Rideshare operations are being suspended in California • Hacker News Board

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#401

Post by nodesocket » Thu, Aug 20, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

woeirua wrote: post #29

I suspect that California is going to backpedal on this pretty quickly. Uber and Lyft are popular. Going back to taxis is going to be very unpopular. IMO, if the California Republican party was smart they would make this a wedge issue in the next election. "Elect us, and we'll make it possible to use Uber again."

Drivers choose to make their living with Lyft and Uber. California is starting to feel the repercussions of their far left policies. It hurts consumers (fare prices rise), stifles innovation, pushes entrepreneurs out of the state, and the irony is it ended up hurting the drivers.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#402

Post by stronglikedan » Thu, Aug 20, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

cafebabbe wrote: post #118

dannyw wrote: post #6

I used to drive for Uber, a few hours a week during my downtime when I was bored and had nothing better to do. The earnings weren’t great, but it was very helpful as an extra. I had a fuel efficient car and kept track of all my expenses for deductions and made above minimum wage. I’ve met plenty of lovely and fascinating people and had great, enjoyable conversations. I barely had any issues with riders. This extra in…

Cool story, like a mini american dream! Some drivers have differing views on the topic though :(

If driving is what someone has decided to solely do for a living, then they should get a driving job. There's plenty of driving jobs that aren't driving gigs. In my mind, the definition of "gig" sets the expectation for the type of work it will be.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#403

Post by riffraff » Thu, Aug 20, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

fizzled wrote: post #362

bradly wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also poor mass transit.

Ever heard of this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp... In an nutshell: USA auto manufacturers purchased and dismantled the streetcar business to force people to have to buy cars.

Wow, basically "who Framed Roger Rabbit" was based on a true story.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#404

Post by nemothekid » Thu, Aug 20, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

wtracy wrote: post #277

malandrew wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm always perplexed when people bring this issue up but never discuss the contribution to congestion by people driving their own cars. Yes, you can say that increased congestion from single occupancy vehicles leads to a tragedy of the commons for those on buses. This can be addressed by making bus only lanes (and they should be bus only lanes, not bus and taxi lanes) For the rest of the congestion, there's not much…

I've never seen a rideshare "pool" multiple riders. I'm sure it does happen, but it seems pretty rare from where I am.

It happened without fail in San Francisco.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#405

Post by twblalock » Thu, Aug 20, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

amoitnga wrote: post #369

They spent ton of money to get me to install their app and consider it as an option. There is really no reason for me to use one over the other. Lyft, uber, some random taxi app.. Same drives are coming in the same cars. Now they are motivating me to look for alternatives and actually give 'some random taxi app' a name. this combined with "dont attribute to malice what can be attributed to stupidity" leads me to doub…

I remember what it was like to get a taxi in California, even in San Francisco, before Uber and Lyft.

You called some taxi company, might get put on hold, told them where to pick you up, and they would show up anywhere between 30 and 60 minutes later. Sometimes they would never show up. Many smaller cities in California had no taxi service of any kind. And good luck getting a taxi home from a bar after midnight!

Uber and Lyft made it realistic for people to expect that they could actually get a taxi in California in a reasonable amount of time, pretty much any time of day or night. That's why people used them so much. This is not something the older taxi companies or "some random taxi app" will be able to pull off.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#406

Post by pm90 » Thu, Aug 20, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

opportune wrote: post #360

dumbfoundded wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, pretty much all of the best state economies are extremely liberal (1). I think the anti-tax sentiment on HN is from people who make a lot of money and then realize they have to pay taxes. They attribute their success entirely to themselves and then whine about giving anything back to the environment that enabled them. California certainly has giant problems but don't let it distract you from the big picture. (1…

I am by no means conservative but the taxes on regular people in California are so high because the taxes on longtime landowners are low. And I also don’t think the taxes are being spent well enough to justify them. It’s also quite a stretch to call anything about obstructionist NIMBYism “liberal” Also many of the people paying the highest taxes in CA are not even from there (executives, tech workers, entertainment w…

> are not even from there (executives, tech workers, entertainment workers), which kind of breaks down the argument of giving back to the environment that produced you.

This doesn't make sense. Are you saying people should only pay taxes in the state they were born in forever? That's not how taxation works.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#407

Post by mlindner » Thu, Aug 20, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

gotoeleven wrote: post #8

California has proven itself again and again to be really good at centrally planning the economic activities of individuals so I think this will work out pretty well in the end.

You forgot to add the /s, but I guess it's obvious enough. This will definitely not turn out well for individuals living in California.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#408

Post by sbrother » Thu, Aug 20, 2020, 6:29 PM UTC

cosmojg wrote: post #381

gpanders wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I live in Austin and sometimes I think if I really need a major procedure it would be just simpler to drive to Mexico and get it done there. This even has a name: Medical Tourism.

I wonder if medical tourism provides a capitalist solution to the healthcare problem in the US. Could it be cheaper for a health insurance company to pay for flights to and from other countries along with procedures in those countries? There are a lot of non-emergency medical issues which can be serviced this way. In the long run, such insurance would drive down the price of traditional health insurance as well as th…

My state does this for public employees: https://www.sltrib.com/mexico-pharmacy-tourism/

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#409

Post by bobthepanda » Thu, Aug 20, 2020, 6:30 PM UTC

manigandham wrote: post #327

theplague42 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the heart of the issue is VC-backed startups trying their hardest to circumvent laws until they are big enough that enforcing the laws makes people mad.

Perhaps laws should actually reflect what the citizens want.

What citizens want is fickle and entirely depends on framing and knowledge.

Citizens want goods for cheaper, obviously. But citizens also like the concept of people and companies doing "their fair share". For example a fair amount of people were outraged when it was revealed that official Walmart policy was to direct underpaid employees into Medicaid, EBT, etc. rather than just paying them to afford basic life expenses. And the gig economy if anything manages to be even more exploitative than that.

Re: Rideshare operations are being suspended in California

#410

Post by wmichelin » Thu, Aug 20, 2020, 6:30 PM UTC

fotta wrote: post #344

Another group caught in the collateral damage is people in wheelchairs. Paratransit sucks in most places and where wheelchair accessible Uber/Lyft is available they provide a much better service. This is an especially vulnerable population because it's not like a wheelchair user can just find a friend with an accessible vehicle to take them to appointments, etc.

What did people in wheelchairs do before these rideshare apps were around?