The greatest advances in local transportation are driven by innovation companies like Uber and Lyft. Their new platform technology allows for a scalable network that links drivers to consumers in real time, by supplying simultaneous two-way information on such key matters as vehicle type, price, and anticipated place and time of pickup and drop off. The network is live, and thus able to make instantaneous adjustments in price to reflect changes in supply and demand. The apps are easy to use, and sign-up is costless. These services thus offer superior service over ordinary cab and limousine services, whose fixed-rate structures lead to systematic shortages in times of peak demand, and systematic idleness in slack periods.
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