As Evansville residents keep using ride sharing services like Uber to get around the city, people in Owensboro make an online push to bring it closer to their home.
People use social media for all different types of things, but a group here in Owensboro is trying to get it to bring a new type of service and new business to this city.
“We are Uber excited and Lyft up Owensboro,” says Jessica Kirk, referring to the two phrases people used to start the campaign this morning. She works at the Greater Owensboro Chamber Of Commerce, and is one of several signaling the need for the ride sharing companies she’s used before.
“It’s great. It’s convenient,” she says.
Kirk says bringing Uber or Lyft to Owensboro meets a growing demand among workers, and visitors.
“We’ve got so many visitors coming to Owensboro for different conventions and trade shows and it’s an expectation now when you travel or visit someplace to be able to pull out your cell phone with one or two clicks and have a ride somewhere,” she says.
The chamber of commerce’s Chamber Young Professionals started their social media push, and downloading their apps this morning, to show the ride sharing services there’s a need here.
“We have several family and friends outside of Owensboro that are participating as well to give Owensboro a leg up here,” says Andrew Howard, chair of the Chamber Young Professionals. He says he hopes the campaign brings enough attention so they can start the next steps in bringing the companies to these city streets.
“It’s our hope and our anticipation that the more downloads that we get, of course, it will ping those companies, and hopefully they will see that everyone is wanting it,” Howard says.
If the ride sharing services do come to Owensboro, this city will be joining a growing list of Kentucky cities to offer it, including Bowling Green and Louisville.
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(This story was originally published November 2, 2017)
