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Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

nytimes.com

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Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#301

Post by _gfrc »

biztos wrote: post #212
deusex_ wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Europe, your bus fare would be half of the price and probably you would need one or two connections. The public transport is much more developed and to me seems like a much better mass transportation alternative. More ecological, cheaper, less cars overall.

81 EUR in Berlin for the "normal" ticket (zones A+B), 100 EUR for the whole network. Discounted tickets for late sleepers. :-)

It's around 60€ if you get on a yearly plan. Compared to other cities Berlin is indeed a bit pricy, but the zones A+B are really large.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#302

Post by agumonkey »

freyr wrote: post #72
smileysteve wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The key points are - CEO never blackmailed journalists - No major revelations of sexual harassment - ~~No major revelations of political support~~ Related to core business - Surge Limit has prevented complaints about emergency pricing vs Uber. - Lyft takes a lower commission capped at 20%/25% - Lyft has in app digital tipping (drivers keep 100% of tips). Uber's tip policy encourages cash, which is an often cited comp…

> Lyft has in app digital tipping (drivers keep 100% of tips). One of the reasons I don't like Lyft. How about this system: pay the drivers a fair wage up front, so they don't need to subsist on the generosity of strangers. If they get great ratings, you can give them a bonus.

Are you European ? tipping seems to be a big habit in the U.S

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#303

Post by CalRobert »

kobeya wrote: post #276
IanCal wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They take up less space and result in less pollution and a healthier population. In what way do you think they're about the same?

I get the sense you are imagining this: https://bicycledutch.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/amsterdam.j... But the pragmatic reality is that in much of the world that has had such a bike culture, you will eventually end up with this: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QSXDqDni9VE/maxresdefault.jpg Cars, although far less dense, are objectively better than the latter case. Safer, quieter, less polluting.

"Cars, although far less dense, are objectively better than the latter case. Safer, quieter, less polluting. "

Citation desperately needed. Also, keep in mind there are different ways of defining "safe". Cars are only "safe" inasmuch as they are safer for the occupants and incredibly dangerous for everyone else around. If we considered harm to people _outside_ the car we would view them as much more dangerous (and walking, motorcycling, cycling, etc as being much safer)

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#304

Post by rys »

foldr wrote: post #245
argonaut wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas are larger in area than the London metropolitan area The NY metro area is much more populous than London, and the LA metro area is very slightly less populous.

>The NY metro area is much more populous than London, and the LA metro area is very slightly le Well, 14 million vs 20 million is not such a big difference. And the definition of metropolitan areas is somewhat arbitrary in any case.

There are numerous entire countries that have populations smaller than that 42% difference.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#305

Post by conanbatt »

Xylakant wrote: post #300
conanbatt wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet its been commonly limited or forbidden to let services like Uber operate the way they do in the US. Berlin has uber with taxis only, for example.

Taxis in Germany are regulated as part of the public transport. The state may even force Taxi companies to put more cars on the road, they are obliged by law to take on any passenger and there is a public supervision. In return, Taxis receive some benefits. Uber tried to take the benefits but not the obligations. Stuff like that doesn't fly here. That's what got them banned.

What benefits are you talking about? As a taxi your only (and important benefit) is the monopolization of your business by the local government. All the rest are plays around that.

Also, misses the point: the argument that infrastructure in europe is so much better that there is not a demand or a need for services like uber and lyft contradict the necessity of several cities to ban it. Otherwise they wouldnt have had to do anything and they would have failed.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#306

Post by ericd »

kobeya wrote: post #271
rtpg wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the right word is "denser". American cities are built for cars, so even if you take a bus somewhere you're now walking 15 minutes between buildings. This can be solved on a small scale (build "pockets" of livability), but mass transit will have a harder time surviving without other urbanization changes

> build "pockets" of livability That was a very loaded word to use. The problem is many people consider dense urban neighborhoods to be unlivable..

And many prefer it to living in the sprawl.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#307

Post by th5234 »

op00to wrote: post #297
deusex_ wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Europe, your bus fare would be half of the price and probably you would need one or two connections. The public transport is much more developed and to me seems like a much better mass transportation alternative. More ecological, cheaper, less cars overall.

"Yes, but poor people use public transportation to come from bad neighborhoods to good neighborhoods to rob us! We must ban all expansion of public transportation!" This exact sentiment is echoed by many in the US as a reason to not expand public transit. When asked about criminals driving cars to commit crimes, they were not open to bulldozing the roads over. It's gross.

The crime rates are much higher in the United States than in Europe. This website claims rape occurs at a 3 times higher rate and murder at a 6 times higher rate. I couldn't find any good statistics for robbery but I imagine it's in that range. Yes, crime has been decreasing in the United States for around a quarter of a century, but it still occurs at a much higher rate than Europe and almost an order of magnitude higher than in Asian cities with good transit like Tokyo or Shanghai.

http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/compare/Netherlands...

Whether irrational or not, any public transit paradigm has to take the realities of crime and the citizens' perceptions of crime into account if it's going to be successful. And if the crime rate was as low as it is in Europe, it might be easier to get European levels of support for public transit. This implies the need for better policing, earlier social interventions, etc.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#308

Post by rimantas »

celticninja wrote: post #248
paulddraper wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cycle the 6 miles The minority cycles. Crowded cyclists are hardly better than crowded cars.

Crowded cyclists are much denser than crowded cars. http://www.bikehub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Munster1...

That's a really shitty comparison. Unless cyclists really do drive in such packs (which they don't). In reality, the effective space taken by cyclist on genera purpose road is bigger than a car — you need a huge safety margin to overtake a cyclist, and if you cannot do that you a forced to follow them untill you can and that's really ineffective. All this does not apply to dedicated cyclist roads/lanes, of course.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#309

Post by rimantas »

CalRobert wrote: post #230
paulddraper wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cycle the 6 miles The minority cycles. Crowded cyclists are hardly better than crowded cars.

.... Perhaps you can enlighten us as to how getting hit by a bicycle is comparable to getting hit by a Land Rover?

Land Rovers do not drive on sidewalks, for a start.

Re: Lyft Is Said to Seek New Funding as Its Rival Uber Stumbles

#310

Post by erpellan »

kobeya wrote: post #276
IanCal wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They take up less space and result in less pollution and a healthier population. In what way do you think they're about the same?

I get the sense you are imagining this: https://bicycledutch.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/amsterdam.j... But the pragmatic reality is that in much of the world that has had such a bike culture, you will eventually end up with this: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QSXDqDni9VE/maxresdefault.jpg Cars, although far less dense, are objectively better than the latter case. Safer, quieter, less polluting.

Safer? Debatable. There are no cars in that picture, which represent the largest danger to moped riders.

You'd also need a road 10x wider for the same volume of traffic.

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