In a recent article by TechCrunch, Brooks Rainwater (@brooksrainwater) and Nicole Dupuis (@nicolemdupuis) discuss how the sharing economy is growing and impacting cities. The sharing economy feeds into, and off of, desires for immediate gratification. With the “on-demand everything” way of the present and future, the need for comprehensive and accurate data is paramount. Service efficiency and on-demand information are the primary game changers. City leaders are open to integrating sharing economy services more fully within their communities – and they want to capitalize on this opportunity. The ongoing safety and regulatory concerns that have arisen are still significant, and policies continue to change and adapt in cities nationwide.

“When city leaders were asked to identify the greatest benefit sharing economy businesses offer their communities, 22 percent of respondents identified improved services, 20 percent identified increased economic activity, and 16 percent identified increased entrepreneurial activity. On the whole, cities want to encourage economic development and accommodate the services that their constituents want. At the same time, our survey found that cities do have concerns with the sharing economy. The issue of greatest concern was, by a large margin, public safety, and specifically the lack of comparable insurance coupled with general safety concerns cited by 61 percent of respondents. Cities also identified as primary concerns the protection of traditional service providers and industry participants (10 percent) and non-compliance with current standards (9 percent).”