“Your uber is here.” We are going to start seeing a lot more of those words pop up on our phone over the next 5 years.
It’s my belief that in the inevitable future, humans will no longer drive cars. In the intermediary step, we will see human car ownership decrease.
To help accelerate this, we are seeing ridesharing companies, namely Uber and Lyft, become more and more popular.
Owning and parking your own car is becoming a bit of a hassle. It is often, and in the future will be, more convenient to simply “order” your car to come to you via phone and have it drive you there.
This article in the WSJ talks about an externality of this effect: parking garages, or lack thereof. Developers (like apartment building developers) are making deals with Uber to offer ridesharing services to their tenants.
This makes a lot of sense for a lot of reasons.
Developers of shopping malls, stadiums and theme parks, meanwhile, are reimagining their exterior footprints to account for more Uber traffic, playing with new ideas such as widening curbside drop-off areas resembling those found at airports—some with concierges offering beverages—and shrinking parking lot space.
This is actually a big deal. It will greatly effect our infrastructure and the way we view parking, streets, and all of transportation.
In all, Green Street estimates parking needs will be cut in half over the next 30 years amid an anticipated decline in vehicle ownership, eliminating the need for 75 billion square feet of parking space.
Near downtown Los Angeles, new residents at the 41-unit Eleanor Apartments now receive $100 in Uber concessions every month instead of on-site parking spaces.
Of course, some people are too optimistic while others too pessimistic ~ what is most realistic?
I guess we will have to see 🙂