Syed Hassan, a manager at Barrie Taxi Cab Services, based in a town nearby, said Uber might be good for large cities, “but for these remote areas like Innisfil, the drivers are surviving<br />on a very few number of calls.” He said the Uber deal would have a serious impact on his company’s business, which collects about $150,000 in fares from Innisfil rides a year.<br />Johnny Keogh, Innisfil’s public affairs officer, said the town changed its taxi laws to allow drivers to charge less to compete with Uber<br />and refunded fees paid by local taxi operators for the first year of the Uber deal.<br />Once the $100,000 set aside for the program is spent, town planners hope to have enough data on how many people are going where<br />and when to make better decisions about developing public transit, said Mr. Cane, the town’s land-use manager.<br />Critics, though, have voiced concern about Uber’s move into public transit, saying the service will sap systems of riders, create congestion during rush hours<br />and ultimately take money away from improving transportation infrastructure in cities fully embracing the Uber model.<br />“I’m providing the same service as Uber, but they said Uber’s technology is better,” he said.
