Uber picks Dallas, Fort Worth as test cities for flying vehicle network

“Being in the North Texas region, which encourages innovation and responsible businesses to thrive, we trust that this will be a beneficial choice for the development of the Elevate project,” she said.

Fast Company reported that Uber is portraying Elevate as “a cheap alternative to building new roads and expanding public transit” but noted that Rawlings maintains Dallas has to provide as many transportation options as possible.

“Anytime there’s innovation in the marketplace, I don’t think anybody truly knows the results of these things, or the costs,” Rawlings told Fast Company. “We’ve got to be multimodal — there’s no question — in this city.”

Dallas currently is in the middle of several transportation-related fights over the city’s future. Rawlings has been a strong advocate of a controversial high-speed bullet train that could whisk passengers from his city to Houston in 90 minutes. That project, which is being developed by a private firm, is the target of several bills moving through the Texas Legislature this session, though none that could fatally disrupt ongoing development of the rail line have passed either chamber so far.

Rawlings is also among champions of a controversial toll road that would be built within the Trinity River floodplain next to a planned urban park, a project that could indirectly delay planning on how to rebuild, renovate or tear down other downtown Dallas highways.

Meanwhile, the mayor has opposed calls to divert some sales tax revenue from public transit to help shore up a multibillion dollar shortfall in the city’s police and firefighter pension fund, which is facing a financial crisis that threatens to raise property taxes, slash city services or prompt an exodus of first responders.

Fast Company first reported the Elevate initiative and said “a hodgepodge of local, state, and federal agencies all have to get on board” for the project to take off in the United States but that Uber could face a smoother path in Dubai, its other partner city.

“It’s a monarchy, so they have the ability to move very quickly with things that they get behind strategically,” says Jeff Holden, Uber’s chief product officer, told Fast Company. “The certification of machinery and the approach to getting the aircraft through could be a much faster path [than in the U.S.].”

Brandon Formby writes about the challenges facing Texas’ largest metro areas. This story ispublished courtesy of the Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government, and statewide issues.