Transport is a public good, and has always and will always rely on public subsidies. The exceptions to this rule are places like Hong Kong which have has density far beyond what most people will accept. As such, Uber is seeking to get onto that gravy train. Your use of the term “rents” is spot-on here and really needs to be emphasized because most folks are only just becoming familiar with the role that rent-seeking plays in the capitalist thought process.

Ride-sharing is inimical to both transport and urbanism because it supports inefficient use of urban land and resources. The original ride-sharing app is the share-taxis which originated in sub-Saharan Africa precisely because of the absence of decent public transport networks. Hence much urbanism in the developing world is characterized by low-slung sprawl not unlike the suburbanism in the United States, only with zinc-sheet huts and without closed sewers.

Another characteristic of these cities is that the well-to-do and elite classes live in the urban centers, while the working poor reside in the periphery. Tellingly, this development pattern is starting to emerge in the United States as working and middle-class people are being made to pay with their commuting time (via congestion costs) in the absence of decent transport.