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New Yorkers Can Now Get Unlimited UberPool in Manhattan for $200

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Re: New Yorkers Can Now Get Unlimited UberPool in Manhattan for $200

#101

Post by Tiktaalik »

aub3bhat wrote: post #55
Tiktaalik wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm deeply skeptical about the viability of these sort of car sharing networks (autonomously driven or otherwise) for this reason. This doesn't scale when everyone is trying to use the service and the street capacity for cars is fixed.

NO that's not how it works, in fact the street capacity of cars being fixed is the very reason why car sharing networks are awesome, otherwise you are stuck in current situation where each individual has his/her own car leading to traffic and congestion.

There's a decrease in traffic from car sharing from what you state, moving from a single individual in a car to several in a car, however the overall capacity of the road remains fixed. If car sharing networks become popular in comparison to public transit, then the amount of cars will increase and this will eventually come in conflict with the physical limits of the road network.

Re: New Yorkers Can Now Get Unlimited UberPool in Manhattan for $200

#102

Post by Tiktaalik »

mason55 wrote: post #58
Tiktaalik wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm deeply skeptical about the viability of these sort of car sharing networks (autonomously driven or otherwise) for this reason. This doesn't scale when everyone is trying to use the service and the street capacity for cars is fixed.

I think the idea is that if all cars are automated then the street capacity grows. Imagine if all the cars on the road are talking to each other with swarming algorithms. Now you don't need stop lights, you don't have people cutting each other off, you don't have gridlock, you have seamless merging. You can also have the cars intelligently route around congestion to balance flow (similar to what Waze does only much m…

I get this idea but the gains from this sort of "perfect drivers" scenario are pretty fuzzy.

Maybe the biggest gains for this concept would be on the highway, but in a city with pedestrians and cyclists, where there certainly does need to be stop lights, and much, much more cautious automated drivers, I'm skeptical the effect would be large.

Re: New Yorkers Can Now Get Unlimited UberPool in Manhattan for $200

#103

Post by lloyd-christmas »

aub3bhat wrote: post #55
Tiktaalik wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm deeply skeptical about the viability of these sort of car sharing networks (autonomously driven or otherwise) for this reason. This doesn't scale when everyone is trying to use the service and the street capacity for cars is fixed.

NO that's not how it works, in fact the street capacity of cars being fixed is the very reason why car sharing networks are awesome, otherwise you are stuck in current situation where each individual has his/her own car leading to traffic and congestion.

> otherwise you are stuck in current situation where each individual has his/her own car leading to traffic and congestion.

This is a terrible assumption. The deal being offered is Manhattan -> Manhattan, and only below 125th street. That's a population of ~1m people[0], which doesn't even factor in age demographics. There are 1.6m commuters into manhattan each day and only 225k cars registered in manhattan[1]. Only 30% of employees in manhattan live in manhattan[2]. Basically, the share of people using uberpool will almost exclusively come from pre-existing public transportation.

[0] https://dmv.ny.gov/statistic/2015reginforce-web.pdf

[1] https://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/cancer/registry/appendi...

[2] http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/commuting/index...

Re: New Yorkers Can Now Get Unlimited UberPool in Manhattan for $200

#104

Post by ixtli »

bpicolo wrote: post #74
kdamken wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, uberpool is terrible. Can easily make a 20 minute ride 60 minutes depending on how many other fares they pick up/drop off on the way. I took one into the city once to try it out. Normally a 20 minute drive, we stopped and picked up 2 other fares. They both got dropped off before me (which is insane), and it ended up taking over an hour. The worst part? The drive told me that if we dropped off one and another ca…

Been very good in my experience for going from San Francisco -> East Bay.

I have used uber and lyft in many cities and been satisfied. Never once in NYC. I probably just have bad luck, but honestly in manhattan it's the same price to get a cab even at 3am and doesn't require an app or surge pricing. I've heard the same anecdotes from friends. The notable exception is going to or from other burrows. It's often cheaper to get a car from a service if there's no surge, though the green cabs are starting to compete when traveling from somewhere outside manhattan.

In general transit problems (and thus solutions) don't translate from other cities to New York or vice versa.

Re: New Yorkers Can Now Get Unlimited UberPool in Manhattan for $200

#105

Post by ixtli »

hx87 wrote: post #92
morley wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is compared to ~$2.50 a trip on the subway, which (depending on which line you're near and whether you have a transfer) could take substantially less time than a car ride. There are however some "subway deserts" -- the upper-east and lower-east sides come to mind -- whose residences would greatly benefit from skipping two long walks a day.

For people who are intolerant of heat and odor like me, avoiding overcrowded and AC-less stations in the summer alone is worth the $2.50.

This is a great point! Too bad they ran this promo right _after_ it stopped being 100+ degrees on the 4,5,6 platform at union square or I might have done it just for this reason o_o

Re: New Yorkers Can Now Get Unlimited UberPool in Manhattan for $200

#106

Post by ufo »

mason55 wrote: post #58
Tiktaalik wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm deeply skeptical about the viability of these sort of car sharing networks (autonomously driven or otherwise) for this reason. This doesn't scale when everyone is trying to use the service and the street capacity for cars is fixed.

I think the idea is that if all cars are automated then the street capacity grows. Imagine if all the cars on the road are talking to each other with swarming algorithms. Now you don't need stop lights, you don't have people cutting each other off, you don't have gridlock, you have seamless merging. You can also have the cars intelligently route around congestion to balance flow (similar to what Waze does only much m…

Even if the road capacity increases with self driving cars, I find it hard to believe that its ever going to reach the same densities as other forms of transportation. Pictures like this one[1] come to mind.

[1] http://urbanist.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83454714d69e2017d3c37d8a...

Re: New Yorkers Can Now Get Unlimited UberPool in Manhattan for $200

#107

Post by CPLX »

gaadd33 wrote: post #73
jacques_chester wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're betting on self-driving cars. My expectation is that self-driving cars will be promptly disintermediated. "Google Rides", maybe, or "Amazon Prime for People", scatter-gathering over thousands of small companies owning 1 or 2 cars. Prices will fall to the marginal return. Uber's investor fountain will run dry and they'll be stuck with the same economics as everyone else. There will be no brand loyalty once pri…

Has anyone tried a self driving car in Manhattan rush hour traffic (or similar cities)? I assume SV rush hour is more slow moving traffic/etc on expressways rather than tiny congested streets. In any case wouldn't their self driving car implementation be improved by a better mapping and navigation algorithm in dense traffic?

No.

The reason I know the answer is because there is no such thing as a self driving car.

Re: New Yorkers Can Now Get Unlimited UberPool in Manhattan for $200

#108

Post by aub3bhat »

lloyd-christmas wrote: post #103
aub3bhat wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NO that's not how it works, in fact the street capacity of cars being fixed is the very reason why car sharing networks are awesome, otherwise you are stuck in current situation where each individual has his/her own car leading to traffic and congestion.

> otherwise you are stuck in current situation where each individual has his/her own car leading to traffic and congestion. This is a terrible assumption. The deal being offered is Manhattan -> Manhattan, and only below 125th street. That's a population of ~1m people[0], which doesn't even factor in age demographics. There are 1.6m commuters into manhattan each day and only 225k cars registered in manhattan[1]. Only…

As someone who lives in Manhattan below 125th street, you could not be more wrong. What you have is transition from Cabs with single rider to Uber Pool, not Subway to Uber Pool.

Also you are using figures of user who live "outside" Manhattan which do not at all benefit from Uber POOL.

Re: New Yorkers Can Now Get Unlimited UberPool in Manhattan for $200

#109

Post by eli »

mikeash wrote: post #93
eli wrote: post #76

They rolled a version of this out in DC months ago with a marketing campaign cleverly tied to major track work on the Metro. http://dcinno.streetwise.co/2016/07/29/uber-dc-monthly-pass-... Very reasonable price (I suspect, in fact, they lose money on it). Service is OK. I prefer to take a bus but not everyone has a convenient bus line.

They're pretty up front about losing money on it. "Uber had promised to invest $10 million in D.C. during the SafeTrack program in a mix of ways. That includes offering financial incentives for drivers while still discounting UberPool this summer in D.C. Some of the money applies to incentives for the Pool Pass as well, since otherwise drivers would not likely feel very motivated to take a $1 fare." It will be intere…

I have certainly seen it cause many more people to give Pool a try. They are (were?) doing a flat-rate $3 price with no commitment for Pool rides that start and end within a zone downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. Great deal.

Re: New Yorkers Can Now Get Unlimited UberPool in Manhattan for $200

#110

Post by qq66 »

bharris315 wrote: post #82
ixtli wrote: post #11

Before you get all excited about this, it's ONLY UberPOOL and your destination must start and end in Manhattan. So if you use this to commute for two weeks you're paying 10 (edit: obviously 100/20 = 5, it's early. leave me alone) dollars flat for a cab ride that you share and will take longer than normal because of the overhead of splitting the ride. There are certainly some people for whom this will be cost effectiv…

Refuse to read Forbes due to their aggressive stance against AdBlockers

I'm not sure they have a problem with that... They save the page serving cost and they weren't going to get revenue for it anyways.
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