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Toronto: Uber says it will launch a new carpooling option in Toronto this week that will be even cheaper than its UberX service.
In a statement released Monday, the company said “uberHOP” will allow people to share a ride with others on Toronto’s busiest routes at peak hours for a $5 flat fee.
The service will launch Tuesday, December 15.
Initial routes will include rides between the Financial District and Liberty Village, Fort York, City Place and the Distillery District from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 4:30 pm. to 7:30 p.m.
The vehicles will be larger and rides can be shared with up to five people.
According to Uber, the new option could help relieve congestion on the city’s clogged roads.
“With uberHOP, we hope that Torontonians will rely more on ridesharing and less on their personal vehicles to help reduce traffic congestion in our city,” the company said in its statement.
To encourage people to try the service, Uber is offering UberHOP free this week after it launches Tuesday.
Toronto is one of the first cities to pilot the new option.
The move comes almost a week after hundreds of furious taxi drivers staged a loud protest on roads around the city and at city hall, demanding that the city enforce bylaws which would effectively prohibit the UberX service from operating.
The protest prompted a meeting with Mayor John Tory and Police Chief Mark Saunders, who said that a number of UberX drivers have been charged, but that police must wait for direction from the courts before deciding whether to pursue Uber more aggressively.
Taxi drivers say that Uber has flaunted the city’s bylaws and has competed unfairly in a way that has severely undercut their business.
Uber has said that it is a technology company rather than a traditional taxi service and therefore not subject to rules that regulate taxis.
City council has said that they need time to craft new laws that account for the technology-based business model. A staff report on the new bylaws is expected in the spring.
In the meantime, Mayor John Tory and Premier Kathleen Wynne said news that the company is ramping up its services is not positive or negative news, but just reinforces the need for laws to catch up with technology.
The two discussed Uber as part of a meeting on a range of topics at Queen’s Park Monday.
“If there are solutions that are going to help people move around in a more efficient manner, we need to find ways of putting those solutions in place,” Wynne said after the meeting. “Our responsibility is to make sure that as the world changes, as technology changes, we keep up.”
Tory reiterated that the city is doing its best to keep up with changes in how people get around.
“What we see is a rapidly changing landscape every day,” Tory said.
He said that city lawyers have not advised council to once again apply for an injunction against Uber, as the taxi industry has requested and added that the city cannot afford to keep going to court and losing.
Uber’s latest service announcement has also caught the attention of the TTC, which told CP24 that the City of Toronto Act is “very clear” about who operates public transit in the city.
TTC Spokesperson Brad Ross said the TTC will be reviewing the new service.
He said the TTC is responsible for ensuring Torontonians have safe, affordable transit.
The TTC is introducing its own measures to help downtown traffic move more quickly. Starting today, all-door boarding will begin on all streetcar routes, a move that the TTC expects will shave a few minutes off the average streetcar trip.
Speaking to new UberHOP service, Tory said called it “a marketplace response to reality which is that there are places in the city that are not as well served as they should be.”
“There’s only so many improvements you can make to the King streetcar,” Tory said.
He added that his SmartTrack vision will improve transit to areas such as Liberty Village that are being targeted by Uber’s new service.
