"The first historical incidence of ridesharing success was the tremendously popular yet short lived "Jitney Craze" beginning in 1914…The jitney idea spread incredibly rapidly; by December 1914 (merely 6 months after the idea was believed to have been conceived) Los Angeles had issued 1,520 chauffeur licenses for jitney operation…Many of the original jitneys operated on well-known streetcar lines and effectively survived by siphoning off streetcar passengers."From the passenger's perspective, the jitneys offered service improvements over the streetcar. Jitney's often operated at speeds 1.5 to 2 times faster than streetcars and could occasionally be convinced to deviate from main routes for drop-offs closer to passenger destinations. For passengers, the ability to choose between two service offerings for the same price was also an attractive service feature. While the reliability of jitney service was sometimes questionable (many only ran during peak periods, few ran during bad weather), passengers had a second option in the form of the streetcar. Travel time savings, route flexibility and transport mode choice were the major value propositions for passengers.
"Jitney use was not without tradeoffs. Jitney drivers were known to drive aggressively and accidents were frequent. With passengers standing on the back of vehicles and on the running boards, serious injuries did occur… The downfall of the jitneys was nearly as rapid as their rise. By early 1915, concerns over safety and liability were being reported in the popular press (New York Times, 1915)."
So much of this is Uber in a nutshell. Some genuine improvements—the opening of access to more workers, the convenience—and some persistent problems—harassment, lawlessness, bad, unvetted drivers behind the wheel. Clearly, there are issues with the pre-Uber taxi regime—in most cities, taxis are regulated by the medallion system that can create cartels in which those who own one of the fixed number of them rent them out for exorbitant prices."But as today, not everyone was happy with this innovation. Traffic regulation was minimal in 1915 and there were serious car accidents in which jitney passengers were injured and even killed (at the same time, in August 1915, a 'law-abiding' Toronto jitney driver helped police nab a fleeing thief). There were concerns that some jitney drivers were packing in too many passengers, some of whom were innocent young women with nowhere to sit except on the laps of eager young men. Male "jitney joy riders" were castigated in the press for targeting crowded jitneys with women passengers for the sole purpose of flirting with them."
"The jitneys were scandalized further when, gasp, women started driving them, though Saturday Night magazine praised the women drivers for their "careful handling" of the vehicles. And in Winnipeg, the police raised concerns that the jitneys were ferrying too many men each day and evening to the city's brothels. Jitney associations were organized to deal with the various problems."
So what did Kalanick do, once he stepped up to the podium? He delivered a talk about how Uber was pretty much exactly like this great, informal ride-sharing service that predated the computer. But as he does with Uber, he ignores the problems that accompany the jitneys' lack of regulation—the safety issues, the harassment of women, their eventual cartelization—and chooses to reside in a frictionless fantasy where removing red tape and increasing efficiency solves the world's traffic woes. And, of course, makes him richer in the process.As Uber's founder and CEO, Travis Kalanick is not only disrupting an entrenched industry but also reinventing urban transportation as we know it.
In 2010, entrepreneur and angel investor Travis Kalanick, with his co-founder Garrett Camp, took a niche product — Uber — and turned it into a global platform that has transformed the way we move around our cities.
In 68 countries and 360 cities, riders can push a button and get a ride and drivers have a flexible, independent way to make money. With big investments in China, India, carpooling, self-driving cars and logistics, Uber's future promises to be as headline-grabbing as its past, continuing to reinvent urban transportation as we know it.