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A new study says services like Uber and Lyft are causing urban traffic woes

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Re: A new study says services like Uber and Lyft are causing urban traffic woes

#31

Post by scythe »

sharkmerry wrote: post #3
dokein wrote: post #2

A week ago, at the stop nearest me, the E train uptown was re-routed. The C train had an 18 minute wait (the next one after that -- 19 minutes). The station was somewhere north of 100 degrees F and packed. As the trains were one floor below the turnstiles, these issues were only visible AFTER swiping $3(A) to get into the station. The escalator was broken too, which is fine for me but bad for many others. Meanwhile,…

>> Uber isn't perfect, but banning it doesn't magically fix the subway. There's no doubt there are issues with public transit, but letting the rideshare services run rampant, while being effectively subsidized by the taxpayers roads, etc is no solution either. >> U.S. ridership is surging, he said — up 37% last year, to 2.6 billion passengers, from 2016. >> It found that, in U.S. cities, 49% to 61% of ride-hailing tr…

>while being effectively subsidized by the taxpayers roads, etc

Every time someone wants to argue against anything involving a road, they pull out this "roads are subsidized" canard. The state actually recovers most of the costs through gas taxes, registration fees, insurance requirements, and tolls, all of which rideshare drivers (and therefore riders) pay for -- and don't forget the income tax. If someone's activities are costing the state money (which I doubt) the correct response is to tax them -- not ban what they're doing or introduce artificial limitations on supply.

Re: A new study says services like Uber and Lyft are causing urban traffic woes

#32

Post by toomuchtodo »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #27
cbhl wrote: post #7

There's a simple solution to this -- buses! We don't even need public tax dollars to pay for them. There were plenty of startups that wanted to run "Uber, but with a bus instead of a Car" and they all died because of regulation from the cities. Hell, Google (and other tech companies) will happily pay for its own buses to reduce VMT, but taking away street parking to add bus stops is political suicide in San Francisco…

One of the major benefits in some cities of Uber/Lyft over public transportation is not risking interaction with thementally ill, inebriated, panhandlers, or otherwise dangerous people (like the dancers on the NYC subway).

Urban living is not without risk, and trashing the commons is not a solution. You can work towards making public transportation safer, improving public transit in general, and reducing the congestion caused by ridesharing (through congestion charges) all at the same time.

EDIT: I'm not dismissing the inherent risks of public transportation and interactions, I'm stating it is a risk that must be accepted as a condition of the living environment.

Re: A new study says services like Uber and Lyft are causing urban traffic woes

#33

Post by henryfjordan »

sharkmerry wrote: post #3
dokein wrote: post #2

A week ago, at the stop nearest me, the E train uptown was re-routed. The C train had an 18 minute wait (the next one after that -- 19 minutes). The station was somewhere north of 100 degrees F and packed. As the trains were one floor below the turnstiles, these issues were only visible AFTER swiping $3(A) to get into the station. The escalator was broken too, which is fine for me but bad for many others. Meanwhile,…

>> Uber isn't perfect, but banning it doesn't magically fix the subway. There's no doubt there are issues with public transit, but letting the rideshare services run rampant, while being effectively subsidized by the taxpayers roads, etc is no solution either. >> U.S. ridership is surging, he said — up 37% last year, to 2.6 billion passengers, from 2016. >> It found that, in U.S. cities, 49% to 61% of ride-hailing tr…

I don't know about elsewhere, but in CA a lot of the road money comes from (or at least is supposed to come from) taxes on gasoline/diesel.

https://taxfoundation.org/state-road-funding-2017/

That means that Rideshare drivers are largely paying their fair share.

Re: A new study says services like Uber and Lyft are causing urban traffic woes

#34

Post by manigandham »

sharkmerry wrote: post #3
dokein wrote: post #2

A week ago, at the stop nearest me, the E train uptown was re-routed. The C train had an 18 minute wait (the next one after that -- 19 minutes). The station was somewhere north of 100 degrees F and packed. As the trains were one floor below the turnstiles, these issues were only visible AFTER swiping $3(A) to get into the station. The escalator was broken too, which is fine for me but bad for many others. Meanwhile,…

>> Uber isn't perfect, but banning it doesn't magically fix the subway. There's no doubt there are issues with public transit, but letting the rideshare services run rampant, while being effectively subsidized by the taxpayers roads, etc is no solution either. >> U.S. ridership is surging, he said — up 37% last year, to 2.6 billion passengers, from 2016. >> It found that, in U.S. cities, 49% to 61% of ride-hailing tr…

As the other comments have said, gas tax pays for the roads already so it's not unfair.

The biggest issue is that there is plenty of taxpayer money but it's not being used well at all, hence the strong demand for these other transport options. Ask why the local government cant manage some proper rail and bus lines instead.

Re: A new study says services like Uber and Lyft are causing urban traffic woes

#35

Post by munificent »

I don't use ride shares that often, but when I do, it's almost always because I don't want to deal with parking downtown. If ride shares are increasing traffic, it could be that, to some degree, they are turning roads into "living parking lots". Where before my car would be parked at some lot near my destination, now "my car" is a Lyft that is out cruising the streets when I'm not in it.

Re: A new study says services like Uber and Lyft are causing urban traffic woes

#36

Post by lotsofpulp »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #32
lotsofpulp wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the major benefits in some cities of Uber/Lyft over public transportation is not risking interaction with thementally ill, inebriated, panhandlers, or otherwise dangerous people (like the dancers on the NYC subway).

Urban living is not without risk, and trashing the commons is not a solution. You can work towards making public transportation safer, improving public transit in general, and reducing the congestion caused by ridesharing (through congestion charges) all at the same time. EDIT: I'm not dismissing the inherent risks of public transportation and interactions, I'm stating it is a risk that must be accepted as a conditio…

We can reduce the risk, if we beefed up our funding of mental help institutions, social safety nets, and educational facilities. But until then, people will pay a premium to avoid the hassles of public transportation.

Re: A new study says services like Uber and Lyft are causing urban traffic woes

#37

Post by tibbon »

One of the biggest issues that I see is where the cars pull over to pick up / drop off people. They almost always just stop in the middle of streets, double parking. Rarely do they pull over into an empty spot that's safer for them and passengers. This often causes traffic backup, at least in the Boston area.

Re: A new study says services like Uber and Lyft are causing urban traffic woes

#38

Post by toomuchtodo »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #36
toomuchtodo wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Urban living is not without risk, and trashing the commons is not a solution. You can work towards making public transportation safer, improving public transit in general, and reducing the congestion caused by ridesharing (through congestion charges) all at the same time. EDIT: I'm not dismissing the inherent risks of public transportation and interactions, I'm stating it is a risk that must be accepted as a conditio…

We can reduce the risk, if we beefed up our funding of mental help institutions, social safety nets, and educational facilities. But until then, people will pay a premium to avoid the hassles of public transportation.

A well functioning society requires effort. You can't unicorn app the hard work away.

If transportation network consumers wish to use those services, they should be able to. And cities should tax those rides to offset additional congestion and improve public transportation. Everyone wins.

Re: A new study says services like Uber and Lyft are causing urban traffic woes

#40

Post by blondie9x »

lewis500 wrote: post #15

I don’t understand why this study is receiving so much attention. It’s not peer reviewed. It doesn’t contain actual data collection (the estimates are all extrapolated in a way the author considers reasonable, not measured data from traffic detectors or surveys). Schaller is not a researcher or engineer, but a consultant mainly working for taxi regulation. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong. But I’m surprised the study get…

Are you kidding yourself? You think people continuing to rely on cars whether they drive or they are being driven is going to reduce traffic? Buses and rail reduce traffic not cars. Mass van pooling and what not can also help.

We have to get off of cars and empty seats. Apps pushing cars and pushing ride sharing are pushing laziness and congestion.

Why kid ourselves into thinking that Uber and Lyft are fixing the car traffic problem and climate change?

Imagine for a second all these cars as chairs. Imagine sitting in your chair with a wheel attached then getting onto a freeway and propelling forward. All these people in chairs with empty chairs in their walled off metal combustion tank. We need to stop all this empty chair insanity and use more efficient ways to move people sitting down going from place to place.

Want to combat obesity? Fight climate change? Prevent accidents? Motor deaths? Depression and isolation? Do away with cars.

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