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I have taken hundreds of Ubers and Lyfts. They’re both pretty essential to my mobility because I live in a city and don’t own a car. I’m so furious that neither

by habosa 3y ago

I have taken hundreds of Ubers and Lyfts. They’re both pretty essential to my mobility because I live in a city and don’t own a car. I’m so furious that neither of them really had a plan all along. They were just selling $1.00 for $0.50 and hoping something would change (self driving? monopoly?) I’ve started trying to avoid ride share whenever possible but it’s too late. They put the cabs out of business. They snarled our cities in traffic. They made public transit a non-option for the affluent. And maybe worst of all they changed how we plan our days. People expect you can always just “hop in an Uber” to get across the city at a moments notice, there’s no patience anymore. And now they’re both charging more and more for rides and still failing to make enough money to cover their corporate overhead. Which is pathetic, since they don’t own the cars or employ the drivers. Meanwhile the drivers name make less and less and the smarter/luckier ones find something better to do. When we look back and write the history of this time, I hope we see them as city destroyers.

addisonl 3y ago
> They snarled our cities in traffic Would like to see the data backing this claim up.
- wpietri 3y ago
  There have been a bunch of studies. A quick Google finds this relatively recent one: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/uber-lyft-traffic-congestion-car-ownership-study/ https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/uber-lyft-traffic-congest... But intuitively it's not surprising. Imagine a world without rideshare, but where the taxi companies just got way better, dropping prices and improving service. Use would go up. People who were driving before were either going to keep driving or user rideshare. Some transit trips would switch. A bunch of new trips would happen because the bar is lower. More trips means more traffic, and the areas where rideshare is most popular were not exactly known for low traffic before.
  - ghaff 3y ago
    It's logical. Better/cheaper taxi-like services are almost certainly not going to lead to more investment in and use of public transit. And while they may be one of a number of factors that let people more easily forgo private car ownership at the margins, it's hard to see it being a huge factor.
  - addisonl 3y ago
    “Traffic congestion since the companies' introductions in urban areas is up by 0.9% and the duration of a jam increased 4.5%” less than 1% increase hardly seems significant when compared to other things that are increasing traffic.
pokstad 3y ago
> They put the cabs out of business. That was inevitable. The taxi companies had a horrible experience for arranging a ride, ride quality, agreeing on price, and paying. The last time I decided to take a taxi instead of Uber I was reminded that not only was this option much more expensive, but all of the same issues I listed still exist.
- sirspacey 3y ago
  Same. You’d think competition would have mattered. Sometimes it really is a cartel.
  - wanttocomment 3y ago
    It is a cartel in big cities through the government medallion system.
- topkai22 3y ago
  Yup. In DC can companies would refuse to take you home if the destination want in a profitable area and would out right lie about things such as their credit card machine (which they were legally required to have) not working. Uber and to a lesser degree Lyft are slimy companies with no apparent business plan, but what came before was often terrible. + which, when I said “oh sorry I don’t have cash. Since you are required to take cards you come see me later when it’s working” miraculously fixed themselves + Not every where. Taxis in some cities offered and offer a fine experience, but I’d say 70+% were pretty annoying to deal with.
bastardoperator 3y ago
Not in Las Vegas, cabs still reign. Sure you can call an uber/lift and wait ten to 15 minutes or hop in a cab that's already there and be on your way.
- BrentOzar 3y ago
  > Not in Las Vegas, cabs still reign. Sure you can call an uber/lift and wait ten to 15 minutes or hop in a cab that's already there and be on your way. Only at strip casinos and the airport. If you're the slightest bit off-strip, Uber/Lyft is dominant. (Source: I live in Henderson, and use Uber constantly.)
  - bastardoperator 3y ago
    Yeah, outside of driving to Vegas from LA, I haven't journeyed too far off the strip. I did see mountain goats at Zzyzx once.
rsynnott 3y ago
> They made public transit a non-option for the affluent. Well, first off, I’m in the US occasionally (SF and Seattle) and no-one has ever demanded proof of non-affluence to get on a bus :) But also, most of Europe has Uber (it’s effectively banned in a couple of countries, including here) and yet the upper-middle-class use public transport. Any reluctance in the US is probably based on other factors (my limited experience with US public transport is that it is rarely great, and doesn’t seem to believe in schedules at all, so I can see why people who can might avoid it).
ghaff 3y ago
So were you willing to pay $1 or $2 for your ride? And, more importantly, were all your friends? Thtat's the thing with all these services. People need to be willing to pay what they cost to deliver.

by habosa 3y ago

addisonl 3y ago

> They snarled our cities in traffic Would like to see the data backing this claim up.

wpietri 3y ago
There have been a bunch of studies. A quick Google finds this relatively recent one: https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/uber-lyft-traffic-congestion-car-ownership-study/ https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/uber-lyft-traffic-congest... But intuitively it's not surprising. Imagine a world without rideshare, but where the taxi companies just got way better, dropping prices and improving service. Use would go up. People who were driving before were either going to keep driving or user rideshare. Some transit trips would switch. A bunch of new trips would happen because the bar is lower. More trips means more traffic, and the areas where rideshare is most popular were not exactly known for low traffic before.
- ghaff 3y ago
  It's logical. Better/cheaper taxi-like services are almost certainly not going to lead to more investment in and use of public transit. And while they may be one of a number of factors that let people more easily forgo private car ownership at the margins, it's hard to see it being a huge factor.
- addisonl 3y ago
  “Traffic congestion since the companies' introductions in urban areas is up by 0.9% and the duration of a jam increased 4.5%” less than 1% increase hardly seems significant when compared to other things that are increasing traffic.

pokstad 3y ago

> They put the cabs out of business. That was inevitable. The taxi companies had a horrible experience for arranging a ride, ride quality, agreeing on price, and paying. The last time I decided to take a taxi instead of Uber I was reminded that not only was this option much more expensive, but all of the same issues I listed still exist.

sirspacey 3y ago
Same. You’d think competition would have mattered. Sometimes it really is a cartel.
- wanttocomment 3y ago
  It is a cartel in big cities through the government medallion system.
topkai22 3y ago
Yup. In DC can companies would refuse to take you home if the destination want in a profitable area and would out right lie about things such as their credit card machine (which they were legally required to have) not working. Uber and to a lesser degree Lyft are slimy companies with no apparent business plan, but what came before was often terrible. + which, when I said “oh sorry I don’t have cash. Since you are required to take cards you come see me later when it’s working” miraculously fixed themselves + Not every where. Taxis in some cities offered and offer a fine experience, but I’d say 70+% were pretty annoying to deal with.

bastardoperator 3y ago

Not in Las Vegas, cabs still reign. Sure you can call an uber/lift and wait ten to 15 minutes or hop in a cab that's already there and be on your way.

BrentOzar 3y ago
> Not in Las Vegas, cabs still reign. Sure you can call an uber/lift and wait ten to 15 minutes or hop in a cab that's already there and be on your way. Only at strip casinos and the airport. If you're the slightest bit off-strip, Uber/Lyft is dominant. (Source: I live in Henderson, and use Uber constantly.)
- bastardoperator 3y ago
  Yeah, outside of driving to Vegas from LA, I haven't journeyed too far off the strip. I did see mountain goats at Zzyzx once.

rsynnott 3y ago

> They made public transit a non-option for the affluent. Well, first off, I’m in the US occasionally (SF and Seattle) and no-one has ever demanded proof of non-affluence to get on a bus :) But also, most of Europe has Uber (it’s effectively banned in a couple of countries, including here) and yet the upper-middle-class use public transport. Any reluctance in the US is probably based on other factors (my limited experience with US public transport is that it is rarely great, and doesn’t seem to believe in schedules at all, so I can see why people who can might avoid it).

ghaff 3y ago

So were you willing to pay $1 or $2 for your ride? And, more importantly, were all your friends? Thtat's the thing with all these services. People need to be willing to pay what they cost to deliver.