As kids we’re warned not to accept rides with strangers. But when my editors told me to take Uber Pools around Sydney and write about the characters I meet, I had little idea I’d be in for fashion critiques, tales of backseat romances, plenty of awkward silences – and mostly solo rides. When it first launched before Covid, Uber Pool was perhaps the truest form of ride sharing.
Not only would passengers literally share rides, it offered seriously cheap fares – lower than even the artificially low rates Uber initially charged in early years to capture market share. The novelty of riding with a stranger, and the more circuitous routes at prices not much higher than a bus ticket, proved popular. It was also like playing Russian roulette – passengers still got the significantly cheaper fare even if the algorithm failed to match them with a co-rider.
Uber’s pool option disappeared at the outbreak of the pandemic, and while it has since been reintroduced, its savings are now less pronounced, and marginal if the algorithm doesn’t find you a co-rider. I was curious if passengers had re-embraced sharing confined spaces with randoms. Post-pandemic data shows Australians are driving private cars more than ever.
Have Sydneysiders become a special breed of overly precious recluses? To find out, I set off to take Uber Pool aimlessly around Sydney for the better part of a week. Scarred by my , I made an effort to project myself as someone you’d want to get in a conversation w.
