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Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

economist.com

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Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#131

Post by Kiro »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #105
metafunctor wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has always amazed me how casually people drink and drive in some countries; the US especially springs to mind. Over here, drinking and driving is an extremely shameful and embarrassing thing to do. I would say it's on par with hitting a child. You just don't do it, not to save 20 bucks, or to save you from walking an hour.

It isn't that, the cab rides are never just $20, and often there are no cabs at all. The USA just has crappy non car transportation options. And it isn't just an hour walk in many places, but a few hours walk on dark streets with no side walks. When I was living in the Deep South, I sometimes had to take people home 20+ miles out in the middle of nowhere.

Still no excuse.

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#132

Post by jack9 »

metafunctor wrote: post #92
jhpaul wrote: post #65

Based on personal experiences this isn't surprising. When I was in college in a small town in the late 00's, many friends and acquaintances would drive across town after heavy drinking. 10-15 minutes, straight roads, little traffic. Other than not going out, or not getting home, you didn't have many options. It was a hour long walk or a $20-40 cab ride, if you could get one. I was recently back in town for a wedding…

It has always amazed me how casually people drink and drive in some countries; the US especially springs to mind. Over here, drinking and driving is an extremely shameful and embarrassing thing to do. I would say it's on par with hitting a child. You just don't do it, not to save 20 bucks, or to save you from walking an hour.

Just south of the US border, drinking and driving is the norm. Edit: Whoops, guess I hit a nerve with an uncomfortable truth. The lax enforcement in mexico, is just something industrialized people rarely think about...until you get there. But hey, argue about it on the internet and tell that to the drive-up neighborhood beer and fish taco stands from ensenada to tiajuana. I never go farther south, but I'm sure it's the same.

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#133

Post by xxs »

alkonaut wrote: post #113
jhpaul wrote: post #65

Based on personal experiences this isn't surprising. When I was in college in a small town in the late 00's, many friends and acquaintances would drive across town after heavy drinking. 10-15 minutes, straight roads, little traffic. Other than not going out, or not getting home, you didn't have many options. It was a hour long walk or a $20-40 cab ride, if you could get one. I was recently back in town for a wedding…

Pretty irresponsible of someone to drive drunk to save $20-30. I could never imagine doing that over the options (riding a bike, ignore going to the bar in the first place etc).

in some place drunk riding a bike might have similar repercussions [incl. criminal charges above certain levels].

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#134

Post by jpttsn »

Dotnaught wrote: post #3

Perhaps that should be phrased "the availability of drivers using a ride sharing platform has helped reduce drunk driving accidents." If Uber doesn't accept drivers as employees and isn't responsible for their actions, it shouldn't be credited with their collective contributions to a safer society.

That's like saying Hacker News can't be considered a nice place to discuss things, until they employ everyone who contributes to the discussion.

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#135

Post by manarth »

deftturtle wrote: post #128

How is this even up for speculation? Why is there a need to quantify this with a study? Of course it curbs drunk driving. When you have better options, they're used.

  How is this even up for speculation?
  Why is there a need to quantify this with a study?
Legislation and governance is influenced by statistics. If a City Hall meeting is discussing legislating against Uber, and a taxi commission presents a paper demonstrating that Uber will cost $X in economic loss to the commission, it behooves Uber to present a competing analysis: showing $Y savings relating to drunk driving (or whatever else they can show).

On the face of it, it seems sad that everything - even the cost of human life - is quantified.

But it is a rational argument when making trade-offs:

"This new pill is better than aspirin." "OK, let's use that instead of aspirin."

Vs

"This new pill is 0.1% better than aspirin." "How much does it cost?" "Ten times the price of aspirin." "OK, so the effect is 0.1% better, but we can only treat a tenth of the number of patients? Better stick with aspirin."

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#136

Post by zer0tonin »

xxs wrote: post #133
alkonaut wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty irresponsible of someone to drive drunk to save $20-30. I could never imagine doing that over the options (riding a bike, ignore going to the bar in the first place etc).

in some place drunk riding a bike might have similar repercussions [incl. criminal charges above certain levels].

It's harder to kill someone on a bike tho.

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#137

Post by bdhess »

techsupporter wrote: post #109
brianleb wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxis and modern ride sharing services may appear to 'offer the same product,' but they do it in different ways. The accessibility of Uber and Lyft via smart phone apps put them worlds ahead. Go back ten years. You need a taxi after leaving a social event. Your choice: bar, movie theater, wedding reception, whatever. Go stand outside in the wind/rain/snow/etc. on the corner of the intersection and hope that you aren'…

I just really, really wish that Uber and Lyft could manage to pull off this grand revolution in transportation without dumping their negative externalities all on us. Up front, I will say that this is just my experience and just what I've witnessed, but, damn, something--in my mind--about the Uber and Lyft driver platforms encourages their drivers to crap all over the public commons just for a fare. Some things I've…

I'm pretty sure I've seen traditional taxi cabs do everything in your enumerated list.

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#138

Post by developer2 »

posguy wrote: post #125
Griffinsauce wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a perfect case for autonomous cars. They don't have to be paid to wait.

Gas, wear and tear & depreciation aren't free though, these are always going to be higher cost areas to serve.

Except that you are not paying for "gas, wear and tear & depreciation" when you call a taxi. You're not even paying for the human driver. You are paying for the monopoly.

Even if calling a driverless car cost more for remote areas, it would (or at least could) still cost a fraction of the cost of a taxi. $30 instead of $120 for a long distance drive is totally reasonable.

Re: Ride-hailing apps may help to curb drunk driving

#140

Post by posguy »

mikekchar wrote: post #74
pm90 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without great public transportation, it seems rather unlikely for suburban folks to enjoy a lifestyle where you can drink downtown and safely get back home at a decent rate. Ridesharing might be cheaper for now, but I'm not sure what it will be like when the prices truly represent the market value; currently, most ridesharing companies seem to be operating at loss. The ultimate solution might come when autonomous dri…

I wish the US and Canada would relax zoning restrictions. I've spent the last decade or so in Japan and the UK and it's just so much better. Admittedly, when you are young and going out clubbing then you want access to the big city. But for quieter/older people, just having access to a decent restaurant or pub within walking distance of your house is amazing. These days my wife and I might go out to the big city mayb…

Cities could easily dezone. Most areas have only had zoning for 60 to 80 years, prior to that there was just fire & building code constraining you. What was added by zoning was height restrictions, parking minimums, building type eg. single family detached, and lot/building size minimums.

The value that zoning provides is to segregate and disenfranchise the bulk of the populace, while spreading them out during the Cold War so as to make the US more resilient towards bombings supposedly. This is the same culture that thought sidewalks were bad.

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