Since Uber was founded almost a decade ago, the ride-hailing service has pushed its way into dozens of countries and dramatically altered how people get around major cities all over the globe. But it’s the company’s foray into a small Ontario town that has put it and services like it at the forefront of what could be revolutionary development in Canadian public transit. Last May, Innisfil, a town of about 36,000 just south of Barrie, began partnering with the ride-hailing company on a new service designed to serve as an alternative to traditional public transit. Under the program, instead of implementing fixed-route bus lines, the town decided to subsidize Uber rides for its residents. People using the service pay a flat fare of between $3 and $5 for trips to or from one of the list of set destinations like the Town Hall area and the Barrie South GO station, or get $5 off their fare for journeys elsewhere in the town. Riders are often paired with others heading in the same direction through the company’s UberPool service.According to Mayor Gord Wauchope, the partnership, which is the first of its kind in Canada, has saved the local government hundreds of thousands of dollars while ensuring residents have greater access to transportation than bus lines would have provided.“For us it’s a great way to operate a transit system here for the present time,” Wauchope said. “It would have been quite expensive using the regular transit system.”Innisfil has roughly the same land area as Mississauga but only one-20th its population. According to a report by town staff, two bus lines would have cost $610,000 a year and, Wauchope argued, they would have only served residents who lived within walking distance of the routes. The door-to-door Uber program cost just $165,535 over its first eight months, and roughly 3,400 residents took more than 26,700 trips using the service. In March, the city and Uber announced the program was so ...
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