
Uber 'to focus on bikes over cars' - pmoriarty
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45317025
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bkor
It's interesting how BBC still calls Uber a ride-sharing company. Especially
as it now will focus on bikes. Ride-sharing a bike.. I'd rather not.

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stephengillie
It would be more efficient to have a city full of professional bike riders on
2-person bikes or pedal-rickshaws - or normal bikes with bike pegs[0]. One
issue with the proliferation of Lime bikes is the increasing number of people
with little experience riding bikes in cities, and poor understanding of the
rules of bikes on roads and sidewalks.

[0][https://www.livestrong.com/article/398587-bike-
pegs/](https://www.livestrong.com/article/398587-bike-pegs/)

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willio58
More efficient in what way? Bikes are pretty small and cheap already.

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stephengillie
More efficient for the cars being driven on the streets, or waiting at stop
lights, often burning gasoline - blocked by a slower carbon-neutral
transportation solution.

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cultus
Greater cycling actually reduces traffic and wait times for drivers. Combined
with the CO2, toxic exhaust, and other negative externalities, as well as the
positive health effects of cycling, it makes sense to discourage driving and
encourage cycling. At any rate, bikes are usually faster than cars in dense
city environments, especially when you take parking into account.

Also, wouldn't large rickshaws be slower than normal bikes?

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justfor1comment
China already tried this and this is the outcome:
[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/25/chinas-
bike-...](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/25/chinas-bike-share-
graveyard-a-monument-to-industrys-arrogance) US cities are predominantly
designed around cars. More so than China. Don't see how Uber can succeed with
this initiative.

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boffinism
This must be because investors forced them to back away from self driving, and
without that cars will never be particularly profitable for them.

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Tepix
Their valuation is not going to stay this high...

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jjeaff
Ya... The bicycle market is way smaller than vehicles at least in the US. I
wouldn't be surprised if less than 10%. And you can't even charge as much. You
expect a bike to be the nearly the cheapest option, right after walking.

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jaclaz
>Uber says it plans to focus more on its electric scooter and bike business,
and less on cars, despite the fact it could hurt profits.

I would have written that as "could increase losses" ...

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stephengillie
> _It also teamed up with Lime, an electric scooter company, while forging
> deals in other areas such as public transit and freight._

This seems like part of a larger move to take the notorious Uber brand out of
the marketing equation, while continuing to pivot around the larger problem of
logistics in cities.

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gaius
_He also acknowledged that Uber drivers could lose out from the plan, but said
over the longer term drivers would benefit_

These were the same drivers Uber was planning to replace with self driving
cars! The well-being of its driving employees is literally Uber’s lowest
priority

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jl2718
Holy shit. I actually like Uber now. Crazy.

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te0006
Good for you. For my part, I just stopped liking Toyota.

