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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

#271

Post by goialoq »

gnarbarian wrote: post #220
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…

Sounds like the real expensive thing is living in Seattle.

Coincidentally, that's also where the jobs that pay for expensive living are.

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

#272

Post by gopalv »

j2bax wrote: post #191
ihaveajob wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We do have a car and a toddler. The car sits idle most days, maybe once a week we get on it to go somewhere where it's inconvenient by bike or transit. For his first year we didn't have a car. This is in SF and Berkeley. A lot of people, even those with kids, could perfectly ditch their cars, rent occasionally and come out ahead in terms of costs (and lifestyle).

One thing I've wondered is how people deal with car seats with Uber/Lyft/Taxi's. Do they carry their own with them and take the time to install it and uninstall it? Do you just take the bus and not worry about a car seat?

> Do they carry their own with them and take the time to install it and uninstall it?

Yeah, it is possible to do this without much effort, if the car-seat has a seatbelt strap in the base and the stroller can carry the car-seat around instead of being held in the hand.

I had no car for the first eight months, with my child in SF.

The Lyft plus generally has enough space to stow the stroller and the kid wasn't heavy enough to hurt myself by picking up the carseat with the baby in it.

However, once day-care starts, it gets pretty inconvenient to use a taxi every day.

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

#273

Post by goialoq »

stcredzero wrote: post #122
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.

Can parents track the movements of their child through Lyft and Uber billing? If I were a caricature of Uber, I might be tempted to create an add-on subscription product that would let parents of minors track the movements of their children. The societal effect of something like this? Possibly awful. Many of today's social problems might stem from children being deprived of time being independent/autonomous. Society…

Tracking your child's movements gives the far more autonomy than locking them in the house, for parents concerned about their children's whereabouts. Outside of cases of abuse (not to be discounted), parental location tracking isn't infringing on "free-range children"

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

#274

Post by goialoq »

icebraining wrote: post #185
ryanianian wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's funny the difficulty that car owner show at understanding non-car-owners. Why would you assume that someone without a driver's license would go on vacation in a rental car in the first place? By the way, this might not be true in the US, but in other places there's usually some sort of shared transit. Even if it's not a city bus or a ride-sharing network, there's usually some person with an unofficial "taxi" tha…

Old and poor people suffer severe lifestyle degradations, the don't simply avoid the "waste" of care expenses.

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

#275

Post by romwell »

smileysteve wrote: post #233
bluedino wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> He's happy to be taking Uber and Lyft anywhere he goes. What do kids who don't have any money do for a ride?

They're certainly not driving cars; A car has high upfront costs in purchasing and insurance. High usage costs in gas, and maintenance. High volatility in maintenance and accidents. And high downtime in times to have a shop fix it correctly.

For my first car (2011), I was paid $1500 out of pocket, about $100/month in loan for 2 years, $40/month in insurance and about $80/month in gas, including out-of-town road trips and driving to airports 200 miles away.

That was pre-Uber, but last time I took an Uber in that town, it was about $10 one way for "short" distances (e.g. 4 miles to go to a grocery store - things are spread out in TX).

The car never had a high maintenance downtime (and only one fender-bender in the 7 years of ownership), and I can't account for maintenance; think it'd be under $80/month.

So we have about $300/month for car ownership, or about 10-15 Uber roundtrips/month. I'd say, there's no clear-cut conclusion here.

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

#276

Post by wpietri »

lhorie wrote: post #266
pavel_lishin wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That strongly depends on where you live. Kids don't require a car in New York, but I can't imagine living in a suburb of Dallas without one.

Lifestyle plays a part in where and how you live though. Kids may not require a car in downtown Toronto, but all the nice kid-oriented programs are uptown, where you do need a car to get around. Similarly, living in SF with two kids, I don't technically _need_ a car since MUNI coverage is decent, but we have a fast-paced lifestyle: it's a heck more convenient to have a car when you are regularly going to costco, ikea…

A tangent:

> the car becomes a "base"

This is the biggest divide I see when talking with people about future ownership of self-driving cars: will they consume it as an on-demand service, or will they own it outright?

Some are vehemently in the "I'd never own a car again" camp, and others say "I'll buy one right away". People with kids seem much more likely to say the latter. It's not just transportation, it's a mobile room of the house.

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

#277

Post by goialoq »

robrenaud wrote: post #91

> Lyft wants to make a point: Its services help lessen traffic How can this be true? They'd need a very significant fraction of riders using lyft line (the multi-passenger service) to make up for the the overhead in the driver having to travel extra distance to pick someone up.

Reducing demand for (street0 parking increases road space for moving cars.

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

#278

Post by Texasian »

ttul wrote: post #256

Counter example: I did NOT own a car until after April of this year, which is when Car2Go discontinued service in my area. We don’t have Uber or Lyft, so those were never an option. Now, out of sheer necessity, I do own a car. And it costs me $550 a month for insurance, financing, and fuel. $550 would have bought a hell of a lot of Uber rides. More than enough for my needs.

Whoa, what kinda market had Car2Go but no Uber or Lyft? Is Zipcar not an option?

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

#279

Post by phil21 »

ghaff wrote: post #169
kinkrtyavimoodh wrote: post #150

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…

It sort of blows my mind. I get that people have different interests and hobbies but the idea that people would live in San Francisco or Seattle and be "I'm fine with mostly just hanging around the city and looking at the mountains from here" is a bit hard for me to digest. And, as I said in another comment, renting a car has frequently been the obvious approach to get to places I need to get to on business trips.

> I'm fine with mostly just hanging around the city and looking at the mountains from here

That statement is very strange to me. If you really enjoy nature, I think the last possible thing you'd do is buy a car solely to go see said nature. Seems entirely wrong to me.

Best thing you can do for those mountains if you love them is not purchase a vehicle.

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

#280

Post by brianwawok »

lhorie wrote: post #247
j2bax wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing I've wondered is how people deal with car seats with Uber/Lyft/Taxi's. Do they carry their own with them and take the time to install it and uninstall it? Do you just take the bus and not worry about a car seat?

We moved cross-country and didn't have our car for a few weeks. For the few uber trips we took during that time, we just YOLO'd: had the kids (5 and 3) wear normal seatbelts, but with the chest strap going under their arms rather than over their neck. They also travelled to/from airport without car seats. In my experience, drivers are generally a _lot_ more careful when there are kids in the car, compared to, say, a…

That's cool, let's risk the kids life to save carrying around a pesky car-seat. May as well smoke with them in the car too.

* actual carseat requirements vary by state, the laws seem to be at: http://drivinglaws.aaa.com/tag/child-passenger-safety/

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