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Waze Carpool

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Re: Waze Carpool

#381

Post by 24gttghh »

Tarq0n wrote: post #372
jimmaswell wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You'd be destroying a culture of independence in the US punishing car drivers so much, and I don't think it would be nearly worth it. I greatly appreciate being able to just go where I want without having to be beholden to public transit schedules and share the space with a bunch of strangers, and have my own temperature controls etc. The "cost" cars have to society and how "subsidized" they are is ridiculously overb…

Gas is highly subsidized in the U.S.. Go look up European gas prices sometime. Also when referring to the full cost of cars, GPb probably means environmental (emissions) and political (oil wars) ones, not direct costs.

If by highly subsidized you mean taxed at a rate set in 1993 and not updated since, nor pinned to inflation, then yes gas[oline]/petrol is highly subsidized in the US[0]. Also fuel taxes rates in Europe are much higher[1]. You'll notice the US pays $0.46/3.78L(gallon) on average for federal+ state fuel tax, while Europe pays $1.24/L($4.69/gallon). That's an order of magnitude in higher fuel taxes.

I also think we should be taxing gasoline at rates closer to what EU states tax, to help better cover the negative societal/environmental of burning fossil fuels.

[0]https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=10&t=10

[1]https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/fuel-pric...

Re: Waze Carpool

#382

Post by quest88 »

lucb1e wrote: post #303
NotSammyHagar wrote: post #34

In Seattle or other cities where traffic congestion is such a problem, I'd take someone for free if I could drive in the carpool lanes. I can even imagine someone who could be paid for just being a body in the car by someone really well off.

Are carpool lanes that common? I've heard of their existence, but I'm not sure I've ever seen one anywhere (Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France or Finland, that is). And how are they enforced?

They're common on highways in large cities in the US.

They're supposed to be enforced through police. They'll give you a ticket if your caught not riding with enough people in the car.

The police rarely monitor it in the bay area, in my experience. Many people they don't meet the requirements ride in it anyway.

Re: Waze Carpool

#383

Post by cornholio »

jacquesm wrote: post #266
cornholio wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same thing that happens in the non-Waze case: you kick them out, call the police, get mugged etc. The pure software world exists from Google's perspective, they provide zero support and then it's just a matter of individual choice if you want to use the service or not. Google can go a long way into making this significantly safer than random pick-up: you can select female only drivers or riders, only riders from…

> The same thing that happens in the non-Waze case: you kick them out, call the police, get mugged etc. If you shift a large enough volume of traffic into that mode of transportation and externalize 'support' to emergency services then you are taking a free ride on a scarce resource. At a minimum there should be a first tier of support within the company offering the service, if only to serve as a mechanism to immedi…

That's only true if the service is likely to induce behavior that require such intervention - otherwise it's absolutely ok, for example, to call a public ambulance when a taxi customer gets sick, as oposed to arranging private insurance for your customers.

There is no proof ridesharing would induce criminality, quite the contrary, it's a much safer alternative to random hitchhiking.

Re: Waze Carpool

#384

Post by naasking »

cornholio wrote: post #95
pron wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The same thing that happens in the non-Waze case: you kick them out, call the police, get mugged etc. It's not so simple. Normally people, at least in cities, rarely hitchhike or take up hitchhikers. The goal here is to make it acceptable, and naturally greatly increase the frequency this is happening. This can be reasonably taken as an endorsement by Google to the driver/passenger, because it is -- they want this…

You are pushing the argument a bit by assuming that people will treat it as something different than hitchhiking simply because it's via an app and in-city. There is no reason to asume that - but I do agree that false advertising from Google and failure to properly inform the users of the risks could expose Google to such a liability. The answer is not to add customer support, but to be honest with the users regardin…

> There is no reason to asume that

Sure there is, the main one being a public reputation for your prospective hitchhiker that you can check before deciding to pick them up.

Re: Waze Carpool

#385

Post by patelbhavesh »

jsadow wrote: post #319

This is a really great discussion on carpooling and our team is stoked to see it. At Scoop ( https://www.takescoop.com ), we've been working to make carpooling convenient and enjoyable since early 2015. We love seeing more (and bigger!) companies prioritize tackling the problems commuters face getting to work every day. We're really passionate about some of the topics that have come up in this thread. Our ScoopCare t…

I have been a happy Scoop/waze customer for sometime.I also run a 70 people non-profit vanpool for my employer in SF bay area and we supplement Scoop/Waze for timings when our vans do not operate.

Scoop seems to be a very humane company in the sense that rather then focusing ONLY on algorithms they have spend the time to build human partnerships.

Examples of what I mean is the following 1>They contacted lawyers to ensure non-immigrant populations[lots in bay area] do not get into trouble https://blog.takescoop.com/making-scoop-accessible-for-all-6...

2>They worked with Bart to ensure scoop users get dedicated parking https://blog.takescoop.com/carpool-to-bart-59d8555e79a2

3>Partnership with commute.org to fairly distribute the $1 million grant https://blog.takescoop.com/scoop-partners-with-the-carpool-i...

Disclaimer : I have no relationship whatsoever to Scoop.I just like appreciating companies when they are trying to do the right think and thinking differently to solve difficult problems.

Best of luck to the scoop team.keep up the good work

Re: Waze Carpool

#386

Post by patelbhavesh »

jsadow wrote: post #321
joncrane wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing Scoop.

Thanks for the shout joncrane :)

I apologize for missing scoop, even though I am regular user of it.

To add to the list and hopefully make it more complete

Scoop : http://takescoop.com

Lyft Shuttle[In beta] : http://lyft.com/shuttle

Uber ExpressPool : https://www.uber.com/ride/express-pool/

I think the ridesharing businesses are making a real difference in optimizing cars usage and helping the environment in the process.

Re: Waze Carpool

#387

Post by commuter »

I can speak from my own experience, I've been using Scoop for like 5mo now, it's very good in matching. I live in Bay Area and 25mi commute could be 40-90min.

I tried Waze Carpool many times until I finally gave up - they tend to offer ridiculous matches - way out of my route for both pick up and drop off.

Re: Waze Carpool

#388

Post by ilanco »

kamaln7 wrote: post #46
scandox wrote: post #13

I was in Israel last year and they just love Waze. Everything is Waze this and Waze that. They have an absolute belief in Waze as a brand. Most have no idea it is owned by Google, nor seemed very interested when I mentioned it. So I'd say if they can get this working anywhere, it will be in a traffic-riddled country full of people who obsess over journey times and who absolutely love this brand.

Can confirm. Just like "Kleenex" in some places, Waze has become the generic term for GPS Navigation here in Israel. Honestly, I have no idea why people still use it when Google Maps has an infinitely better interface and no ads.

> Honestly, I have no idea why people still use it when Google Maps has an infinitely better interface and no ads.

Waze has speed trap warnings, Google maps doesn't.

Re: Waze Carpool

#390

Post by sneak »

rdiddly wrote: post #293
sneak wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn’t some class warfare thing. Busses have terrible service. They don’t even have seatbelts. Knock off this old trope.

Second person I've seen on this thread, and maybe the fiftieth in my whole life experience, who heard "Let's fund public transportation!" and offered, as a counter-argument mind you, "No, public transportation is terrible." Analogy: Wife: "Hey let's buy a new toaster!" Husband: "No way, have you seen how shitty our toaster is?"

People voted. They voted to use Uber and Lyft, not some monopolistic system. Freedom of choice and agile won out over top-down, waterfall.

Public transportation sucks and will continue to suck, even with more funding. People want to pay for something better than it can be at its best, at least in most urban centers in the US.

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