City Councils in Canada spend a lot of time, energy and much angst dealing with public transportation.

Perhaps the thorniest part of this broad spectrum is the licensing and control of taxi cabs and limousines. For many cities over the decades, it has been a mess. In the past several years, the headache has expanded to include the new Uber/Lyft ride-hailing reality.

When I was on City Council, there was a general sort of smirking comment from some city councillors about the hard, divisive issues; it was 'Well, if nobody's happy, then I guess we got it right.'

That never made much sense to me, then or now. However that was certainly the case in a lot of cities when having to deal with the taxi industry. Once ride-sharing arrived, of course, it blew up that often cozy relationship that in some municipalities came close to being a monopoly, but was certainly an oligopoly.

What is the future of public transportation? Fun question. The answer is, uncertainty.

One clue may be to study what's been happening in China.

After an aggressive start and spending plan, Uber threw in the white towel by selling to a Beijing-based Chinese rival, Didi. Uber lost an estimated 2 billion US dollars in its failed effort.

China is the world's largest ride-sharing market. That is not unexpected. Ride-sharing is most successful in large, urban markets. China has those in abundance. In fact, it has 14 urban agglomerations with a population over 10 million each.

Private car ownership is quite restricted as the government attempts to reduce traffic jams, urban congestion and greenhouse gas emissions. Chinese cities are built vertically—many, many massive high-rises. They don't have our typical urban sprawl into suburbs. And the density of high-rise life means parking spaces are impossible for most car owners in Chinese cities.

This breeds the perfect environment for ride-hailing and ride-sharing. Didi, the new king of ride-sharing, is expected to go public this year; the guess is that its IPO could be valued at a breath-taking $60 billion.

Now. The point of this background is to offer a perspective on the future of ride-hailing companies. It seems clear that it will not be just in providing seats for seats. Instead, much of the future growth for these companies will be in ancillary services: food delivery, bike-sharing, and so on. And as with most emerging new industries, how these companies drive customers to their on-line services and then utilize that data will be a key to future profitability.

For municipalities, these trends are going to mean another look at the established taxi industry and what cities may choose to do to protect it. That could range from the licensing of ride-sharing drivers to imposing higher local fees. Or, some cities may simply throw up their hands and decide to let the marketplace decide.

The unknown factor in all of this is when self-driving vehicles will arrive for the ride-hailing services in mass markets. That is another game-changer that will leave city councils wrestling with difficult decisions about regulating the public/private transportation sector.

For a hundred years, city councils across North America have been subjected to the pushes and pulls of this important but challenging local industry. While new technology has and will continue to shake-up the traditional regulatory formats, there is more change yet to come in the ride-hailing business.

That will be compounded by the dramatic changes happening in the automotive industry, primarily the movement to electric-powered vehicles. Cleaner, safer cars and trucks, many self-driven, will simply add another layer to the automotive revolution that is coming in our cities.