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

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

#141

Post by Tushon »

batbomb wrote: post #120
nemothekid wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using my Passport (card) and that was convenient, however I lost my wallet recently - I've been using my Passport, but if I were to lose that, then I'd be a bit more worried. As far as carding goes, it depends on the establishment. Most bars I go to, don't card, but when they do it's a situation that can mess up your night.

You could get a passport card too, it's only $55.

OP: >I've been using my Passport (card) and that was convenient, however I lost my wallet recently

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

#142

Post by bob_theslob646 »

fyfy18 wrote: post #138
bungie4 wrote: post #109

Living in a small northern Ontario town, I wish we had Lyft or Uber here. Instead, just taxi's (or family) and public transport. Our public transport is based on a center hub topology with the hub being downtown. So if my kid wants to take the bus to work, about kilometer away, it takes 45 minutes half of which is in the wrong direction and involves at least one transfer. Oddly, it takes even longer to get home. Our…

If it’s only a kilometre why not walk? That’s 15 minutes for the average person.

Would you want to walk in below freezing weather?

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

#143

Post by cozzyd »

y2bd wrote: post #28
brndnmtthws wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Move to a different city.

What are some cities with decent enough public transportation and urban planning for pedestrians that also don’t suffer from lack of housing/exhorbitant housing prices? The top cities I can think of that satisfy the former unfortunately also have the latter.

In the US, Chicago, Philadelphia and possibly Baltimore.

In other countries, many many more cities.

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

#144

Post by fpgaminer »

jorblumesea wrote: post #130
panda888888 wrote: post #103

It's part of the reason I haven't bought a car. I'm in my mid 20s and didn't get my license in high school because insurance would have been too expensive (my parents wanted me to pay for it). I think driving is a good life skill so I got my license in my early 20s, but I still have zero desire to own a car. That said, I live in Seattle, where there is good public transportation. Here are my numbers: Parking (I work…

I think it really depends on your lifestyle. I love to hike, snowshoe and ski. Public transit to Snoqualmie doesn't exist and lyfts would be incredibly expensive, if they would even take you there. Not even factoring in lugging heavy equipment around. If you stay in the city almost all the time it's probably great. The minute you want to do something outside of the city it's impossible without a car.

Rent a car for the weekend? It's like $50/day, so only $3k/yr to do it once a day per week. (Not factoring in the added cost of gas, or the discounts you can get by regularly renting a car and getting your own non-owner insurance)

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

#145

Post by jorblumesea »

fpgaminer wrote: post #144
jorblumesea wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it really depends on your lifestyle. I love to hike, snowshoe and ski. Public transit to Snoqualmie doesn't exist and lyfts would be incredibly expensive, if they would even take you there. Not even factoring in lugging heavy equipment around. If you stay in the city almost all the time it's probably great. The minute you want to do something outside of the city it's impossible without a car.

Rent a car for the weekend? It's like $50/day, so only $3k/yr to do it once a day per week. (Not factoring in the added cost of gas, or the discounts you can get by regularly renting a car and getting your own non-owner insurance)

I would never want to bring a rental car into a snow covered pass or an icy parking lot. Too much liability. Good suggestion, probably good for a day hike or otherwise.

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

#146

Post by burlesona »

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 don't think people are typically making a spreadsheet and plotting out whether or not this is really cheaper or more expensive. What's happening is either:

a) They don't have a car (or a second car) currently, they spend $X/mo on Uber, and they don't think that they could get a car they'd want to drive and/or park and/or deal with for that same amount of money.

OR

b) They know that they have a car sitting in their driveway / street / etc. and they're currently spending $X per month on it to mostly sit there idle, and they're pretty sure that they'd save money not using it, so they try a month of just Uber and sure enough, it cost them less than the idling car (or they just liked it better, whatever).

People think a lot about yuppies in the city as the Uber crowd, but in my experience Uber / Lyft is far more impactful on families. Instead of needing 1 car per adult to function, you may need only 1 car per household, or maybe 2 cars for a family with kids in high school (as compared to what we used to call the "used car lot" in front of all the High School kids houses back when I was growing up in the burbs).

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

#147

Post by MrQuincle »

brndnmtthws wrote: post #20

Automobile ownership is dumb, but ridesharing isn't the answer either. Cities need to invest in public infrastructure, especially fast efficient public transit. People should also rediscover the joy of human power (walk, bike, run).

Have a license, but never owned a car (close to 40 yrs old). And although I use Lyft extensively now I'm visiting the US for a few weeks, I'll never be able to rely only on ride sharing in the Netherlands from a cost perspective (and I love riding a train compared to a car). Good public transport is essential indeed.

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

#148

Post by ghaff »

garethsprice wrote: post #101
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…

Living in cities changes the equation. My insurance (younger driver, no history) was about $250/mo ($3k/year), car payments (again, young with no capital & no credit history) were $300/mo ($3600/year) for a modest Hyundai. Average cost for private NYC parking is $430/mo(!) or probably about half that in rent premium if you rent a (very rare) building with parking, but realistically you're parking on the street - a so…

I'm sure. NYC (the densest parts anyway) is pretty much the canonical example of a place where it doesn't make sense to own a car. Many people still do but, as you say, the costs are high, transit is pretty good, taxis were ubiquitous even before Uber, and [Urgg EDIT: few] people are heading out of the city every weekend by car.

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

#149

Post by nostrademons »

panda888888 wrote: post #103

It's part of the reason I haven't bought a car. I'm in my mid 20s and didn't get my license in high school because insurance would have been too expensive (my parents wanted me to pay for it). I think driving is a good life skill so I got my license in my early 20s, but I still have zero desire to own a car. That said, I live in Seattle, where there is good public transportation. Here are my numbers: Parking (I work…

Really shows how much subsidized parking can affect the equation. I've never had to pay for parking at my residence, and the only time I had to pay for parking was a 20-month stint working in downtown Boston. Cut those out and costs go down by $4500/year, over half. I spent about $25/month on gas (for most of my career, I've worked either 2 miles away from home or 20 feet away). Insurance has consistently been about $1000/year. Maintenance was at basically zero for many years, but now that my car is 9 years old $1000/year is about right. Including the amortized cost of the car (which was $16,700 OTD new), I've spent maybe $3000/year on it. That's a generous estimate - the car still has some resale value (though I intend to run it into the ground), so it may be even less.

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

#150

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

Not sure why so many people here are almost virtue signaling the act of not owning a drivers license.

I agree—It's perfectly okay to not own a car if it doesn't make sense to your life situation.

That being said, the ability to drive is nevertheless a useful skill and asset and at least in the United States, does not have a very high barrier to entry (for better or worse).

There is so much in the United States that a car gives you access to (most National Parks or wilderness in general are not accessible by public transport). And I don't see human-driven cars disappearing from our world for the next 20–30 years at least.

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