Car sharing, peer-to-peer accommodation and other sharing economy services have been making a huge impact on many cities around the globe, and especially in the United States. Companies like Uber, Lyft and Airbnb have become important contributors to cities’ economies, providing extra income for thousands of people and generating demand for new services that didn’t use to exist and helping bring additional revenue to cities.
On the other hand, there are a lot of opponents of the sharing economy who claim that it has negative economic implications due to the fact that it violates various rules and regulations, and presents unfair competition to companies offering similar services, but operate within and adhere to an existing regulatory framework. However, a recent study reveals that American cities don’t have a problem with the fact that the sharing economy is growing at a pretty fast rate lately and that it has an increasingly significant impact on their economic development.
The National League of Cities (NLC) has conducted a survey to find out how local authorities feel about the growth of the likes of Uber, Lyft and Airbnb and whether they are worried about a potential negative impact they might have on the local economy, and found that most cities support the sharing economy, with safety being pretty much their only concern.
Researchers asked 245 city officials from around the country to share their opinion on whether the sharing economy is good or bad for their cities and weigh in on its benefits and drawbacks, and the vast majority of them had a positive attitude towards it, with 71% of them saying that they support it.
When it comes to the benefits of the sharing economy, 22% of those surveyed responded that most important one is the fact that it helps improve services, 20% cited increased economic activity, followed by increased entrepreneurial activity (16%).
On the other hand, the survey also reveals that there is a serious lack of regulation for the sharing economy, with 54% of the respondents saying that there is no regulation whatsoever, and 40% of them saying that ridesharing and homesharing services are regulated similarly to current services.
The lack of policies for the sharing economy is the main reason why most city officials are concerned about the impact it may have on public safety. 61% of respondents cited public safety as their main concern, followed by protection of industry participants (10%), and non-compliance with current standards (9%).
The bottom line is that even though the sharing economy raises serious public safety concerns, most city officials in the United States embrace the innovative business models employed by homesharing and ridesharing services and the positive social and economic impact they have.