New companies with business models based on technology-enabled sharing have emerged as the hot topic in technology in recent years. Uber, the sharing-economy’s poster-child, is now the world’s most valuable start-up by far. Lyft, its younger competitor, is seeing year over year growth in the hundreds of percentage points. This growth is coming at the cost of the incumbent taxi industry, and this is what this study sets out to examine. What is the effect of Uber, Lyft, and other ride-sharing services on the taxi industry? My study reveals that there has been an extremely negative effect on taxicabs, and that there are only a few last strands of hope for ways taxis can compete. Based on my study and learning, in final I forecast the ways that the firms in this space can continue to grow and dominate the ride-sharing market, and beyond.

The minibus taxi industry in South Africa is the most popular form of public transportation and is used by the majority of commuters. At least 65 percent of the country’s commuters make use of this mode of public transport while the rest travel by busses or trains. Although minibus taxis are the most convenient form of transportation the industry is however associated with various complaints from commuters, the media and society at large. Most of the complaints are about “violence or taxi wars”, “unsafe taxis” resulting in high accident rates and the manner in which minibus taxi drivers appear to drive, behave, over speed and overload taxis etc. All these complaints are directly related to minibus taxi drivers. The purpose of my research is to investigate whether or not all minibus taxi drivers are indeed behaving in these similar ways and whether it can hence be argued that they are all “children born from the same mother?” In the field, it was important to go beyond the stereotypes of South African minibus taxi drivers. My study focussed specifically on minibus taxi drivers in the Johannesburg – Randfontein route, which is about a forty five minute drive each way.

Background: A continuously growing urban population leads to congested urban areas. As a result, people are wasting time being stuck in traffic. One way of solving this problem is to use the air for moving people. Thus, companies all over the globe are working extensively on approaches for Urban Air Mobility such as air taxis. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is the identification of key determinants influencing the acceptance of air taxis from a potential user perspective. Thereby, the thesis develops the Urban Air Mobility Acceptance Model (UAMAM) as an extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Method: An explanatory online survey was conducted to test the hypotheses in the proposed UAMAM. Data from 321 respondents living in cities larger than one million inhabitants representing the potential target group was collected. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS SEM) was used to assess the measurement model in terms of validity and reliability and the structural model in terms of hypotheses testing and strength of relationships between proposed variables. Further, a multigroup analysis has been examined to identify significant differences among groups. Conclusion: The results show that the attitude, which is strongly influenced by the perceived usefulness, as well as subjective norm, travel cost and the personal innovativeness are key determinants affecting the users’ behavioral intention to use air taxis. Further, moderating effects of age on the relation between time saving and behavioral intention as well as on the relation between personal innovativeness and behavioral intention were identified. Additionally, moderating effects of occupational status on the relation between travel cost and behavioral intention were found.

Desarrollo de un servicio para conectar a usuarios que tienen mascotas domésticas con una red particular de transporte a través de una aplicación móvil. De este modo, las personas con mascotas tendrán la facilidad de transportarse por la ciudad sin ser rechazadas, optimizando su tiempo y de forma práctica desde sus celulares. La ventaja competitiva de Petaxi radica en el servicio amigable con las mascotas, pensado para ofrecer al usuario confianza, seguridad y comodidad durante su viaje. El lema propuesto para transmitir el espíritu de Petaxi es: “Petaxi, movilizando nuestro amor por las mascotas”. También se validó el segmento de los conductores, ya que ellos brindarían el servicio de transporte requerido. / Development of a service to connect users who have domestic pets with a particular transport network through a mobile application. In this way, people with pets will have the ease of transporting around the city without being rejected, optimizing their time and in a practical way from their cell phones. The competitive advantage of Petaxi lies in the friendly service with pets, designed to offer the user confidence, security and comfort during their trip. The motto proposed to convey the spirit of Petaxi is: "Petaxi, mobilizing our love for pets". The driver segment was also validated, since they would provide the required transportation service. / Trabajo de investigación

La thèse étudie les relations entre les événements dans l’énoncé. Elle décrit les mécanismes par lesquels le destinataire systématise chronologiquement les événements. Il s’agit, d’un coté, des moyens proprement linguistiques (temps verbaux, aspects, adverbes temporels) et d’un autre coté des éléments pragmatiques (contexte, connaissances encyclopédiques). L’analyse s’effectue sur le matériau de la langue russe contemporaine. Sont particulièrement examinés les énoncés à prédicat autonomes liés par juxtaposition ou coordination et les énoncé à prédication secondaire incluant le gérondif. / The present work explores the relationship between events in the utterance. It describes the mechanisms by wich the person addressed systematizes chronological events. Those mechanisms are, on one side, specific linguistic tools (tenses, verbal aspect, temporal advervs) and on the other side, pragmatic elements (context, knowledge of the world). The analysis is done on the material of the contemporary russian language a particular attention is paid to utterances with autonomous predicates wich are bound by juxtaposition or coordination and to utterances with secondary predicates including adverbial participles.

Bacteria living in soil and aquatic habitats rapidly adapt to changes in physico-chemical parameters that influence their energy status and thus their ability to proliferate and survive. One immediate survival strategy is to relocate to more metabolically optimal environments. To aid their movement through gradients (a process called taxis), many bacteria use whip like flagella organelles. Soil-dwelling Pseudomonas putida possesses a polar bundle of flagella that propel the bacterium forward in directed swimming motility. P. putida strains are generally fast growing, have a broad metabolic capacity, and are resistant to many harmful substances – qualities that make them interesting for an array of industrial and biotechnological application. This thesis identifies some of the factors that are involved in controlling the flagella driven motility of P. putida. In the first part of the thesis, I present evidence that P. putida displays energy-taxis towards metabolisable substrates and that the surface located Aer2 receptor (named after its similarities to the Escherichia coli Aer receptor) is responsible for detecting the changes in energy-status and oxygen-gradients that underlie this response. Aer2 is expressed simultaneously with the flagella needed for taxis responses and its expression is ensured during nutrient scares conditions through the global transcriptional regulators ppGpp and DksA. In addition to Aer2, P. putida possesses two more Aer-like receptors (Aer1 and Aer3) that are differentially expressed. Like Aer2, Aer1 and Aer3 co-localize to one cell pole. Although the signals to which Aer1 and Aer3 respond are unknown, analysis of Aer1 uncovered a role in motility control for a protein encoded within the same operon. This protein, called PP2258, instigated the work described in the second part of my thesis on the involvement of the second messenger c-di-GMP in regulation of P. putida motility. Genetic dissection of the catalytic activities of PP2258 revealed that it has the unusual capacity to both synthesize and degrade c-di-GMP. Coupling of the c-di-GMP signal originating from PP2258 to motility control was traced to the c-di-GMP binding properties of the protein PP4397. In the last part of the thesis, I present possible mechanisms for how these different components might interact to create a signal transduction cascade – from the surface located Aer1 receptor to PP2258 and the c-di-GMP responsive PP4397, and from there to the flagella motors – to ultimately determine flagella performance and the motility status of P. putida.

The mini-bus industry has been hailed as a major breakthrough in public transport. It fills a much needed void in the hierachy of public transport. However, despite its success story the industry is facing problems. This study attempts to examine and understand the dynamics of the mini-bus industry in South Africa, with specific reference to mini-bus operations in the study area of Overport. The aim is to examine and highlight the problems in the industry and to formulate solutions and/or policy options for recommendations through the identification of appropriate planning interventions to enable the mini-bus to make a more efficient contribution to public transport. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1996.

Stuttgart, Universiẗat, Diss., 2005.

Estudios realizados a mediados del 2016 nos indican que las empresas de Taxi por aplicación movilizan alrededor de S/. 240 millones al año y que estos sólo representan un 10% de las transacciones de taxi en todo Lima, cifras que nos hablan de un gran potencial de mercado. Al ser encuestados los usuarios de las aplicaciones de Taxi, estos revelan tres inquietudes referentes al servicio: El primero de ellos es el alto costo de utilizar este servicio sobre todo en horas punta, el segundo se refiere al tiempo de espera y el último a la inseguridad. Nuestra idea de Negocio, busca participar de este importante mercado en crecimiento, brindando alternativas a los usuarios, que den solución a los inconvenientes que hoy manifiestan. Nuestro proyecto, Taxi Mix, es una aplicación que reúne a todas las aplicaciones de taxi en una misma pantalla permitiendo comparar precios, tiempo de espera y calificación de los conductores. Buscamos que el usuario pueda comparar según sus requerimientos entre todas las aplicaciones de taxi disponibles de una manera práctica y eficiente para poder tomar la mejor decisión. Pero, ¿quién es el usuario? Nuestro usuario son personas de ambos géneros residentes de la ciudad de Lima, cuyas edades oscilan en el rango de 18 a 55 años principalmente y que a su vez utilizan aplicaciones de taxi para movilizarse. La principal fuente de ingresos de nuestro negocio provendrá del cobro de una comisión de treinta (30) centavos de sol por cada transacción que se realice desde nuestra aplicación y sea derivada a la empresa de Taxi elegida. Las empresas de Taxis por aplicación serán las que nos paguen por cada transacción derivada. Este precio lo fijamos luego de revisar el mercado potencial al cual podemos acceder, la respuesta que estimamos obtener del mismo y los costos en los que tendremos que incurrir. No descartamos la posibilidad de cobrar en un futuro por venta de publicidad a empresas que deseen anunciar en nuestra aplicación, la cual no sólo ofrecerá un gran número de contactos, sino también la segmentación adecuada a cada marca para que su costo de conversión sea muy competitivo y puedan optimizar al máximo sus presupuestos. Siendo muy conservadores en nuestros supuestos, estimamos que el proyecto tendrá un índice de rentabilidad de 1.71, es decir por cada unidad monetaria que se invierta en él, obtendremos 1.71 veces lo invertido, en un período máximo de recuperación de la inversión de 2.23 años. La rentabilidad esperada es muy alta, haciendo de este, un proyecto totalmente viable. Por último tenemos una pregunta más por responder y es la siguiente ¿el modelo de negocio es escalable a otras plazas? La respuesta es un rotundo si y no solo eso, creemos que los resultados pueden ser mucho mejores debido a la porción de mercado con la que cuentan las aplicaciones de taxi en otros mercados, que son por mucho, superiores a las que tenemos en la ciudad de Lima. / Tesis

This research has been based on my experiences of London taxi drivers, both before I entered the London Taxi Industry, whilst studying to be a London taxi driver and during the thirty years I spent within the industry in a number of roles. My research has been undertaken in an inductive, broadly ideographic style. The study has been developed through initially narrating my experiences and observations in the industry and then analysing this account reflexively. The material that formed the basis of my narrative account was collected in an ethnographic style. In addition to my narrative account I also referenced the small amount of published material concerning the London taxi industry and interviewed a number of taxi drivers. A significant constraint was the lack of peer reviewed literature concerning taxi drivers and the taxi industry. Once I had developed my narrative account I then interpreted it in order to better understand the experiences and observations, the institutions and the people within the industry to understand and relate how they react and behave within their environment. The analysis involved deconstruction and interpretation against a framework of relevant literature to facilitate my understanding and assist sense making. I also interpreted the interactions with those outside of the taxi drivers' environment and analysed the persona that journalists and others have constructed that is meant to represent the London Taxi Driver. I considered the identity and characteristics implied by journalists with the prevailing culture and the identity that taxi drivers and the industry sought to portray. The qualification to become a taxi driver is known as the Knowledge of London. The Knowledge, as it is known in the industry, is recognised as an onerous task and has developed according to many in the industry into a rite of passage. I found that this process, with its rituals and arcane practices, which are accepted consensually by the industry, had a significant effect on the taxi drivers' identity and their status amongst non-taxi driver peers. Taxi driving is considered in working class circles to be at the upper end of a hierarchy of professional driving roles largely due to the achievement of passing the Knowledge of London together with the earning opportunity, perceived job security and flexibility afforded by being one's own boss. Knowledge of London students and taxi drivers appear to demonstrate common behavioural traits which I have explored in my research. London's taxi drivers appear to fear an assimilation of their role with other lower status driving roles and this fear has a significant effect on any attempts at change within the industry or within its institutions. The institutions within the industry provided much material for me to consider in the context of their alignment or clash with the culture of the industry. Changes in business processes and some of the institutions' relationships with their taxi driver stakeholders and the challenges to the industry's culture are considered as case studies within my reflexive account. The contribution to original knowledge is the insight into the culture and identity of London's Taxi Drivers, the behaviours and relationships within the industry both between drivers and the institutions that regulate, represent and benefit from the industry. Taxi drivers' responses to organisational and business process change. Further contributions to original knowledge are provided from the realisation that much of the structure developed within conventional organisations by management has developed organically without management intervention in the taxi industry. Many of the traits of life in offices and factories are likewise present in the London Taxi Industry despite the disparate and virtual nature of the industry and its reliance on consensual adoption of rules and practice rather than managerial influence and formal processes and procedures.