Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#11

Post by ruraljuror » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 4:05 PM UTC

When driving on the highway recently, I noticed a standard governmental sign which had a 1-800 number to call for ride sharing.

Your post made me think of this, so I did some quick googling of my state and the surrounding states. It seems all of them have ridesharing programs and regulations to promote ridesharing to some degree.

Of course these are not sophisticated technological platforms with mobile apps. Personally I was intrigued by the possibilities for user experience... what would it be like to get a ride by calling one of these phone numbers?

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#12

Post by pwman » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 4:09 PM UTC

Washington DC has been doing it as long as I can remember:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugging

Basically pickup someone random so you can utilize HOV.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#13

Post by codegeek » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 6:27 PM UTC

pwman wrote: post #12

Washington DC has been doing it as long as I can remember: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slugging Basically pickup someone random so you can utilize HOV.

I actually used this when I used to work in DC but lived in NoVA. Really good stuff and helpful. You basically get a free ride to the city and many times almost close to where you work.

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#14

Post by ericnolte » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 7:43 PM UTC

Unions

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#15

Post by dang » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 7:57 PM UTC

w__m wrote: post #3

Fuel is government-taxed. More traffic jams = more fuel = more tax. Forget long-term thinking. MORE TAX. NOW. I agree with @BjoernKW also.

"Please don't use uppercase for emphasis."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#16

Post by tedmiston » Thu, Dec 24, 2015, 5:45 AM UTC

WCityMike wrote: post #10

venning wrote: post #8

It's not entirely clear yet what long-term effect ridesharing will have on city traffic [1] and cities are very invested in keeping that low. Buses and trains and such keep that traffic lower, at least according to current data. Of course, if ridesharing proves itself to reduce traffic, I wouldn't be surprised to find cities experimenting with public-private partnerships to implement them locally. We have something v…

Chicago is doing something very similar with Divvy. [1] [1] https://www.divvybikes.com/

That sounds similar to BCycle [1]. Is it a branded version for Chicago? In Cincinnati we have Red Bike [2].

1: https://www.bcycle.com/

2: http://www.cincyredbike.org/

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#17

Post by wycx » Fri, Dec 25, 2015, 8:24 AM UTC

ericnolte wrote: post #14

Unions

Neoliberalism

Re: Ask HN: Why don't cities/states create their own ride-sharing platform?

#18

Post by phantom_oracle » Sun, Dec 27, 2015, 3:01 PM UTC

Nobody has mentioned this, but possibly relevant is the issue of lawsuits:

If a class-action is brought against an Uber, it can be sued out of existence (think like a major case that affects their publicity and kills the business).

Even though a local government can become bankrupt, it doesn't happen quite that often. It is also easier to police a small subset of bus/train drivers and register a known subset of taxi-drivers than having to manage a work-force of in-out ride-sharing drivers.

Ride-sharing also doesn't seem that efficient, as I've never read/heard of an awesome/PR+ story of Uber/Lyft reducing the traffic congestion in New York/London (known as congested cities).