Ride-hailing's impact on Canadian cities: Now let's consider the long game

A recent dialogue published in The Canadian Geographer on July 2, 2018, caught my attention. In it, the authors debate whether Uber and other ride-hailing services should be considered beneficial or detrimental to Canadian cities. While addressing several of the uncertainties and misunderstood impacts of ride-hailing services upon cities, their analysis fails to consider the long-term implications of this mode of travel on individual travel behaviour and on accessibility. In this response to their piece, I draw attention to the short-sightedness of their arguments and to the equity concerns excluded from their dialogue. If legalized prematurely, as endorsed by Zwick and Spicer, ride-hailing services will rapidly become regarded as a convenient and essential service and once established as such, regulating them any further will prove to be politically prohibitive.