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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

#361

Post by IanCal »

rimantas wrote: post #308
celticninja wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Depends where you are but some cities easily have the density suggested there.

> 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 cyclis

More than a car? I've certainly not been given more space when people overtake me. Remember a car is 6 feet wide, that's quite a bit of space already that's taken up by a car.

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

#362

Post by kakarot »

foxfired wrote: post #127

Here is how I see it. I rely on those rides to go to work every single day and here what it (would) costs me. Uber: $250 a month.(Majority) Lyft: $500 a month (Whenever Uber is too expensive) Bus : $100 a month (1h:15 for 6 miles and 3 buses... No) Politics and all internal conflicts aside, there is a need for these services whether we like it or not. When I need to make a decision in the morning I take whatever is t…

I think Uber knows the answer, and that's why from the beginning they have had the ambition of creating an autonomous workforce.

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

#363

Post by Karunamon »

subpixel wrote: post #345
wcummings wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>"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 is why the (Boston) red line doesn't extend to Arlington.

Replace "poor" with "black" and you have the reason public transportation has been suppressed in large parts of the US. When I lived in Atlanta a suburban city official explained that "we all know the sort of people who hang around bus stops" while killing plans to expand bus service.

I'm sorry but that official's statement does not even kinda imply race. Like it or not, bus stops and train stations accessible by everyone are hotbeds of panhandling, pickpockets, and sometimes worse. An area where people just pass through on their way to somewhere else far away, distracted and in a hurry, is a great place for criminal behavior.

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

#364

Post by TheArcane »

Insanity wrote: post #322
TheArcane wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

€30 in my city for unlimited bus travel for a month.

Similar here, about 30euro per month for unlimited bus travel, but not just inside my city, it's for an area covering about half the country. (Bus- and tram lines)

Buzzypass?

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

#365

Post by CalRobert »

rimantas wrote: post #309
CalRobert wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

.... 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.

Bicycles and Land Rovers are both operated on the street. Humans are on the street as well, with varying degrees of protection. I often use the street while mounted on a bicycle. If my skull is crushed by a Land Rover's tire that will be a markedly different experience from my skull being hit by a bicycle tire.

Please elaborate; I don't really understand what you mean.

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

#366

Post by CalRobert »

kobeya wrote: post #279
jsemrau wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

European cities are not smaller in terms of population or services offered. It's just European cities are better planned compared to most American cities. This whole "suburban" lifestyle .....

Some people like suburbia.

Some people like helicopters too; that doesn't mean cities should require all houses to have helipads.

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

#367

Post by macNchz »

humanrebar wrote: post #311
jhuckestein wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, the user experience of Uber, Lyft et al is strictly better than public transport. Some would even say it is 10x better (in the From Zero to One sense). It picks you up whenever you want, wherever you want and drops you off exactly where you need to go. I agree that buses are more ecological, but doesn't this just mean that we should combine Uber and public transport? In the future I see a fleet of large…

> In the future I see a fleet of larger vehicles combined with a Uber Pool type app working really well. This already exists. Or it existed anyway. NYC used to have "Chinatown buses" that ran underserved routes for a fraction of the price. NYC and the MTA prosecuted them and got rid of them. Furthermore, innovation and competition in busing is great in Latin America. But we're waiting on regulations to change, not fo…

'Dollar vans' are still very much a thing in NYC, you'll see them often if you know what to look for: http://projects.newyorker.com/story/nyc-dollar-vans/

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

#368

Post by CalRobert »

rimantas wrote: post #308
celticninja wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I can assure you most drivers don't concern themselves with providing huge safety margins.

Also, when you have a decent number of cyclists and congested roads they often do travel in packs. See here for an example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-4ynw8672A

or here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhuxmiNsHmA

The city in these videos has many cyclists (and one of the most successful bike-share schemes in the world), but rather scandalously provides very little bike infrastructure and even less enforcement (bike lanes are generally used for parking).

Finally, you might wish to note that one generally refers to "riding" a bike in English, rather than "driving". The same goes for motorcycles in most contexts. This is different from some other languages, such as German, where the same word is used for operating all of those conveyances.

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

#369

Post by fernandotakai »

Fomite wrote: post #118
dawnerd wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel Uber does a (slightly) better job vetting their drivers. I've had a few very questionable rides with Lyft. Most drivers are great but I've had more bad drivers on lyft.

I've had more poor, "I'm in a taxi cab in all but name" drives on Uber.

feels like it's city based. i definitely had bad rides on uber in nyc but only had great ones in sf.

in my own town, uber is light-years ahead of taxi drivers. to the point where my parents are using uber (and they are really averse to technology)

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

#370

Post by foldr »

rys wrote: post #304
foldr wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

Well, sure, but it's less than a 2x difference relatively speaking, and it doesn't really have big implications for public transport.
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