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Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

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Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#131

Post by toomanybeersies »

stephencoyner wrote: post #110
njovin wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having to stop a dozen times between pickup and destination makes it quite a bit better than a bus IMO.

Less stops yes, but in Uber pools the stops can be incredibly inconvenient and made worse with poor drivers or riders, resulting in long rides. At least with a bus I get a well trained professional who is prepared for almost all scenarios. I also can estimate how long s bus will take, pools can be unpredictability long.

> At least with a bus I get a well trained professional who is prepared for almost all scenarios

Your city clearly has different bus drivers to every city I've ever lived in. The best moment I've ever had on a bus was when the bus driver stopped on a level crossing while a train was coming. I've also had bus drivers clip signs and parked cars, crash into other cars and busses, brake and accelerate like they were trying to dodge a heat seeking missile, and just generally bad drivers. And in my current city, the bus drivers (and tram drivers) won't do anything about bad passengers, they sit in their little perspex box and ignore the passengers.

I was on a tram the other day while an ex con was screaming obscenities at old Asian lady. The lady complained to the tram driver, who did literally nothing. She had to get off the tram because he was getting so abusive I swear he was about to hit her.

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#132

Post by walterstucco »

selectodude wrote: post #74
Tiktaalik wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Many public transit companies have been around for decades and haven't figured out how to scale up to the kind of service Uber is providing This is because these are publicly funded organizations that are starved of funds for political reasons. Public transit works well where it's funded well. It's a political problem, not a technology problem.

Even the best funded public transit services are substantial money losers. Paris covers 70 cents of every dollar, Madrid 60 cents, and even in Berlin and Munich its 30 cents. But that covers 100 percent of their expenses. If Uber had to shell out to fix the streets that they use, I bet it wouldn't be so cheap.

ATM in Milan rides all the public transport of the area, including buses, trains and trams

It also manage the Copenhagen's subway

It makes profits

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#133

Post by toomanybeersies »

slowmotiony wrote: post #122
njovin wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not having to stop a dozen times between pickup and destination makes it quite a bit better than a bus IMO.

Also no homeless people or crackheads inside

I've stopped taking buses and trams at night for this exact reason.

Trains seem to be mostly OK, maybe because they're bigger I can just avoid them. But I've felt seriously unsafe on trams and buses before at night, and I don't scare easily. There's nothing quite so unsettling as a junkie having a psychotic episode in the back of the bus. You don't want to look at them in case they engage you, but you want to keep your eyes on them in case they feel like jabbing you.

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#134

Post by rahimnathwani »

elvirs wrote: post #36
chrisabrams wrote: post #7

Based on my rides recently I have seen the quality of drivers plummet on both Uber and Lyft. I'd be much more willing to wait (and maybe even pay) for a higher quality driver. Having a driver who cannot follow a GPS and takes you in a circle 3-4 times around the airport or does not speak English well enough to understand your request to stop on the right instead of the left like the GPS shows can be quite frustrating…

well, as a weekend uber driver that drives only when prices go up I have to tell you that those 7-8 dollar trips pay us only 3 dollars and some change. Driving 7-10 minutes to pick you up and then drive for 7-10 minutes to your destination is not worth it because that comes to $10 per hour minus gas and maintenance and depreciation. Drivers have to pay for lease/finance, maintenance, insurance and still pay rent on t…

That's a reasonable stance, but consider:

1. If the rider isn't sensitive about when they leave home, then they can happily wait until a driver who happens to have dropped someone off nearby is willing to take them for $7, because they don't need to drive more than 1 minute for the pickup.

2. Lease/finance, insurance, rent and food don't go up with the number of rides or distance. If a driver has the option to take someone right now, without driving far to pick them up, vs. waiting for a higher rate, then in some cases they'd maximise marginal profit by taking the 'low rate' ride.

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#135

Post by toomanybeersies »

Ar-Curunir wrote: post #126
sidcool wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless, its impact has been way bigger than any public transit. That impact also has been both positive and negative.

Maybe in the bay area, where investment in public transit is abysmal. When I've visited cities with good public transit I've never felt the need for Uber/Lyft.

I'll generally take a train over Uber if it's less than 10 minutes walk either side. But I'll take an Uber over a bus any day.

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#136

Post by lsc »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #16

I just wanted to drop a note to say I think Uber is doing a good job, all things considered. Many public transit companies have been around for decades and haven't figured out how to scale up to the kind of service Uber is providing. 4B rides in 2017 is pretty amazing. If I understand the math correctly, BART claims about 126 million rides (2015) and cost $906M (~$7 a ride, comparable to some uber pool fares)

>If I understand the math correctly, BART claims about 126 million rides (2015) and cost $906M (~$7 a ride, comparable to some uber pool fares)

I think a better comparison than total cost is how much money they are losing. The difference between what I'm paying and what I feel like I'm getting with uber feels like... a lot, and that lines up with everything I've read of their financial situation.

If you are willing to lose substantial money on a per-ride basis, sure, you are going to have a pretty nice transit product.

(Personally, I'd be pretty okay with the government losing some of my tax money on public transit projects... though I think if the government is gonna do it, I want them to lose the money up front on expensive, durable, high-capacity infrastructure, then come closer to breaking even on a marginal ride basis)

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#137

Post by jpatokal »

dnautics wrote: post #87
selectodude wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even the best funded public transit services are substantial money losers. Paris covers 70 cents of every dollar, Madrid 60 cents, and even in Berlin and Munich its 30 cents. But that covers 100 percent of their expenses. If Uber had to shell out to fix the streets that they use, I bet it wouldn't be so cheap.

Singapore's public transit system is run as a for profit (two competing companies, in fact), and it's one of the best and cheapest in the world.

It's operated by two for-profit companies, but the government paid the massive bill for the construction, sets the fares and even owns the rolling stock (trains) now:

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/government-...

...and of course, this being Singapore, the companies in question (SMRT Corp and SBS Transit) are themselves largely owned by various government entities (Temasek etc).

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#138

Post by masonic »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #134
elvirs wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well, as a weekend uber driver that drives only when prices go up I have to tell you that those 7-8 dollar trips pay us only 3 dollars and some change. Driving 7-10 minutes to pick you up and then drive for 7-10 minutes to your destination is not worth it because that comes to $10 per hour minus gas and maintenance and depreciation. Drivers have to pay for lease/finance, maintenance, insurance and still pay rent on t…

That's a reasonable stance, but consider: 1. If the rider isn't sensitive about when they leave home, then they can happily wait until a driver who happens to have dropped someone off nearby is willing to take them for $7, because they don't need to drive more than 1 minute for the pickup. 2. Lease/finance, insurance, rent and food don't go up with the number of rides or distance. If a driver has the option to take s…

  they can happily wait until a driver who happens to have dropped someone off nearby is willing to take them for $7
... But you can't know whether that will mean a 4-minute wait, or 40 minutes ... or forever.

Re: Uber is experimenting with letting riders wait longer for a cheaper fare

#140

Post by ttsda »

chrisabrams wrote: post #7

Based on my rides recently I have seen the quality of drivers plummet on both Uber and Lyft. I'd be much more willing to wait (and maybe even pay) for a higher quality driver. Having a driver who cannot follow a GPS and takes you in a circle 3-4 times around the airport or does not speak English well enough to understand your request to stop on the right instead of the left like the GPS shows can be quite frustrating…

I've got the same experience in Lisbon. When Uber showed up drivers were great, they could follow directions, they always asked about the radio and the AC, they never complained about the pick-up/drop-off places and didn't have inappropriate conversation, they spoke perfect Portuguese and/or English.

4 years later, we have drivers that can't follow basic directions, that don't speak either English or Portuguese, that leave the turn-by-turn voice on, default to the terrible EDM stations (they used to default to neutral, low-key radio stations) and worst of all, drive very dangerously.

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