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Uber’s Glorified Bus Service Launches Rides in Atlanta

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Uber’s Glorified Bus Service Launches Rides in Atlanta

Uber is a convenient service, but sometimes it can be somewhat expensive. What if instead, the company offered shuttles that carry multiple people at once, and analyzed their travel patterns to create ideal routes for pickup and drop-off stops? That would make the rides potentially more efficient and environmentally friendly, because more people are cramming into one vehicle, and a shared ride could be more affordable than a standard Uber.

Well, you are in luck. Uber says that starting in May, it is expanding its Uber Shuttle service to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, and will offer numerous routes picking people up from downtown and midtown, with daily service scheduled for every 30 minutes from 6 AM to 10 PM. The company already offers Uber Shuttle to and from New York’s LaGuardia and JFK airports. Rides can be requested through the app, with the option to book up to five seats at once. Tickets will start at $10 one-way in Atlanta, but eventually could max out at $18.50.

We are being a little facetious—of course, Uber Shuttle is a glorified bus. Some cities have incredibly poor or slow public transit infrastructure, however. In NYC, taking an Uber Shuttle from Manhattan to JFK can be cheaper than taking public transit, and somewhat more convenient if not a little slower, depending on traffic. Anyone who has traversed from Manhattan to JFK on public transit knows the pain of having to exit the subway and wait in that long ticketing line to transfer to the AirTrain. Another nice benefit of Uber Shuttle is if you travel during a time that is not busy, you might get an entire bus to yourself for a fraction of the cost of a regular Uber.

Still, if you have ethical reservations about gig services, you might want to suffer through it and take the train. Despite what companies like Uber say, many of their drivers complain of working grueling hours and seeing wages fall over time, doing it often out of desperation to make some quick money. A report from last year found that Uber drivers “saw their earnings for 2024 fall 3.4% on average to $513 a week” while working 0.8% more hours. On the customer side, prices have been pushed higher across the board so Uber, DoorDash, and the like can turn a profit, making deliveries exorbitant on food that arrives soggy, cold, and unsatisfying.

Bastian Lehmann, the founder of Postmates, recently posted on X that food delivery “is a joke now,” adding, “I’d be surprised if drivers are making more today than they did when we launched Postmates. DoorDash is the absolute bottom, but Uber’s not far behind.”

Last year, Bloomberg reported that Uber and Lyft underwent a scheme in NYC to systematically lock drivers out of the app during slow periods so it could avoid paying them a minimum wage under newly enacted laws there.

Sometimes, hailing an Uber when you are tired late at night, or just trying to get to the airport, is hard to resist, no matter how much people feel ethically uneasy about it.

As a part-time gig worker…it’s brutal out there. Simple food delivery, forget it, you’re lucky to get fifty cents a mile in my market. I dropped Uber Eats and Doordash from my toolbelt a long while back. Even pay on shopping and catering is in the dregs, though.

— Mike (@TxdoHawk) April 14, 2025