Considering all the legal drama that is happening in California with Uber and Lyft around worker classification, here's a reminder of how things could be if those ridesharing giants were coops instead. "Instead of optimizing the online economy for growth and short-term profits for the few," the emerging Platform Cooperative movement is trying to build a more sustainable and equitable business model for the 21st century.

To build the base of knowledge for advocates at the intersection of online platform companies and the cooperative movement, our former colleague Sara Stephens worked with transportation researcher Adam Stocker to co-author this report, "Evaluating the Potential of Cooperative Ridesourcing: A Case Study of Arcade City in Austin, Texas." The report examined Arcade City, a Peer to Peer ridesharing platform based in Austin, TX. At the time, Arcade City consisted of a 36,000-member Facebook group that had no centralized management structure and relied on the group’s drivers and moderators to coordinate on-demand rides, deliveries, and other services between requesters and drivers. In this 2019 report, Adam and Sara explore what it takes to be a successful decentralized platform from an operational, governance, environmental, and legal perspective. 

You can also find this report on our Policy Advocacy, Reports, & Recommendations page.