I see it differently (and have used "true" ride sharing services in Europe, like Blablacar). There is spare capacity in cars on the road, if you fill it up, regardless of the dynamics of how it happens, it's ride sharing. I might be the one sharing my taxi ride, or it could be a driver going to work. In both cases, the effect is one less car on the road for that trip. Most importantly, in the Uber Pool case the car I've just ride-shared does not then go park in the centre of town and take up valuable space, it keeps moving.
The problem with Blablacar-type apps is flexibility, unless you're doing a very common trip you'll find yourself having to be very flexible with hours and pickup and drop-off points. On the upside, it's much cheaper than alternatives especially for trip between cities.
Uber's model of having drivers basically work at as close to full capacity as possible most of the time is excellent and a great way to reduce congestion at the heart of cities, or even just the demand for parking lots.
Vans get us into the implementation, rather than the model. The model is that if there are spare seats they should be filled. The implementation is the type of car being used. I suspect that if vans were profitable for Uber Pooling they would be much more used by now, but the optimal size seems to be the family sedan or the small SUV, at least in Singapore. They might make more sense in frequent suburb -> CBD type trips where there is a lot of demand for the same trip at the same time, although in the situations where I've needed to do such a trip, there's always been frequent express buses or direct trains provided by the city (e.g. in Sydney from the North West suburbs to Darling Harbour).
The problem with Blablacar-type apps is flexibility, unless you're doing a very common trip you'll find yourself having to be very flexible with hours and pickup and drop-off points. On the upside, it's much cheaper than alternatives especially for trip between cities.
Uber's model of having drivers basically work at as close to full capacity as possible most of the time is excellent and a great way to reduce congestion at the heart of cities, or even just the demand for parking lots.
Vans get us into the implementation, rather than the model. The model is that if there are spare seats they should be filled. The implementation is the type of car being used. I suspect that if vans were profitable for Uber Pooling they would be much more used by now, but the optimal size seems to be the family sedan or the small SUV, at least in Singapore. They might make more sense in frequent suburb -> CBD type trips where there is a lot of demand for the same trip at the same time, although in the situations where I've needed to do such a trip, there's always been frequent express buses or direct trains provided by the city (e.g. in Sydney from the North West suburbs to Darling Harbour).