I watched this You-tube video from TED called The Future of Human Driven Transportation. It was a historical lesson on the Jitney bus which made it's appearance about 100 years ago in 1914. Shortly after their introduction, they were providing 150,000 rides per day! However, regulation soon made it difficult to operate and many cities outright banned them thanks in large part to the trolley companies.
If the Jitney bus was never over-regulated out of existence, there would have been no need to own personal motor transport since vehicle sharing would have been cheap and abundant. This desire and need to buy a car was a direct result of the collapse jitney bus industry! I know this sounds like spin but it does hold some merit.
When you think about it, the old Jitney bus was very similar to the Uber model today. Here's where I differ from the speaker in that we don't really need Uber to satisfy the public's need for hyper mobility. Uber cars are expensive to operate with very limited seating for 2 or 3 passengers making it impossible to offer reduced fares that match a city bus.
Here's a crazy idea but why not bring back the independent Jitney bus?? The same legislation that drove them out of business 100 years ago can and should be reversed! I know Mexicans will be driving them but this is preferable than having to buy a car any day of the week. We can have Jitney's picking up passengers along any avenue and providing door to door service. You would even have a App where they would pick you up just like Uber. The old Jitney bus was a carfree solution that should never have died.