Public subsidies to operators disproportionately cover these low frequency services in thin markets. Replacing these trips with less costly and possibly more convenient options could also free up public resources for other uses. According to the survey, car-sharing and ride-services were generally seen as competing more with taxi and private car use than with public transport. Even if there were, it would be difficult to generalise at this stage on how this impact, either positive or negative, might evolve as more and more people use ride services. But at present, there seems to be evidence that in certain contexts - especially where the provision of public transport services is expensive and quality is low -well-targeted policy to replace certain poorly-performing and expensive bus services may indeed increase the overall attractiveness of public transport. In these cases, public authorities and public transport operators can start to evaluate where these synergies are strongest by undertaking inventories of existing public transport routes and services to evaluate the potential for alternative service delivery models -including those based on co-operation with ride services.