Andre Alexander Jmourko
241 Minet's Point L4N 4C4 Barrie, ON, Canada

The Innisfil Experiment Whether or not you’ve heard, Innisfil has embarked on an ambitious project to handing over public transportation to Uber. So, instead of buying buses or trains to help improve transportation, Innisfil has partnered with Uber to get the job done. The perspective is that Innisfil isn’t big enough yet to support an actual transportation system, and implementing one now would be costly with little return. And they may be right.... In truth, Innisfil really is still early in its development. With only 36,000 people living there, it’s a residential hub where people mostly just live, and commute to Barrie and surrounding areas for work. This partnership with Uber really aims to service the limited amount of people and youth that need transportation just in and around Innisfil, and so far, it’s worked wonders. So how does it work? Pretty simple really. When you type in your location on the Uber app (and you’re in Innisfil of course), you get two options that pop up: Innisfil Transit or Regular. Take a look at both and you’ll see that I.T is 5x cheaper so, you simply tap it. That’s it. That being said, it’s not like this for all of Innisfil. The whole idea behind this partnership is to mimic a traditional transportation system, meaning instead of buses or trains running popular routes, you have Uber drivers running them. So, you can’t just go anywhere for $3 in Innisfil, but you can get to the library, recreation centre, carpool, downtown, and all the major hubs for the same cost of a bus ride...without the actual bus. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Well, it’s still young. This partnership has been successful as of late, but people are starting to wonder what might happen down the road as Innisfil population keeps going up. A bus can almost hold 70 people, whereas a car can only hold 3. At some point, the demand will outgrow the supply in this situation, and that’s where Innisfil really has to innovate. There’s also currently a limit of only 30 trips each month with Innisfil Transit, where after 30 you’d have to start paying full Uber price for the same trips, whereas there is no limit to how many times you can ride a city bus... But don’t take my opinion on this as fact, check out these articles and decide for yourself. You think Innisfil is on the right path, or are they making a mistake?! The Guardian Innisfil Article https://www.theguardian.com//the-innisfil-experiment-the-t Innisfil Transit https://innisfil.ca/transit/ Uber’s Video For It https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDVJkGTUueE