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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

#211

Post by pxeboot »

kovacs wrote: post #210

Uber/Lyft are taxi services. They need to be regulated. The cars need to be marked, have numbers, drivers accountable to the community (not just the passenger), for bad driving. As a driver who's lived in SF for a long time I've seen first hand the terrible impact these services have had to the city. They clog streets and disregard any and all traffic laws. Just yesterday an Uber driver made a left turn from the midd…

Why should Uber/Lyft be treated differently than FedEx, Walmart, and the hundreds of other companies with vehicles "clogging our streets"?

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

#212

Post by Routhinator »

kovacs wrote: post #210

Uber/Lyft are taxi services. They need to be regulated. The cars need to be marked, have numbers, drivers accountable to the community (not just the passenger), for bad driving. As a driver who's lived in SF for a long time I've seen first hand the terrible impact these services have had to the city. They clog streets and disregard any and all traffic laws. Just yesterday an Uber driver made a left turn from the midd…

Meanwhile in Canada..

The situation is exactly the opposite. The taxi licensed taxi cartel have no fear of blocking traffic, speeding, making illegal turns, parking in bus stops or anything else because they are a licensed taxi. They refuse to take any rides that don't suit their plans because there is more demand than taxi licensed so if you need a taxi from downtown to suburban neighborhoods you might wait 2-3 hours until you get a willing driver or just end up taking the bus.

Uber/Lyft drivers on the other hand are very respectfully following the rules of the road because if they cause undue attention someone will report them and they'll be fined, and they don't have the money of the taxi cartel behind them to pay the fine for them.

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

#213

Post by throwaway76543 »

kovacs wrote: post #210

Uber/Lyft are taxi services. They need to be regulated. The cars need to be marked, have numbers, drivers accountable to the community (not just the passenger), for bad driving. As a driver who's lived in SF for a long time I've seen first hand the terrible impact these services have had to the city. They clog streets and disregard any and all traffic laws. Just yesterday an Uber driver made a left turn from the midd…

Taxi service regulation in the US are why those systems are unusable. I can't get a taxi if there aren't enough medallions issued.

There's no regulatory body preventing me from getting into the car I purchased. It makes no sense whatsoever to suggest that suddenly we need regulation simply because I rented the car in a particular way instead of driving it myself.

The regulations that matter with respect to taxi services are those that protect consumers -- there is no basis for using regulation to limit a consumer's access to the service.

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

#214

Post by shard972 »

komali2 wrote: post #183
colemannugent wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...make healthcare and education free-or-nearly-so... Free for who?

Literally everyone. Imagine the tax income down the line if every citizen that wanted a high-training-required career could get that career. Imagine the burden reduction on welfare.

What about the people who are sub 100 IQ (namely about half the population) who don't really have the capacity to work in a highly trained job?

You seem to just assume if we give people free stuff they will all go get PHD's. That's just simply a fantasy.

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

#216

Post by XNtsFT56 »

fwip wrote: post #167
bhhaskin wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want to ride public transport as a man either. I don't need someone who is mentally ill babble at me.

I see what you're saying, but the threat of 'babbling' is less scary than sexual assault.

What about regular assault?

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

#217

Post by megaremote »

kazinator wrote: post #84
vkou wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So do I, but my income doesn't come with direct traffic congestion and road wear externalities.

And of course none of your income is spent on any groceries or other goods that arrive by truck. Motor vehicles could disappear overnight without a single inconvenience to you.

Yes, because trucks and personal vehicles are the same thing? The infrastructure requires for all our trucks is 1% we have, because of all the people driving.

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

#218

Post by megaremote »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #43
rhino369 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Road funding should be raised by using gasoline, tolls, and/or mileage taxes. That would force uber to pay for their usage of roads. Many/most jurisdictions already do this.

Why stop there? Why not put tolls on the sidewalks and park benches and charge per usage? We as a society have decided that it's best for all of us is we collectively eat the cost of letting people use certain resources as much as they want at low/no cost or at a cost not proportional to usage. Roads are one of these resources. Increasing the cost of transportation basically increases the cost of physical distance. T…

Because cars are horrible, produce pollution, over a million deaths a year, a huge waster of resources, cars are 20x the size of a person, cause lots of damage, and a 100 other reasons.

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

#219

Post by Eric_WVGG »

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…

I don't understand this comment at all.

Call an Uber and it arrives wherever you are within ten minutes. A bus will arrive within 30-60 minutes — IF you're anywhere close to a bus stop AND it's not after the busses stop (usually some working-class-insultingly early hour like 10pm).

I once nearly got caught in a goddamned tornado because I was stranded in Texas after municipal bus hours. This was in the pre-Uber days; I did try calling a couple taxi services, they said "yes on its way" and didn't arrive after a 90 minute wait.

I know this is kind of an edge case, but as long as busses and municipal light rail don't run 24-hours and cover, well, everywhere, ride share has a place. Even the best bus systems kind of suck and need a lot of work to be an acceptable alternative for most folks.

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

#220

Post by mandelbrotwurst »

almost_usual wrote: post #140
mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me neither =) Your hypothesis is a good one imo.

I mean, I'm definitely guilty of it. I've tried giving up ride-sharing for a bit and the social situations you get into are awkward. People usually don't understand and get frustrated. If I ride the bus to meet someone for dinner and I get there everything will start fine. What eventually happens after dinner is that person will invite me to some other place and they'll want to get there as soon as possible. Respondi…

Yup, makes sense, that's a good analogy. I've had similar experiences w/ both ride share and cell / smart phones.
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