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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

#331

Post by throwwwwaway9 »

bluedino wrote: post #151
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.

>> 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?

>>What do kids who don't have any money do for a ride?

Not take an Uber, but then cars cost money too, a lot of it.

Even if you do not drive regularly, insurance,registration and parking must be paid.

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

#332

Post by s0rce »

phil21 wrote: post #279
ghaff wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Best thing you can do to reduce your environmental impact is probably to kill yourself, or if you are not morally against it, probably kill as many people as you can. Baring this, you could just sit around and do nothing all the time. This isn't very fulfilling. Some people, myself included, want to enjoy the mountains and driving to them, while maybe not ideal, is the only way at the moment and for some can be worth the environmental cost.

I'd wager the best thing you can do for the mountains is to rally for their future protection and educate the public on the importance of saving our public lands.

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

#333

Post by s0rce »

bob_theslob646 wrote: post #142
fyfy18 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Sure, I walked 30min everyday to grad school in Chicago weather. Unless it was pouring rain (ie. not freezing) then I would occasionally take the bus part of the way.

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

#334

Post by usaphp »

cannonedhamster wrote: post #315
usaphp wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With a 5 mile commute, public transit 3 days a week plus Uber/Lyft 4 days a week is cheaper, hands down. Uber/Lyft 7 days a week cuts it closer but is still cheaper. But you also have to go to grocery store, go out with friends, do errands which most of the time are scattered across the city, it can take multiple rides per day as well. Also if you have kids you should add dropping them to school and other stuff. So…

I walked 5 miles or more when I lived in the city (Boston). If Seattle has any of the amenities of Boston there's a grocery store within walking distance. I always took the T (subway) everywhere. I can't imagine paying for someone to drive me places in the city, it was just never needed even for things like you're talking about.

It's kind of hard to walk with your hands full of grocery bags if you are shopping for a family of 3+ especially in the winter.

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

#335

Post by usaphp »

megy wrote: post #322
usaphp wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With a 5 mile commute, public transit 3 days a week plus Uber/Lyft 4 days a week is cheaper, hands down. Uber/Lyft 7 days a week cuts it closer but is still cheaper. But you also have to go to grocery store, go out with friends, do errands which most of the time are scattered across the city, it can take multiple rides per day as well. Also if you have kids you should add dropping them to school and other stuff. So…

I do all of that on a bike (well, not the kid stuff). It is not like it is impossible to live without a car.

In the winter too? I thought we were not talking about what's possible and what's not, I thought op was talking about equal convenience for him of owning a car vs using uber/lyft.

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

#336

Post by dashundchen »

megy wrote: post #325
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?

Cycle. It is free once you have a bike, and they can be had very cheap.

Plus it extends the usefulness of transit and working around schedules/connecting endpoints with stops, is great for health and fitness, and in many areas there's decent diverse social scenebuilt around different types of cycling. No better way to know your city.

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

#337

Post by NKZZ »

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…

> it's a heck more convenient to have a car when you are regularly going to costco, ikea, trying out a new local bakery or restaurant,

The idea of going to physical stores to browse articles has become mind numbing to me. 'Regularly going to costco, ikea' when I can just order on amazon, get ikea to deliver to my home, get non-perishable/fresh food online from supermarkets that do home deliveries, have 5 bakeries that I can get to in 5 minutes of bicycling and more restaurants than I could care for (European cities are nice like that).

> We could still do many of those things when we didn't have a car, but it's far more boring

Maybe for you.

> far more exhausting

Getting things delivered to your home is far less exhausting than going through the mad labyrinth of Ikea that was built to keep you in the store for the longest time possible. Just the thought of having to find the exit again makes me feel hypertension.

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

#338

Post by dashundchen »

fullshark wrote: post #288
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's not a virtue signal so much as a status signal. Having enough money to afford to live in densely populated urban areas where you don't need a car to live is a status symbol.

That's definitely not true. I live in a city where a third of households are carless, believe me, with the neglected state of transit and pedestrian infrastructure, it's not a choice for most. I wouldn't hesitate to say that's the case in almost every American city outside NYC.

But we should be talking about designing our society around more bikes, transit and walking.

Transportation should be accessible to everyone - those too young for a license, too handicapped to walk or drive, those unable to afford a car.

I think our health, environment, liviability and community would all be done a great service by demphasizing the single passenger car and it's accessories (sprawl, acres of parking, endless noise, pollution and isolated commutes)

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

#339

Post by TheCoelacanth »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #172
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…

Miles driven x .545 would be a simpler way to calculate the costs of driving. It is the reimbursement rate the IRS uses, and is supposed to be all-inclusive to the car itself. This number is continuously updated, and there is a high incentive to keep it as accurate as possible for most people.[1] [1] https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/standard-mileage-rates-for-2018...

That's an average, though. It varies considerably depending on many factors. Generally speaking, the less that you drive, the higher the per mile cost will be because there are fewer miles to amortize the fixed costs over.

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

#340

Post by theflork »

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?

Lyft has a car-seat option
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