Efficient Taxi & Ridehailing
Across all regions hosting the 2026 World Cup games, public transit, walking, and bicycling are the preferred modes of access to the games, fan events, and other regional destinations. Taxis and ridehail will supplement these high capacity, high efficiency modes.
Taxi and ridehail operations present a number of challenges and problems for the regions:
Curb congestion - when taxis and ridehail converge in a high traffic area, curb congestion is common. Passenger pick up is often the largest cause of this congestion as drivers and riders try to identify one another amid a sea of vehicles. Drivers will wait as passengers try to approach, and sometimes are left waiting when passengers have changed tack but did not cancel the ride. Independent operators - those who are not on a ridehail platform but are opportunistically looking to provide rides - also tend to wait at the curb. Add to this mix several vehicles picking up and dropping off (PUDO) and available curbside space is often fully consumed. Vehicles pick up or drop off in travel lanes due to lack of space or wanting to speed up their time, even when there is space available at the curb, entrapping those at the curb and blocking the safe and efficient flow of traffic.
Rapid and Reliable Vehicle Identification - When there is a volume of rides hailed and a corresponding volume of vehicles, passengers often have difficulty efficiently finding the proper vehicle, contributing to extended dwell times at the curb.
Non-compliance with routing and wayfinding - Drivers are motivated by efficiency so they may make the maximum number of trips in a given timeframe. In order to avoid congestion at designated pick up and drop off locations, and/or to please customers who insist on alternative routing, drivers may diverge from designated routes to and from the event venues and/or pick up or drop off at non-designated locations. Non-compliance has consequences for traffic operations and safety, however there are few meaningful incentives or disincentives to motivate drivers to reliably comply.
Variable and dynamic demand - Taxi and ridehail demand varies widely. For a large event, like the World Cup, demand is expected to be very high. However, World Cup venues also host a number of much smaller events in which ridehail demand is less, while curbside demand by other users remains high. Existing solutions are not nimble in the ability to scale up and down to match anticipated demand without physical interventions to change signs, paint or bollards.
Lack of authority and limitations on enforcement - Many cities, and certainly transit authorities, lack local authority to directly manage - through licensing or penalties - ridehail operations. Oversight of ridehail is generally held by the state and is typically reviewed on an annual basis, barring any significant incidents. Local authorities do have ticketing authority, however during the games, traffic and law enforcement personnel will undoubtedly be otherwise deployed. Drivers violating designated routes and spaces generally are not static long enough for enforcement personnel to respond. Automated ticketing is a solution in some regions, but not available to all.
Accessibility challenges - Pick up and drop off locations are not always designed to be accessible to everyone, and often do not consider the needs of people with disabilities, people of all ages, people with children, etc. This can pose challenges or hardships for people seeking to use ridehail or taxi services, and whose needs are not appropriately accommodated.
Several stakeholders are involved in the process of efficiently matching passengers and riders and efficiently managing the curbs and travel lanes on which they operate. These stakeholders include:
Drivers who may operate across a number of different platforms (e.g. Uber, Lyft, Curb, etc.) or none at all, in the case of independent or unsanctioned drivers. Addressing this problem hinges on the ability to engage with drivers regardless of their association and “meet them where they are at” in terms of technology sophistication, data plans, and language proficiency.
Riders who may be more or less familiar with the process of utilizing a platform to hail and find a driver. Given the international nature of the World Cup games, many riders will be unfamiliar with the city or stadium area and thus heavily reliant on reliable and easy to understand wayfinding through the platform and/or physical environment.
Traffic Operators - Whether city transportation departments, parking or transit authorities, or stadium authorities, traffic operators need to know where vehicle movements are happening and where origins and destinations are concentrating in real time in order to manage and accommodate demand. Planners need to know where to locate staging lots and how to ensure their optimized use and operations.
Enforcement Officers - While incentives are preferred over disincentives, enforcement officers are engaged in taxi and ridehail operations to encourage reliable compliance with designated routes, staging and pick up/drop off locations, and passenger safety.
Platform Operators - The majority of taxi and ridehail operations will be matched and dispatched through a digital platform. Addressing this problem, therefore, will require integrating with existing platforms and completing such integration months before the first game kicks off.
Facility Owners - Pick up/drop off space, staging areas, and travel lanes may be owned by a number of different agencies including private owners or city, state, or county transportation agencies and/or authorities. Addressing the problem may require working across multiple different asset owners if installation of signs, sensors, cameras, paint or other improvements are needed.
Challenge Framing
Desired Outcomes
The several regions hosting the World Cup games all have the same desired outcome - to have safe, enjoyable games with a wonderful customer experience. Inherent in this is the need for smooth and efficient traffic operations in and around the stadium, fan fest zones, and other destination areas in the regions. By doing this, the regions expect to improve safety outcomes, reduce congestion and associated emissions, and promote economic activity.
With regard to taxi and ridehail operations, specifically, the regions desire solutions that will:
Maintain and promote transit, walking, and bicycling as the preferred and most efficient and desirable means to get to the games and other regional destinations.
Increase efficient operations at the curb and in travel lanes including having passengers ready to rapidly board or alight their (correct) vehicles, vehicles having minimum dwell time at the curb or in the pick up/drop off area and general compliance with assigned ridehail operations including routing, staging and pick up/drop off.
Clearly identify PUDO zones, communicate them virtually, and adjust them based on demand, such as after a game when people are likely to leave at the same time.
Enable an excellent user experience for travelers including finding efficient travel (with an emphasis on transit, walking and bike/micromobility), locating the correct vehicle, feeling/being safe while using, etc.
Ensure driver compliance through more incentives than disincentives to minimize punitive consequences to low wage earners.
Create visibility and interoperability for traffic operators - meaning officials overseeing dynamic traffic operations can see taxi and ridehail operations and dynamically reroute them as necessary if the need arises.
Provide scalable solutions that are appropriate for both high demand events, such as the World Cup, and lower demand events (such as dynamically increasing or shrinking dedicated curbside space).
Additionally, the World Cup partners would encourage any solutions that could have expanded utility to provide:
Real-time guidance and navigation to riders to find designated and available bicycle and micromobility parking locations (similar to pick up and drop off designated locations);
Real-time guidance to both operators and riders of private transportation such as charter buses, hotel shuttle buses and similar.
