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Surprising to some, perhaps, but the average Uber ride did not end in violence or a vehicular accident injuring people that had to be prevented by regulation. T

Surprising to some, perhaps, but the average Uber ride did not end in violence or a vehicular accident injuring people that had to be prevented by regulation. To the dismay perhaps of taxi/limousine commissioners, the average driver was a relatively decent human being who - given the preexisting apparatus in place to license drivers - did a good job, and cared about his car and his rating on the app to continue to do so. What happened for decades in cities like New York where taxi medallions were so expensive you could retire on their sale was big tech disrupting a dysfunction at its best. As for the cost, I didn't lose any sleep at night worrying that I was subsidized by Saudi Royal Family money. When the prices went up, it was never at a rate much worse than a cab.

jeremyjh 3y ago
> ride did not end in violence or a vehicular accident injuring people That is not why registries and medallions existed. The point of it was to prevent a race to the bottom that crowded the streets with empty taxis all honking at each other.
- techsupporter 3y ago
  > race to the bottom that crowded the streets with empty taxis all honking at each other Which is, to your point, exactly what has happened with Ubers and Lyfts in Seattle. In any popular neighborhood on any popular evening, public transport becomes even more difficult to use because Uber and Lyft drivers absolutely do not respect bus lanes or bus stops. They turn, even more than they already are, into fare pickup zones for these private companies. If a bus driver does manage to make it close enough to honk but far enough to not pick up someone safely, the gig worker does not do anything. I'm starting to see this at the new train station that opened on the north end of Seattle. There is a "kiss and ride" area and it is routinely covered up with people driving vehicles festooned with the logos of the app companies. Some have even figured out that, apparently, they can get even better ratings by dropping their fares off at the bus stops in the bus-only lanes. Meanwhile, there's nothing any of us can do because there is no public registry or complaint process for the public to gripe about app gig workers, and if you ask for one you are pilloried as wanting to "take away good pay from hard-working immigrants" or some other trope.
  - 331c8c71 3y ago
    Automated fines for driving on bus lanes was already done at scale in Moscow more than 10 years ago. I assume there's no budget to do this immediately in Seattle? In any case I guess one could try to organize and write to the police / local councils etc...
    - rendang 3y ago
      I can attest we do have that in Seattle, I've been ticketed by mail for accidentally turning into a street that was designated bus-only
- sgregnt 3y ago
  The point was to build a cartel, keep artificially high prices for a very poor quality service, and it worked, all over the world, but for cartels, not the consumers! Until UBER delivered the whole world from this universal established cartel-taxi-model for the benefit of all.
ses1984 3y ago
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but from my pov the quality of the service has gone down. Uber started paying drivers less. Drivers left. Uber is now less aggressive when it comes to taking drivers off the app. Now, Uber costs the same as a taxi, or more, and is just as shitty as taxis. The nyc medallion system needed disruption, sure, but I’m not sure if the current state is a net benefit to very many people, excepting some entrepreneurs who made the right bets.
edgyquant 3y ago
Regardless they knowingly broke laws and incentivized that business model[1]. Also just because the average ride didn’t end badly doesn’t change the fact that some of them definitely did. https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/10/leaked-uber-files-reveal-history-of-lawbreaking-lobbying-and-exploiting-violence-against-drivers/amp https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/10/leaked-uber-files-reveal-h...

jeremyjh 3y ago

> ride did not end in violence or a vehicular accident injuring people That is not why registries and medallions existed. The point of it was to prevent a race to the bottom that crowded the streets with empty taxis all honking at each other.

techsupporter 3y ago
> race to the bottom that crowded the streets with empty taxis all honking at each other Which is, to your point, exactly what has happened with Ubers and Lyfts in Seattle. In any popular neighborhood on any popular evening, public transport becomes even more difficult to use because Uber and Lyft drivers absolutely do not respect bus lanes or bus stops. They turn, even more than they already are, into fare pickup zones for these private companies. If a bus driver does manage to make it close enough to honk but far enough to not pick up someone safely, the gig worker does not do anything. I'm starting to see this at the new train station that opened on the north end of Seattle. There is a "kiss and ride" area and it is routinely covered up with people driving vehicles festooned with the logos of the app companies. Some have even figured out that, apparently, they can get even better ratings by dropping their fares off at the bus stops in the bus-only lanes. Meanwhile, there's nothing any of us can do because there is no public registry or complaint process for the public to gripe about app gig workers, and if you ask for one you are pilloried as wanting to "take away good pay from hard-working immigrants" or some other trope.
- 331c8c71 3y ago
  Automated fines for driving on bus lanes was already done at scale in Moscow more than 10 years ago. I assume there's no budget to do this immediately in Seattle? In any case I guess one could try to organize and write to the police / local councils etc...
  - rendang 3y ago
    I can attest we do have that in Seattle, I've been ticketed by mail for accidentally turning into a street that was designated bus-only
sgregnt 3y ago
The point was to build a cartel, keep artificially high prices for a very poor quality service, and it worked, all over the world, but for cartels, not the consumers! Until UBER delivered the whole world from this universal established cartel-taxi-model for the benefit of all.

ses1984 3y ago

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but from my pov the quality of the service has gone down. Uber started paying drivers less. Drivers left. Uber is now less aggressive when it comes to taking drivers off the app. Now, Uber costs the same as a taxi, or more, and is just as shitty as taxis. The nyc medallion system needed disruption, sure, but I’m not sure if the current state is a net benefit to very many people, excepting some entrepreneurs who made the right bets.

edgyquant 3y ago

Regardless they knowingly broke laws and incentivized that business model[1]. Also just because the average ride didn’t end badly doesn’t change the fact that some of them definitely did. https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/10/leaked-uber-files-reveal-history-of-lawbreaking-lobbying-and-exploiting-violence-against-drivers/amp https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/10/leaked-uber-files-reveal-h...