6 ms·

> The Waymo rides were affordable, ranging from $18 to $21 Goes to show you what world these journalists are living on that think that's totally acceptable for

> The Waymo rides were affordable, ranging from $18 to $21 Goes to show you what world these journalists are living on that think that's totally acceptable for a five mile ride. I'll stick with public transit.

azernik 3y ago
Compared to Lyft or Uber, that's a fine price. Those are its real competition.
systemvoltage 3y ago
[flagged]
justrealist 3y ago
Do you have any concept how long it takes to go five miles on SF public transit? If both your stops aren't on a MUNI rail line, you've easily burned an hour.
dekhn 3y ago
Have you ridden in the Bay Area? Public transport in SF is slow outside of a few routes. A MUNI ticket is $2.50 for 120 minutes. I would gladly pay 10X that for 30 minutes if my train was timely, clean, and safe-feeling.
crazygringo 3y ago
A five mile trip in a SF taxi is $24.30 before tip [1]. So for five miles, this is notably a bit cheaper. And it's obvious that "affordable" here means relative to other car services. Not relative to public transit. [1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-taxi-meter-rates-have-increased-for-the-17607578.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-taxi-meter-rates-...
throwawaylinux 3y ago
I'm the first to call journalists out of touch, but in this case it's you. There's a reason that cars and private-public transport like taxis and uber are so popular all around the world, even in cities with much better public transport than SF. A reason why quite poor people will often spend a lot of money to own cars. Look at London or cities in the Netherlands or Japan. Car ownership rates around 50% per household, and use of taxi services from time to time would be far higher. It's because even very good busses and trains don't offer the freedom and convenience of a car. And it doesn't require an outlandish value of a person's time for that $18 to $21 to look at lot more cost competitive with the public transport option.
xnx 3y ago
Public transit is cheap if your time is not worth much
- manderley 3y ago
  I'm sure the time of a person posting on HN all the time is infinitely valuable.
1024core 3y ago
As an example, riding public transit from Marina Green to Beach Chalet takes 1 hour in Muni: https://goo.gl/maps/8mPmP8ZsC61c2CL5A https://goo.gl/maps/8mPmP8ZsC61c2CL5A and involves a change of buses. Is it worth it to spend $20 and do it in 1/3 the time in a clean and safe setting? To many, yes.
- rxyz 3y ago
  Why public transport in one of the richest cities in the world isn't clean and safe?
  - stu2b50 3y ago
    Muni is actually fairly clean and safe, it just goes nowhere.
    - 1024core 3y ago
      Many in SF would disagree.
      - stu2b50 3y ago
        Idk, BART generally is considered to be dangerous and/or dirty but I don’t think the muni rails are considered as such when I lived there. They were generally pretty clean and not particularly janky.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

azernik 3y ago

Compared to Lyft or Uber, that's a fine price. Those are its real competition.

systemvoltage 3y ago

[flagged]

justrealist 3y ago

Do you have any concept how long it takes to go five miles on SF public transit? If both your stops aren't on a MUNI rail line, you've easily burned an hour.

dekhn 3y ago

Have you ridden in the Bay Area? Public transport in SF is slow outside of a few routes. A MUNI ticket is $2.50 for 120 minutes. I would gladly pay 10X that for 30 minutes if my train was timely, clean, and safe-feeling.

crazygringo 3y ago

A five mile trip in a SF taxi is $24.30 before tip [1]. So for five miles, this is notably a bit cheaper. And it's obvious that "affordable" here means relative to other car services. Not relative to public transit. [1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-taxi-meter-rates-have-increased-for-the-17607578.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-taxi-meter-rates-...

throwawaylinux 3y ago

I'm the first to call journalists out of touch, but in this case it's you. There's a reason that cars and private-public transport like taxis and uber are so popular all around the world, even in cities with much better public transport than SF. A reason why quite poor people will often spend a lot of money to own cars. Look at London or cities in the Netherlands or Japan. Car ownership rates around 50% per household, and use of taxi services from time to time would be far higher. It's because even very good busses and trains don't offer the freedom and convenience of a car. And it doesn't require an outlandish value of a person's time for that $18 to $21 to look at lot more cost competitive with the public transport option.

xnx 3y ago

Public transit is cheap if your time is not worth much

manderley 3y ago
I'm sure the time of a person posting on HN all the time is infinitely valuable.

1024core 3y ago

As an example, riding public transit from Marina Green to Beach Chalet takes 1 hour in Muni: https://goo.gl/maps/8mPmP8ZsC61c2CL5A https://goo.gl/maps/8mPmP8ZsC61c2CL5A and involves a change of buses. Is it worth it to spend $20 and do it in 1/3 the time in a clean and safe setting? To many, yes.

rxyz 3y ago
Why public transport in one of the richest cities in the world isn't clean and safe?
- stu2b50 3y ago
  Muni is actually fairly clean and safe, it just goes nowhere.
  - 1024core 3y ago
    Many in SF would disagree.
    - stu2b50 3y ago
      Idk, BART generally is considered to be dangerous and/or dirty but I don’t think the muni rails are considered as such when I lived there. They were generally pretty clean and not particularly janky.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]