Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017 • Hacker News Board

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#61

Post by gonehome » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:34 PM UTC

debt wrote: post #49

birdman3131 wrote: post #43

I don't get how using lyft/uber as your only form of transportation can be at all cheaper. Let me run some basic math. Uber wants $11.50 to take me home right now. Lyft wants $13.40 $11.50 * 2 = $23/day 23 * 5 = $115/week $115 * 52 weeks = $5980/year (I am ignoring vacation weeks for now.) My yearly cost for car ownership are roughly as follows. (Assuming only work and back.) Insurance(1): $886/year Fuel(2): $292.50…

Maintenance is time too. So pulling over and getting gas, bringing a car in for an oil change/replacing air filter/shocks/tire realignment etc. You have to get smog checks regularly. Parking tickets, speeding tickets, street cleaning. Maybe even a parking sticker. Also, don't ever get into an accident. I think a range depending on your risk profile makes more sense. Low end would be $3178 high end might be double tha…

You don't necessarily need to buy a junker to have an inexpensive car.

You can lease a Fiat 500e for $90/month in California (which is what I do).

That has the added benefit of removing fuel costs too.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#62

Post by tgarv » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:34 PM UTC

blakesterz wrote: post #12

So there's something like 260+ million [1] vehicles registered here in 2015. That 250k number seems like an impossibly high percentage of people that have given up on owning a car because of ride sharing apps. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/183505/number-of-vehicle...

Did Lyft claim that the 250k ditched their cars _because_ of ride sharing apps? I didn't see any causality implied in the article, just the number. It's like saying 250k Lyft customers quit smoking last year, it's just a stat based on the user base, I don't think they were claiming to be the main cause of it.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#63

Post by jtchang » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:35 PM UTC

birdman3131 wrote: post #43

I don't get how using lyft/uber as your only form of transportation can be at all cheaper. Let me run some basic math. Uber wants $11.50 to take me home right now. Lyft wants $13.40 $11.50 * 2 = $23/day 23 * 5 = $115/week $115 * 52 weeks = $5980/year (I am ignoring vacation weeks for now.) My yearly cost for car ownership are roughly as follows. (Assuming only work and back.) Insurance(1): $886/year Fuel(2): $292.50…

Your insurance number is pretty low. Also I'd say most people don't buy $1000 cars.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#64

Post by cafard » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:35 PM UTC

birdman3131 wrote: post #43

I don't get how using lyft/uber as your only form of transportation can be at all cheaper. Let me run some basic math. Uber wants $11.50 to take me home right now. Lyft wants $13.40 $11.50 * 2 = $23/day 23 * 5 = $115/week $115 * 52 weeks = $5980/year (I am ignoring vacation weeks for now.) My yearly cost for car ownership are roughly as follows. (Assuming only work and back.) Insurance(1): $886/year Fuel(2): $292.50…

I can't park for much less than $20 in downtown Washington, DC. Now, if I had to drive, I could get monthly parking, but that seems to run $250/month on up. Maybe an employer would subsidize that, maybe not.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#65

Post by whytookay » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:36 PM UTC

birdman3131 wrote: post #43

I don't get how using lyft/uber as your only form of transportation can be at all cheaper. Let me run some basic math. Uber wants $11.50 to take me home right now. Lyft wants $13.40 $11.50 * 2 = $23/day 23 * 5 = $115/week $115 * 52 weeks = $5980/year (I am ignoring vacation weeks for now.) My yearly cost for car ownership are roughly as follows. (Assuming only work and back.) Insurance(1): $886/year Fuel(2): $292.50…

I think it depends on your parking circumstances too. I know that in the city I live in, the average monthly parking is $250 (probably higher near where I work)

Additionally, many apartments and condos in the city charge $100 per month to have a parking spot.

Right there you're increasing your car ownership costs by $4200/year.

Also, the model of buying burner cars is fine in certain circumstances, but many people aren't willing to deal with that additional overhead in car ownership.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#66

Post by shafyy » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

ajb wrote: post #37

Correlation != Causation. I moved to a city and sold my car, and shortly after used ride sharing for the first time. But I don't use it much and it certainly didn't cause me to sell it. I wouldn't be surprised of that's just how many of their customers recently moved to a city.

But then you wouldn't answer the question with "Yes" in their survey, would you?

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#67

Post by ryanianian » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #16

starik36 wrote: post #11

I think the biggest impact is going to be felt with current generations of 18 year olds. My kid (about to be 18) has no interest in getting a driver's license and neither are any of his friends. He's happy to be taking Uber and Lyft anywhere he goes. And between the cost of the vehicle and insurance, it's cheaper for me as well. When I was 16, I couldn't wait to get a car.

This is one of the few cases where I was ahead of my time. I turned 16 about 20 years ago and had 0 interest in a driver's license. I lived in an extremely rural area. My parents (rightly) said that I'd need to get a job to pay for a car. I figured why bother since I'd be paying for a car to drive to the job where I'd make money to pay for the car. Seemed like a complete waste of time and effort. 20 years later, I st…

So you're relying on friends/family to do the driving if you're outside of lyft/public-transit areas e.g. on vacation in a rental car? Not having a car is a great idea if you can get away with it - not having a license basically means you can't help out when necessary.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#68

Post by Retric » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

shafyy wrote: post #33

Retric wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's only relevant in places limited to street level parking. The general case is driving to a parking lot/garage which could make the trip shorter or longer depending on where it's located relative to your destination. You might spend more time driving in a garage, but that does not impact street level congestion compared to all those extra Miles drivers add going to pick you up. As to density, cars parked in a ga…

Do you have any data on street level vs fixed garage parking? Owning fewer vehicles also frees up space on street level...

It depends on the city. However, for places like NYC unassigned street level parking is a tiny fraction of overall parking.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#69

Post by yardie » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

birdman3131 wrote: post #43

I don't get how using lyft/uber as your only form of transportation can be at all cheaper. Let me run some basic math. Uber wants $11.50 to take me home right now. Lyft wants $13.40 $11.50 * 2 = $23/day 23 * 5 = $115/week $115 * 52 weeks = $5980/year (I am ignoring vacation weeks for now.) My yearly cost for car ownership are roughly as follows. (Assuming only work and back.) Insurance(1): $886/year Fuel(2): $292.50…

Because of uninsured/underinsured drivers in my city insurance is one of the highest in the country. $250/mo is the avg quote I got. That's down from $280/mo after the first year because I haven't had insurance for years.

The only cars I see in that 500-1k range have basically been worn to pieces, smell of cigarettes, smell of mildew, or the suspension is completely bottomed out.

Re: Lyft says nearly 250K of its passengers ditched a personal car in 2017

#70

Post by dguaraglia » Tue, Jan 16, 2018, 8:38 PM UTC

birdman3131 wrote: post #43

I don't get how using lyft/uber as your only form of transportation can be at all cheaper. Let me run some basic math. Uber wants $11.50 to take me home right now. Lyft wants $13.40 $11.50 * 2 = $23/day 23 * 5 = $115/week $115 * 52 weeks = $5980/year (I am ignoring vacation weeks for now.) My yearly cost for car ownership are roughly as follows. (Assuming only work and back.) Insurance(1): $886/year Fuel(2): $292.50…

Overnight parking in San Francisco, for most people renting: ~$200 a month (last time I checked was closer to $250, so who knows what's up to now.)

Daily parking in San Francisco (if, say, you have to park at work): ~$20 a day, although you might get some tax benefits on this.

Annoyance of finding a parking spot anywhere in San Francisco at any of the times you might want to use the car to meet friends (lunch, dinner, weekends): very, very high. Annoyance of not being able to drink more than one drink: varies by person.

So, YMMV. If you live and work in a heavily car-based city (say Minneapolis) then using Lyft or Uber won't make much sense. If you live in a metropolis with decent public or company provided transportation for commuting, then it's cheaper to use Lyft for going out and getting the occasional ZipCar or Thrifty whenever you travel for the weekend.