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Viewing this as a branding exercise is missing the whole picture. UberPOOL and Lyft Line will revolutionize transportation by convincing drivers to pick up pass

by natrius 12y ago

Viewing this as a branding exercise is missing the whole picture. UberPOOL and Lyft Line will revolutionize transportation by convincing drivers to pick up passengers during their commutes to and from work to pay their gas, maintenance, and then some. They'll convince riders to get in cars with strangers for prices that make owning more than one car in a household unreasonable, even in the suburbs. Doing that requires far more people to get comfortable sharing small spaces with strangers. Profiles are a step in that direction. EDIT: Either I missed it the first time, or they added a big chunk to the article about Line. Regardless, the branding angle is far secondary to Line.

TeMPOraL 12y ago
> by convincing drivers to pick up passengers during their commutes to and from work to pay their gas, maintenance, and then some Which is yet another case of capitalism replacing what was a common courtesy with a business transaction. I have very conflicting feelings about this.
- tnorthcutt 12y ago
  When has it been a common courtesy to pick up strangers on your way to work? A courtesy, yes. But a common one? (I'm actually genuinely interested - was this common at some point in history?)
  - technotony 12y ago
    It's common in San Francisco: http://sfcasualcarpool.com/ http://sfcasualcarpool.com/
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    In post-soviet countries like Poland it was (less so now, but still popular). At some point we even had "hitchhiker's booklets" with coupons you would leave drivers who took you, and they could then use in lotteries. Hitchhiking was a strong tradition in Central/Eastern Europe, and - in some parts of the continent - still is.
  - mccr8 12y ago
    Apparently it is a thing in DC, known as "slug lines": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugging http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugging The idea is that by picking up people, you can drive in the HOV lanes.
- calbear81 12y ago
  I am pretty happy that Lyft is betting on carpooling as that was the original vision that they had for Zimride (where Lyft was born) and I feel it sets a very clear distinction against the vision Uber has. Lyft is carpooling with friendly strangers, Uber is everyone's private driver (cheaper taxi). The challenge with the free/common courtesy model is that casual carpools are just not getting enough cars off the road. Lyft is solving the two biggest challenges I see in carpooling 1) convenience of having the app route you to people who are close enough to your route and can be dropped off without adding too much time and 2) making you feel more comfortable picking up strangers. Adding money to the equation to encourage more drivers is fine with me as it reduces car traffic and pollution.
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    As I said, I have conflicting feelings about this. On the one hand, I very much agree with what you wrote, and the tangible benefits this model has. On the other hand, picking up random passengers really was about just being nice to another human being. So between Lyft and BlaBlaCar it feels like we're losing a little bit of humanity again. To be clear, I'm not saying it's a bad thing - it's just that my alarm bells go off every time I see a business creeping into what used to be a money-free zone, so I thought I'd raise that concern.
sbilstein 12y ago
My parents would tell me that one of our extended family's (my family had already emigrated to the US at this point) favorite economic reforms in Peru during the 90s was deregulating the cab industry so that anyone could simply put in a little sign that said "taxi" on their dashboard could operate as a cab driver. From what I understand and vaguely remember from visits as a kid was that it wasn't uncommon to pay for a ride for someone on their way to or from work. The economy was so bad that cab drivers were frequently from all kinds of background, businessmen, lawyers, doctors, etc but all needed and appreciated the ability to make some extra untaxed income.

by natrius 12y ago

TeMPOraL 12y ago

> by convincing drivers to pick up passengers during their commutes to and from work to pay their gas, maintenance, and then some Which is yet another case of capitalism replacing what was a common courtesy with a business transaction. I have very conflicting feelings about this.

tnorthcutt 12y ago
When has it been a common courtesy to pick up strangers on your way to work? A courtesy, yes. But a common one? (I'm actually genuinely interested - was this common at some point in history?)
- technotony 12y ago
  It's common in San Francisco: http://sfcasualcarpool.com/ http://sfcasualcarpool.com/
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  In post-soviet countries like Poland it was (less so now, but still popular). At some point we even had "hitchhiker's booklets" with coupons you would leave drivers who took you, and they could then use in lotteries. Hitchhiking was a strong tradition in Central/Eastern Europe, and - in some parts of the continent - still is.
- mccr8 12y ago
  Apparently it is a thing in DC, known as "slug lines": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugging http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugging The idea is that by picking up people, you can drive in the HOV lanes.
calbear81 12y ago
I am pretty happy that Lyft is betting on carpooling as that was the original vision that they had for Zimride (where Lyft was born) and I feel it sets a very clear distinction against the vision Uber has. Lyft is carpooling with friendly strangers, Uber is everyone's private driver (cheaper taxi). The challenge with the free/common courtesy model is that casual carpools are just not getting enough cars off the road. Lyft is solving the two biggest challenges I see in carpooling 1) convenience of having the app route you to people who are close enough to your route and can be dropped off without adding too much time and 2) making you feel more comfortable picking up strangers. Adding money to the equation to encourage more drivers is fine with me as it reduces car traffic and pollution.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  As I said, I have conflicting feelings about this. On the one hand, I very much agree with what you wrote, and the tangible benefits this model has. On the other hand, picking up random passengers really was about just being nice to another human being. So between Lyft and BlaBlaCar it feels like we're losing a little bit of humanity again. To be clear, I'm not saying it's a bad thing - it's just that my alarm bells go off every time I see a business creeping into what used to be a money-free zone, so I thought I'd raise that concern.

sbilstein 12y ago

My parents would tell me that one of our extended family's (my family had already emigrated to the US at this point) favorite economic reforms in Peru during the 90s was deregulating the cab industry so that anyone could simply put in a little sign that said "taxi" on their dashboard could operate as a cab driver. From what I understand and vaguely remember from visits as a kid was that it wasn't uncommon to pay for a ride for someone on their way to or from work. The economy was so bad that cab drivers were frequently from all kinds of background, businessmen, lawyers, doctors, etc but all needed and appreciated the ability to make some extra untaxed income.