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Ballot initiatives are not rammed through. Consumers want Uber/Lyft. Taxi cartels were so God awful to deal with even crappy tech alternatives are better.

JamesBarney 3y ago
Maybe people had different experiences with taxi's but I've taken uber 30x more often than I've taken cabs, and still have had 10x as many bad experiences with taxi drivers. From not turning on the meter, to being rude to my wife, to purposefully taking roundabout routes in order to inflate cost, to being told a taxi would show up at 1am, only to have it show up at 8 am.
bogota 3y ago
plus in places like South America uber is the far safer option. I know my wife and her friends hated taking taxis as they were much more likely to be sexually harassed or deal with some strange person. Uber isn’t perfect but it has significantly reduced this since the people who do it get kicked off the app. A lot of complaints i see on HN are very first world and don’t see how much some of these companies actually help.
- lll-o-lll 3y ago
  > A lot of complaints i see on HN are very first world and don’t see how much some of these companies actually help. These companies are not set up as charities. If they happen to help people, that’s a side affect of the primary purpose - generate maximum revenue. Regulation is required where a businesses incentives do not align with societies (mining is an easy example). As much as C level execs will argue, self regulation has never been an effective mechanism. So Uber is incentivised, naturally, to provide a safe experience for a rider, as to do otherwise would reduce revenue. They are not incentivised to provide their drivers any semblance of a “life worth living”, as it has no positive correlation to revenue. This isn’t out of malice, it’s just economics at work. If we, as a society, want a better standard of living for gig workers, then regulation, flawed as it is, is the only mechanism I know of that has some chance of working.
arrosenberg 3y ago
They spent $200M, the most expensive political campaign in CA history. Go on though…
- godzillabrennus 3y ago
  It’s not free to spread awareness on an issue. See Ohio for what happens to an unpopular ballot initiative. I’d vote against the Ohio initiative and for the Uber one. I hated taxi cartels. They had horrible customer service, high prices, and I’m a big dude who had to deal with them. I cannot imagine how toxic it was for gals.

JamesBarney 3y ago

Maybe people had different experiences with taxi's but I've taken uber 30x more often than I've taken cabs, and still have had 10x as many bad experiences with taxi drivers. From not turning on the meter, to being rude to my wife, to purposefully taking roundabout routes in order to inflate cost, to being told a taxi would show up at 1am, only to have it show up at 8 am.

bogota 3y ago

plus in places like South America uber is the far safer option. I know my wife and her friends hated taking taxis as they were much more likely to be sexually harassed or deal with some strange person. Uber isn’t perfect but it has significantly reduced this since the people who do it get kicked off the app. A lot of complaints i see on HN are very first world and don’t see how much some of these companies actually help.

lll-o-lll 3y ago
> A lot of complaints i see on HN are very first world and don’t see how much some of these companies actually help. These companies are not set up as charities. If they happen to help people, that’s a side affect of the primary purpose - generate maximum revenue. Regulation is required where a businesses incentives do not align with societies (mining is an easy example). As much as C level execs will argue, self regulation has never been an effective mechanism. So Uber is incentivised, naturally, to provide a safe experience for a rider, as to do otherwise would reduce revenue. They are not incentivised to provide their drivers any semblance of a “life worth living”, as it has no positive correlation to revenue. This isn’t out of malice, it’s just economics at work. If we, as a society, want a better standard of living for gig workers, then regulation, flawed as it is, is the only mechanism I know of that has some chance of working.

arrosenberg 3y ago

They spent $200M, the most expensive political campaign in CA history. Go on though…

godzillabrennus 3y ago
It’s not free to spread awareness on an issue. See Ohio for what happens to an unpopular ballot initiative. I’d vote against the Ohio initiative and for the Uber one. I hated taxi cartels. They had horrible customer service, high prices, and I’m a big dude who had to deal with them. I cannot imagine how toxic it was for gals.