Former City Councilman Micheal Echols faced resistance from the Mayo Administration when he introduced the idea of allowing UBER to operate in Monroe. It proved to be a good idea, but it goes even further.
The company, which began in 2009, has swept the world with its advanced ride-share concept that has made transportation more convenient for millions worldwide and often less expensive.
Former mayor James Earl Mayo opposed Echols’ idea because it did not originate from the mayor’s office; he wanted the credit. However, once the city council overcame that obstacle, the council passed UBER, and Monroe has enjoyed the UBER transportation service and UBEREATS, Waitr, and several other similar services in Monroe.
Cities worldwide are utilizing another aspect of the UBER concept, which involves using UBER in partnership with the public transportation system.
The way it works in communities around the world is UBER fills in the gaps to provide transportation for areas not serviced by public transit. For example, there is no public transportation in Sterlington, Calhoun, or areas outside of the municipal reach of Monroe in our area. An UBER-type service would fill in the gap.
In 1948, my father Roosevelt Wright, Sr. and Ansley Reed opened the “Courtesy Cab Company” in Monroe. It was big stuff for African-Americans because the company sported a small fleet of brand new taxis, with two-way radios, and drivers who had been vetted, dressed in shirts and ties, provided a reliable service.
The idea took off, and others such as Red Top Cab and Deluxe Cab began later.
One feature of Courtesy Cab was an UBER-style service. Courtesy drivers picked up maids, custodial workers, and professionals and carried them to their work stations in the mornings and were sitting out front when it was time to return for a reduced weekly fee.
At that time, a Courtesy Cab ride anywhere in central Monroe was .50 cents, to Booker T. was .75 cents and to the Airport was $1.50.
When the city began its bus service and ran bus lines from South Monroe to affluent neighborhoods, the Courtesy Cab business model took a hit because a city bus fare of 10 cents was much cheaper than the cab’s 50 cent fare. However, the city buses didn’t provide curb-to-curb service, just more affordable service if patrons didn’t mind waiting at bus stops or during Jim Crow, sitting at the back of the bus.
My father was non-political, but he went to a city council meeting to protest new city laws that forced taxis to use meters and outlawed the curb-to-curb business. It killed his model, and his business model could not adapt.
Is it possible that the public transportation model our parish has used since the 1950s is changing, but we have not kept up with the change?
Look at the money we spend buying huge buses, repairs, fuel, and management costs using the 1950s structure. What would happen if we found a way to spend our local and federal transportation subsidy we receive to fund the services of a hundred UBER style drivers who operate all over the parish 24 hours a day with curb to curb service.
Under such a system, a citizen would have the option of standing at a bus stop to ride a small, energy-efficient city bus, or for nearly the same fee, use a city or parish transportation app and get curb to curb transportation.
It would mean that huge amounts of money spent on management services, new buses, repairs, accounting, security, and a hundred regulatory expenses would disappear in time. In its place, hundreds of people would be empowered, using an UBER-style system to provide personalize curb-to-curb service.
It would take some doing, but it is not beyond the realm of possibility.
It would be cost-effective since it would decentralize the transportation apparatus for the most part. Of course, there would still be city buses, but they would be much smaller, energy-efficient, and less expensive.
It would create hundreds of jobs as everyone jumped on the public transit bandwagon.
This would need to be an Ouachita Council of Governments project that would think “out of the box” and begin to provide public transportation in a 21st century way.
My dad’s curb-to-curb taxi service died out with Taxi regulations.
The few Taxis that still operate now are struggling in competition with UBER. The new frontier for our community lies in UBER-styled, subsidized, public transportation. It’s in place in cities all around the country.
Micheal Echols had the right idea when he pushed for Uber to come to our area.
Maybe UBER-style public transportation is the next area.
It will be controversial because it is new to us.
It’s not new to the rest of the world.
