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Community | 3
JANUARY 2020 ■ www.ReporterNewspapers.net
Transit authority official’s app idea
gets momentum, raises concerns
BYJOHNRUCH
johnruch@reiportemewspapers.net
As a board member for the new metro
Atlanta mass transit authority, Steve Dick
erson is successfully swaying some peers,
elected officials and neighborhood groups
with his public and private advocacy of a
universal cellphone app tying together var
ious transportation modes and payment
systems. At the same time, Dickerson runs
a private company to build
such an app and is suing
Uber and Lyft for allegedly
infringing a patent it holds,
a position that one watch
dog groups says is a conflict
of interest.
“It’s never in the public
interest for an elected of
ficial to use their office for
personal gain,” said Sara
Henderson, executive direc
tor of the government ethics
advocacy group Common
Cause Georgia. “This is clearly an example
of that practice and it’s something that the
Atlanta Transit Link Board should serious
ly investigate, as the public’s faith in boards
such as these is imperative and should be
protected.
Dickerson and the Atlanta-Region
al Transit Link Authority or “The ATL,”
where he serves as an elected board mem
ber, say there is no conflict, in part because
the authority requires him to recuse him
self from certain votes that might affect his
business. Dickerson said that he wants the
state to build and operate the universal app
and related services he is promoting, but
that he may do it himself with his private
company if the state does not.
“I’ve tried over and over again to con
vince government officials - GDOT [the
Georgia Department of Transportation],
MARTA, ATL - to take some of these things
and put them into practice,” Dickerson said
in a phone interview. “Well, there can’t be
a conflict [of interest] if they decide they
can’t put them into practice. That’s the way
I look at it. Now, there is a chance that I
will start an activity that implements one
or more of those concepts, but under the
conclusion that the public authorities just
won’t do it. That’s my point of view. I would
much rather GDOT, MARTA and ATL do
what I would call the right things.”
Deidre Johnson, a spokesperson for
the ATL, noted that Dickerson declared
his ownership of the Sandy Springs-based
company RideApp in his financial disclo
sure filing with the Georgia Government
Transparency and Finance Commission.
She said ATL officials have “formally ad
vised” Dickerson that he must recuse him
self from votes relating to Uber, Lyft and
his “business competitors,” and that the au
thority will not enter into any contractu
al agreement, “monetarily or gratuitous,”
with his company.
“The ATL and its board of directors
takes the public trust of its constituents
very seriously and will continue to com
ply and adhere to all applicable laws, by
laws, policies and standards and be trans
parent in its operations to ensure that their
trust is not compromised,” Johnson said in
an email.
Meanwhile, the ATL is seeking a fed
eral grant of about $430,000 to create an
app that would unify ride-planning and
fare payment across metro Atlanta’s tran
sit agencies.
On the ATL board, Dickerson repre
sents District 3, which includes Dunwoody
and large sections of Buck-
head and Sandy Springs, as
well as part of Cobb County.
The Sandy Springs resident
was elected to the board by
a group of mayors and other
officials last year over such
candidates as Fulton Coun
ty Commission Chairman
Robb Pitts. A former Georgia
Tech professor, Dickerson
was a pioneer of vanpool
ing in the 1970s in Sandy
Springs and Peachtree City.
At Georgia Tech, he developed soft
ware combining ride-hailing and auto
matic payment that he says is similar to
that used by modern “ride-share” servic
es. The school secured a patent in 2001
that is now held by his company RideApp.
Last year, he sued Uber and Lyft for al
leged patent infringement, and recently
sued the service Juno as well. Dickerson
has said he hopes a monetary award would
help to establish a statewide transit app.
Dickerson promotes RideApp, which has
no product yet, as a potential public utility.
However, it is far from certain that Dick
erson will win the lawsuits - the main one
is under appeal - and the patent in ques
tion will expire soon under a 20-year limit.
While that makes potential funding sourc
es for a statewide app unclear, Dickerson
said, he believe it also clears up any poten
tial conflict of interest.
“We absolutely don’t have a conflict and
one of the reasons is, the patent is about
to run out,” he said. And for now, he has
pledged not to take any royalty for the use
of that patent in Atlanta or Georgia. If there
was such a royalty, he said, “that could
cause a conflict of interest, but I would say
there’s no conflict. You can quote me on
that.”
The limited app that the ATL is consid
ering creating, called “ATL RIDES,” would
be based on open-source software, accord
ing to the federal grant application.
In his role as an ATL board member,
Dickerson has advocated the app concept,
along with expanded vanpools and high-
occupancy toll lanes. One such presenta
tion, to the Buckhead Council of Neighbor
hoods on Nov. 14, was well-received.
Dickerson said that even for a private
business, creating a universal app is a “pret
ty rough road,” but one he continued to
urge the ATL toward.
“I might start another company to do
some of the things that are in that write
up that you have [from the November BCN
meeting],” he said. “But it could be RideApp.
Well see.”
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