SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy • Hacker News Board

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#131

Post by jurassic » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 12:42 AM UTC

rhino369 wrote: post #116

bstanfield wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You Uber to work every day? Isn't that terribly expensive?

I'm only 4 miles, so the trip costs about 9 bucks each way. I don't have a second car and even if I did, my office charges 300 (pre tax so really less) to park. And if I'm forced to stay late, I can expense the ride home. So I'm pretty sure it's cheaper than driving myself. But I could do public transit for around 2.50 each way. But adding about 15-20 minutes transit time. What I really should do is bike to work. It'…

I bike commute 8-9 months of the year, but currently am ubering both ways during this wet El Niño winter we are having as I live without a car.

I estimate my Ubers this year will work out to around

($20/day for uber * ~60 winter work days) = $1200

Most people with modest vehicles will see a total cost of car ownership costing them somewhere in the $5-10k/year range. So I could double or triple my already heavy reliance on uber and come out ahead.

TLDR: For those with short commutes, a heavily uber-assisted bike commuting plan is a huge financial win. And this is not even considering the downstream value of the productivity and health benefits resulting from regular exercise. Or the value of the time I can now spend reading instead of driving.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#132

Post by xxpor » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 12:42 AM UTC

BHSPitMonkey wrote: post #112

xxpor wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you let them tell you they don't take cards? From a quick googling, it seems like taxis in SF must take cards. If they drive me somewhere and the machine's broken, that's not my problem.

They only have to take your card if they want to get paid. They're not required to pick you up in the first place.

If it's illegal not to accept cards, it should also be illegal to refuse fares by asking if someone wants to pay with a card.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#133

Post by Johnny555 » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 12:42 AM UTC

praneshp wrote: post #126

bstanfield wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You Uber to work every day? Isn't that terribly expensive?

not the person you were asking, but that would really depend. It costs $18 to take the caltrain both ways from San Jose, and I could see uber being cheaper if he both lives and works in Santa Clara, for example.

Why would you compare a Caltrain fare from SJ to SF to an Uber ride within Santa Clara (especially when there's only one Caltrain station within Santa Clara's city limits, so it's unlikely that he'd take Caltrain if he were staying in Santa Clara)

It would cost $60 - $80 for a one-way Uber trip from San Jose to SF, Caltrain would be around $16/day with a discounted 8-ride ticket, around $10.50 per day if you use a Caltrain monthly pass.

Even if you put 4 passengers in the car, it'd still cost you $35/day for Uber.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#134

Post by orf » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 12:45 AM UTC

mayank wrote: post #27

Grishnakh wrote: post #4

Too bad, so sad... If they hadn't allowed their service to get so horrible, with nasty old cars, drivers that don't speak English and drive around in circles to increase fares, drivers claiming their card readers are "broken" so you have to pay cash, taking an hour to show up when called, passing by black people, etc., then this wouldn't be happening. From the article: "Cab drivers, on the other hand, maintain that t…

> Who cares about knowledge of city streets? Funny story: for a while in SF, the taxi union (?) was running ads that were thinly veiled attacks on Uber/Lyft. One of them showed a smiling taxi driver with the caption "would you rather have a driver who knows the city by heart or by GPS?" I found it particularly hilarious because the answer, for me at least, is GPS with live traffic information. Just another example of…

In London I actually find the opposite. I like Uber and the convenience, but all the drivers are foreign and don't know their way around. More than 3 times I've been taken a hugely longer way round because the driver blindly followed the terrible Uber GPS, literally adding 15-20 minutes to the journey for no reason. Sure, I can get some of the cash back (and it is super easy to do so) but I would like for them just to take the right damn turning the first time.

Also they have to use the Uber GPS and not Google Maps, which several drivers have told me is quite inferior.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#135

Post by lizzard » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 12:50 AM UTC

saurik wrote: post #104

Grishnakh wrote: post #4

Too bad, so sad... If they hadn't allowed their service to get so horrible, with nasty old cars, drivers that don't speak English and drive around in circles to increase fares, drivers claiming their card readers are "broken" so you have to pay cash, taking an hour to show up when called, passing by black people, etc., then this wouldn't be happening. From the article: "Cab drivers, on the other hand, maintain that t…

> Who cares about knowledge of city streets? Haven't they heard of Google Maps and Waze and GPS? If I get into a cab, the driver asks where I am going, and I stump them by naming a major hotel, I personally feel like that was a frustrating failure, as now we are stuck in an intersection while I try to teach them the layout of a city I know less about than they do: the reason I am hiring a cab driver in the first plac…

I used to have to try to get cabs an hour or more before going to a doctors' appointment. Cabs would just not show up and I'd have to call the dispatcher over and over. Dispatchers would tell me straight out that they wouldn't send a cab into Bayview (where I got physical therapy). To hail a cab on the street, I would have to ask strangers to do it for me while I acted like it wasn't for me (or else cabs would assume I couldn't fold my wheelchair to fit it in, or manage getting into the cab myself) So from my perspective the Uber/Lyft model has been life changing.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#136

Post by ceras » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 12:57 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #119

godzillabrennus wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree about that in Chicago. Can companies often claim their meters are down or go the "long way" to jack up the fare. Uber and Lyft have justly eaten up the market here.

How do you "go the long way" in a city with a strict street grid?

Blatantly, hoping that the riders aren't paying attention. I took an Uber in NYC that tried this: while driving toward my location that was only 5 more blocks away on the same street, he turned right, then left, then left, then right (back onto the original street). He only did the first left turn after going off-course because I demanded it--I'm sure he would've taken his sweet time if I hadn't.

To balance the anecdotes: I once took a yellow cab to an NYC airport, and in the middle of the highway (didn't even pull off to a shoulder) the cab driver stopped his car because his English wasn't good enough to read the signs. He just kept asking me "left? right?" as cars blew past him at 45+ mph, honking their horns.

I wish yellow cabs had a rating system so I could've given that driver 1-star like I did the Uber driver.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#137

Post by thrownaway2424 » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 1:03 AM UTC

Grishnakh wrote: post #4

Too bad, so sad... If they hadn't allowed their service to get so horrible, with nasty old cars, drivers that don't speak English and drive around in circles to increase fares, drivers claiming their card readers are "broken" so you have to pay cash, taking an hour to show up when called, passing by black people, etc., then this wouldn't be happening. From the article: "Cab drivers, on the other hand, maintain that t…

I took an Uber just yesterday where the guy showed up way after the estimated time, in a junky car, didn't speak English, and couldn't even follow the maps prompts that were coming out of his phone in Chinese. The only difference is on Uber I can give that guy feedback, whereas with cab drivers that's a tedious bureaucratic process that nobody pursues.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#138

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 1:05 AM UTC

rhino369 wrote: post #116

bstanfield wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You Uber to work every day? Isn't that terribly expensive?

I'm only 4 miles, so the trip costs about 9 bucks each way. I don't have a second car and even if I did, my office charges 300 (pre tax so really less) to park. And if I'm forced to stay late, I can expense the ride home. So I'm pretty sure it's cheaper than driving myself. But I could do public transit for around 2.50 each way. But adding about 15-20 minutes transit time. What I really should do is bike to work. It'…

[deleted]

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#139

Post by Johnny555 » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 1:05 AM UTC

jurassic wrote: post #131

rhino369 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm only 4 miles, so the trip costs about 9 bucks each way. I don't have a second car and even if I did, my office charges 300 (pre tax so really less) to park. And if I'm forced to stay late, I can expense the ride home. So I'm pretty sure it's cheaper than driving myself. But I could do public transit for around 2.50 each way. But adding about 15-20 minutes transit time. What I really should do is bike to work. It'…

I bike commute 8-9 months of the year, but currently am ubering both ways during this wet El Niño winter we are having as I live without a car. I estimate my Ubers this year will work out to around ($20/day for uber * ~60 winter work days) = $1200 Most people with modest vehicles will see a total cost of car ownership costing them somewhere in the $5-10k/year range. So I could double or triple my already heavy relian…

I'm assuming you're in the SF Bay Area -- there have only been a handful of days when I've had to break out the rain gear so far this season (today was one of them). Maybe 5 days max.

If a person is willing to bike to work when it's dry in the morning (even if it might rain on the way home) there's probably only around 20 - 30 days when they'd need Uber, so that'd cut the Uber expenses by 1/3 to 1/2.

Re: SF Yellow Cab to file for bankruptcy

#140

Post by tptacek » Thu, Jan 07, 2016, 1:07 AM UTC

godzillabrennus wrote: post #115

rayiner wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber is sometimes more convenient and sometimes not. Downtown Chicago, NYC, or DC, it's more convenient hail the cab already driving by you. In the burbs Uber is more convenient. From Union Station in DC I take Uber, even though the cab line is way more convenient. It's about 40% cheaper accounting for no tip. Silicom Valley subsidizes my morning commute!

Disagree about that in Chicago. Can companies often claim their meters are down or go the "long way" to jack up the fare. Uber and Lyft have justly eaten up the market here.

I've never had a cab go the long way. Maybe I have a Chicago accent.

I do regularly get cabs who say their card reader is down, at which point I just say "you are required to accept credit cards", and they always back down. I agree though that this is a reason to use Uber.