Chariot is shutting down • Hacker News Board

Re: Chariot is shutting down

#141

Post by atombender » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 2:24 AM UTC

vladgur wrote: post #131

atombender wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know the West coast very well, so I'm curious -- are there any (smaller) cities there where you can actually get by without a car to do grocery shopping, commute to one's office (assuming it's in the same town/city), etc.? I'm thinking something comparable to Amsterdam, Copenhagen or Berlin, where you can get by with a bike and/or subway, or often just walking. Portland? Seattle? I've visited Silicon Valley a…

Even within the Larger Bay Area there is plenty of smaller cities with a well developed and prolific downtowns that have startups, retail, supermarkets, bars and restaurants all within walking distance of a rail system connecting you to SF: Mountain View, Oakland, Redwood City or where I live - San Mateo. My family and I have been a 1-car household for more than a decade and mostly walk everywhere including a train s…

I've only visited Silicon Valley once, so my impression may be skewed, but to me it came across as this incredibly bland, entangled sprawl of anonymous strip malls, with each "city" indistinguishable from the next.

To some extent these cities seemed walkable, but in practice everyone has a car, and most endeavours have you end up on the highway. Everyone seems to complain about either traffic or about the awfulness of BART, but maybe that's HN.

I did love SF itself, though it seems to be in a similar situation as NYC, nestled deep within this huge web of urban sprawl that you have to punch through in order to get out into the wilderness.

Re: Chariot is shutting down

#142

Post by ctime » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 2:29 AM UTC

I'm assuming the ease and likely success of UberPool[1] was the straw that broke the camel's back. Even Waze has a similar offering [2].

Yet I'm not at all surprised they ran out of cash (I'm assuming) and had to shutter. I do feel bad for the folks (drivers and support type folks) who are now out of a job.

[1] https://www.uber.com/ride/uberpool/

[2] https://www.waze.com/carpool

Re: Chariot is shutting down

#143

Post by tim-- » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 2:33 AM UTC

idoh wrote: post #5

I used Chariot a bit a couple years ago. Sad to see it go. For people who haven't heard of it, it worked like this: I live in SF, and worked in Redwood City. Every day, there was some type of large van that would pick me up a couple blocks from where I lived and dropped me off a couple blocks from where I worked. So it was like a middle ground between public transportation and Uber / Lyft.

I really appreciate how the NSW Australian Government is working on a solution to this.

They are currently running trial on-demand services, where a mini-van will come and pick you up after a request from an app[0].

I don't understand why the US cities are so adverse to setting up similar systems.

[0] https://transportnsw.info/travel-info/ways-to-get-around/on-...

Re: Chariot is shutting down

#144

Post by benatkin » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 2:33 AM UTC

sbilstein wrote: post #140

rconti wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

San Francisco and Redwood City are roughly 30 miles apart. In the Bay Area, in particular, buses tend to work on a city or county level, which would mean to make this trip, assuming buses were conveniently located, timed, and without too many stops, it would involve using several transit systems, unfortunately. San Francisco and Redwood City not only have dozens of other cities between them, but they're also in 2 dif…

On the other hand, ACTransit from Oakland to SF is really quite good for commuting.

It's OK. They have nice travel busses that they use most of the time but any day they can run out of them and I can unexpectedly get stuck with an uncomfortable regular bus. I stopped taking Transbay most of the time and switched back to Emery-Go-Round and BART after a few months of taking it.

This was with being one of the last stops before SF and having a good onramp to get onto the freeway. I tried taking it from the east oakland hills when I lived there and it was completely unpalatable.

Re: Chariot is shutting down

#145

Post by badusername » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 2:36 AM UTC

dawhizkid wrote: post #43

I recently watched the Anthony Bourdain episode where he goes to Nairobi and rides on a "matatu", which are essentially privately operated party buses for commuters. I thought that was actually a pretty neat idea and could definitely see a market for that. https://explorepartsunknown.com/kenya/matatus-rule-nairobis-...

Uber launched a similar service in Africa last year..

https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/12/uber-bus/

Re: Chariot is shutting down

#146

Post by dba7dba » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 2:37 AM UTC

wutbrodo wrote: post #76

blt wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

old cities: built dense for walking, because cars didn't exist. new cities: built dense for walking and public transit because private car ownership isn't that common in China 20th century USA cities: built for cars. Sprawl makes public transit too expensive because it requires many lines with low ridership. Wide roads, long distances, and cars flying around everywhere makes walking scary. Driving becomes the only at…

This isn't quite true for many of the big cities of interest. There was an active high-modernist effort in the ~70s to destroy the walkable, transitable, livable parts of many American cities and cut freeways across them like big ugly neighborhood-destroying scars. Even transit wastelands like LA had an actual urban core (that they're now rebuilding), as well as a relatively extensive network of streetcars.

Los Angeles area had very advanced light railway system including Los Angeles Railway and Pacific Electric Railway Company up until 1960s.

Check the map of Pacific Electric Railway Company, and you can see a railway running on the beach from Hermosa Beach up to Santa Monica. The famous Venice Beach Bike Path was originally what the Pacific Electric Railway Company rail used to be. Can you imagine light rails ON the beach in SoCal?

All the rails were torn up after lobbying by oil/tire companies. :(

Re: Chariot is shutting down

#147

Post by ryanbertrand » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 2:38 AM UTC

raz32dust wrote: post #40

Seems like such a great idea on paper. I've seen these parked in various spots in SF. Why do you think they failed? Too asset heavy? I am guessing the cost of vehicles and maintenance, parking spots, regulations etc. was too much? A similar service based on uber model might be more successful, where the company doesn't own the vehicles? Not sure how to provide reliable service that way, though. Perhaps a hybrid?

They were acquired by Ford. Doesn’t seem like a failure...even if shitting down after 2 years.

Re: Chariot is shutting down

#148

Post by raz32dust » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 2:41 AM UTC

ryanbertrand wrote: post #147

raz32dust wrote: post #40

Seems like such a great idea on paper. I've seen these parked in various spots in SF. Why do you think they failed? Too asset heavy? I am guessing the cost of vehicles and maintenance, parking spots, regulations etc. was too much? A similar service based on uber model might be more successful, where the company doesn't own the vehicles? Not sure how to provide reliable service that way, though. Perhaps a hybrid?

They were acquired by Ford. Doesn’t seem like a failure...even if shitting down after 2 years.

I meant failure in the larger context, not silicon valley failure :)

Re: Chariot is shutting down

#149

Post by ryanbertrand » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 2:42 AM UTC

scrumbledober wrote: post #56

I had a chariot driver cut me off on my bike while i was riding down second street and he was turning left onto second across my lane. He stopped once in my lane and I didn't have enough time to stop so I hit the side of his van, somewhat damaging my bike. He looked right at me and then drove away. I tried to contact chariot about this and got absolutely nowhere. Glad to see them go.

I had an encounter with one of their drivers tailgating me for ~1 mile until they finally sped past me and cut me off. I was going above the speed limit. Not sure if there were customers in the car, but I would hope not.

Re: Chariot is shutting down

#150

Post by malyk » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 2:52 AM UTC

benatkin wrote: post #144

sbilstein wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, ACTransit from Oakland to SF is really quite good for commuting.

It's OK. They have nice travel busses that they use most of the time but any day they can run out of them and I can unexpectedly get stuck with an uncomfortable regular bus. I stopped taking Transbay most of the time and switched back to Emery-Go-Round and BART after a few months of taking it. This was with being one of the last stops before SF and having a good onramp to get onto the freeway. I tried taking it from…

I take AC Transit every day (for the last 5 years) and if you get on at the last stop it's standing room only and terrible where busses sometimes drive by you. But, from my house, I have a seat every single morning no question and in the evening, as long as I'm ~10 minutes early to the stop in SF I get a seat.

I ride the F, which is a "normal" bus, but it's 10x better than BART for comfort, temperature, smell, etc. The trip takes me 40-50 minutes on a normal day.