I wonder if this conclusion could be further validated using other signals like drunk driving arrests or the same set of statistics in other cities.
Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving
51–60 of 383 posts
Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bitter/hating much? I know Uber is not liked, but the fact that they have done a great job at disturbing the market in a great way. (Lyft as well, but they are still a minority player) Having have to deal with NYC cabs often, when they will lock the doors and ask where you are going before letting you in, Uber is a great improvement overall. Also, a NYC taxi medallion would cost 500k to almost 750k (that's like a mor…
Have you really had that experience in NYC? I've lived in Brooklyn for 10 years and have only once had a cab refuse to drive me home.
Many times, yes.
Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving
#53The study was originally published in January. This article is being published in April. I subscribe to the Economist and I enjoy it, but I am cynical about why this is being published now, amidst significant negative publicity for Uber.
I would not be surprised if Uber hired a company to astroturf their branding after the Lyft boycotts and constant negative hits to their image.
In fact, this is exactly something I see Travis doing to "fix" the problem.
Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a strangely bitter way of looking at things. Ride sharing companies, including Uber, have brought tremendous benefits to society, and drunk driving prevention is probably at the top of the list. Uber has made the largest difference of all these companies because it has been the most aggressive in disrupting rent-seekers like taxi companies. The drivers and the general willingness of people to embrace the gig e…
Perhaps, but don't call it "sharing," because sharing is reciprocal. If it were actually sharing, you would be driving for Uber as much as the people who chauffeur you around. Call them what they are: unlicensed taxis. Also, "the general willingness of people to embrace the gig economy" is just another way of saying "many people are desperate enough to do sub-minimum-wage piecework."
Platforms should provide the opportunity to monetize your time in all sorts of ways. Ridesharing is just one example of ways people do it, and anything that adds liquidity to the overall ability to monetize time and existing capital is a good thing.
Everything else is just supply and demand. I don't see why we should stop anyone from ridesharing with the Uber platform, as long as the terms are clear enough. People are expected to think and make their own best judgments with these sorts of things, to some extent.
Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving
#55Hmm, the study [0] credits over all reduction of drunk driving accidents to Uber. If ride sharing is the source of reduction, shouldn't ride sharing in general be credited? Maybe Uber was the only ride-share available during the study though since it's data from 1989-2013. "A recent increase in the ease and availability of alternative rides for intoxicated passengers partially explains the steep decrease in alcohol-r…
It's not just about dirt cheap. You know that you're not going to get screwed by an uber driver, even if you're drunk. Can't say the same about cab drivers, who've definitely tried to pull things when they see drunk people. Not to mention the ones that'll just pass you by over and over, or won't come to your location at a certain time, or just not answer the phone. Cabs in general have been horrible.
I've been taken advantage of by Uber drivers while drunk.
That said, when I woke up the next day^Wmonth and saw the charges and the loop-de-loops they took to get me home, I complained and Uber refunded me the whole fare, which I didn't even ask for. If this was a cab and even with a credit card charge (forget about cash) I would have just written it off.
Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a strangely bitter way of looking at things. Ride sharing companies, including Uber, have brought tremendous benefits to society, and drunk driving prevention is probably at the top of the list. Uber has made the largest difference of all these companies because it has been the most aggressive in disrupting rent-seekers like taxi companies. The drivers and the general willingness of people to embrace the gig e…
Incorrect. Independent contractors cheerfully 'sharing' their vehicles have made 100% of the difference; Uber does not employ anyone to drive anywhere. The number of drunks driven home by Uber employees is ~0. Thanks independent contractors!
This is disingenuous at best.
Before Uber, how many of those "independent contractors" were in the market?
It's fair to criticize Uber's aggressive and shady practices, it's also fair to acknowledge the enormous changes that it has brought about to the transportation landscape.
Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving
#57I wonder if this conclusion could be further validated using other signals like drunk driving arrests or the same set of statistics in other cities.
Economists like to use natural experiments—when comparable populations are exposed to different conditions through policy or chance. It would be interesting to compare Austin (no Lyft/Uber) to a similar city in the vacuum between the locally-grown solutions coming in and U/L leaving. I'm not sure how robust the findings would be though.
Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving
#58Note that Uber was not the only taxi reform in NYC. A quote from the paper:
"For my analysis, I use data from collisions that occurred from January 2007 through
July 2013. This period includes Uber’s entrance into the New York market in May 2011, allows
for a substantial pre-intervention period, and omits two potentially confounding entrances in the
New York City transportation market that could influence the alcohol-related collision rate. The
first entrance occurred in August 2013 as New York City introduced a new form of taxi
medallion to serve only the “outer boroughs” of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, and
northern Manhattan. These “boro” taxis were painted green rather than the typical yellow
medallion taxis, and banned from picking up in lower Manhattan, where most street-hail yellow
taxi rides originate."
Note also that Uber in NYC is operated by TLC-licensed drivers against whom it is very easy to file a complaint for dangerous driving, which is different from many other cities. I used NYC's lovely 311 app to file a complaint against just such a driver for shouting at me after he drove at me head-on in a 2-way bike lane. I expect he'll face a significant fine.
Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a strangely bitter way of looking at things. Ride sharing companies, including Uber, have brought tremendous benefits to society, and drunk driving prevention is probably at the top of the list. Uber has made the largest difference of all these companies because it has been the most aggressive in disrupting rent-seekers like taxi companies. The drivers and the general willingness of people to embrace the gig e…
Perhaps, but don't call it "sharing," because sharing is reciprocal. If it were actually sharing, you would be driving for Uber as much as the people who chauffeur you around. Call them what they are: unlicensed taxis. Also, "the general willingness of people to embrace the gig economy" is just another way of saying "many people are desperate enough to do sub-minimum-wage piecework."
> because sharing is reciprocal.
This didn't sound right so I looked it up[0]
No mention of it being reciprocal - which makes sense for almost every use of "sharing" I can think of
When I share my sandwich I'm not receiving any other sandwich from anybody else (perhaps if I was I'd share more often)
Anyway, its not easy to defend Uber and I don't want to be labeled that way - since I've boycotted the service more than once, but some of the arguments in this thread on this page seem really petty
Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving
#60Note that Uber was not the only taxi reform in NYC. A quote from the paper: "For my analysis, I use data from collisions that occurred from January 2007 through July 2013. This period includes Uber’s entrance into the New York market in May 2011, allows for a substantial pre-intervention period, and omits two potentially confounding entrances in the New York City transportation market that could influence the alcohol…
i can only offer anecdotal evidence but from my experience, uber is much more popular in the outer boroughs than the new green cabs. in addition, up until late 2016, you could hail a green cab via Uber via their taxi mode.
i think Uber is mostly responsible for this trend precisely because they compete with yellow/green taxi's and continously drive down prices. lower prices for consumers mean its an easy decision to choose an Uber vs drive yourself when drunk.