in the air as the creators have been working on launching once they have a large enough user base. According to Indeev, the hope is that — by allowing the public to download the app without being able to use it — when they launch, they will have a user base already in place to make Spare a viable ridesharing option.