We love the fact that Uber and Ola have changed our lives for good. They have made travel hassle-free, safe and convenient. Friends can track our live location, we get picked up and dropped off at our doorstep. Not to mention the escape from hunting for parking spaces.
There is no stress on rainy days or days when we're jet-lagged, tousle-haired and heading straight home from the airport. Why, then do we have to think twice before booking a cab?
Pool rides
A lot of riders prefer pool rides, so the fare is light on their wallets. Pool rides provide an opportunity for riders to share their rides with other riders going their way, thus efficiently making the ride cheaper. But the fact is that drivers generally dislike pool rides. They find them onerous, time consuming and not as profiting as solo rides. So, the odds of drivers canceling pool requests in favor of solo rides are quite high.
Surge prices
The main disadvantage of ride-sharing apps is Surge pricing. This term denotes the extreme fare variations depending on the ride requests, peak hours and weather conditions throughout the day. Companies maintain that surge pricing helps streamline rides to the most urgent requests. But this variation seems to have no curb, and the fare for a ride normally costing 120 INR can go up to 600 INR in this model of pricing, making it unappealing to the general public.
Local Transport Unions
Ola autos are opposed by local auto unions in places like Kerala where autos are the primary mode of transport. This causes people to rely on auto-rickshaws, even though Ola autos could charge only half the fare. Extreme weather conditions and union strikes throw the lives of people relying on autos off the balance. Fares skyrocket to unimaginable limits, causing people to suffer.
Why public transport gets our vote
Buses are way cheaper because the cost of the ride is shared by everyone on the bus. For example, if the ride costs 300 INR in a ride-sharing app, the same costs 8 INR approximately on a local bus, because the cost is shared by 50 people traveling together on the bus. While we do admit that it isn't as convenient as a private air-conditioned ride, we ask you to give public transport some priority for smaller commutes.
Consider taking the bus or the metro next time when you have time to spare. People traveling on the same route can form a carpool. This reduces the number of cars on the road, reduces traffic, reduces CO2 emission and ultimately reduces the strain on your wallet!