Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown • Hacker News Board

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#101

Post by electricslpnsld » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 10:00 PM UTC

jroblak wrote: post #76

romwell wrote: post #22

Alternative title: "NYC Taxi mafia strikes back, gives Uber 12 months to come up with a large enough bribe". Really, the life of nearly everyone (who's not a taxi driver, perhaps) improved a bit since Uber entered the city. Even the fabled subway in its theoretical best has been dysfunctional in Brooklyn since the takedown of streetcars a hundred years ago (see how all the tracks are running towards Manhattan and ver…

There is a lot of ridiculous hyperbole and disingenuousness in this post so it's a little hard to take seriously. As someone who has lived in New York for the past ten years, the entrance of Uber hasn't changed my life at all, other than some VCs subsidizing/coercing some lower income drivers into taking $10 off my fare when I go to the airport. Public transportation, which you deride, usage utterly dwarfs taxis/uber…

> As someone who has lived in New York for the past ten years, the entrance of Uber hasn't changed my life at all

Ehh, depends where in the city you are. When I was super broke I used to live in an out of the way part of Long Island City. 50% of cabs in Manhattan would just refuse to drive there, and once there, good luck finding a yellow or even green cab. The local car service was also pretty unreliable and slow. When Uber came along I suddenly had more options to get home, I was able to reliably get cars to the airport, etc. It was a huge and instant bump in my quality of life.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#102

Post by bhups » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 10:00 PM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #13

tonysdg wrote: post #6

Given the problem, this seems like a reasonable action on the part of the NYC City Council. But I'm confused by section on congestion pricing: > Many experts believe congestion pricing is the best way for New York City to fix congestion and secure the funds needed to fix the subway. Mr. Johnson supports the idea, but Mr. de Blasio has opposed it. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who controls the subway, has said he will push fo…

Because it's regressive. It takes money away from people who drive, who are often people who are blue collar, spread out in the outer boroughs, or who need to bring tools to do their jobs, those who are forced to cross the city to get anywhere west of town, etc. Sure, that's not the only effect it will have, it will also cost money for bankers that drive in from Westchester and park underneath their midtown offices.…

The current proposal is just as regressive, albeit in a way that introduces more inefficiency.

A cap on Ubers/Lyfts + minimum pay will likely increase the price of Ubers/Lyfts. Rich people will be able to afford the new prices, but poor people will not.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#103

Post by tomjakubowski » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 10:00 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #51

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think there should be a financial disincentive to owning a car in the city, Expensive parking on top of all the other costs is enough for most people who aren't pretty well off.

Given the fact that congestion is an admitted issue, it's possible that it's not enough; plus, many people use street parking, which costs time instead of money.

Street parking often costs money too.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#104

Post by zethraeus » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 10:01 PM UTC

jroblak wrote: post #94

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the standard, clean, regulated experience I have every time I jump into a yellow or green cab Huh, haven't been in one where the driver wasn't on the phone in ages. Two weeks ago, my black friend was refused pick-up. Brooklyn-based friends are regularly refused transport. At least the credit card machine broken trick stopped a few years ago.

Every single one of those things is illegal, and can be reported.

and yet they continue to happen. does that give you pause as to the effectiveness of enforcement?

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#105

Post by tomjakubowski » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 10:01 PM UTC

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #86

gamegoblin wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boston's system is pretty good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBTA_Subway

It's cleaner than anything in Silicon Valley and less crowded than NYC. Timeliness and reliability are quite lacking though. It desperately needs rolling stock that wasn't due to be EoL'd a decade ago and it needs proper management which the thinly veiled jobs program known as the MBTA doesn't seem to be able to provide. edit: apparently SF is not representative of public transit in other cities in California.

Assuming you mean California, LA's Metro rail is no dirtier than Boston's MBTA rail. Sometimes it smells a little funky, but so do the streets -- Boston doesn't have quite the homeless population of Los Angeles.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#106

Post by JumpCrisscross » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 10:01 PM UTC

jroblak wrote: post #94

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the standard, clean, regulated experience I have every time I jump into a yellow or green cab Huh, haven't been in one where the driver wasn't on the phone in ages. Two weeks ago, my black friend was refused pick-up. Brooklyn-based friends are regularly refused transport. At least the credit card machine broken trick stopped a few years ago.

Every single one of those things is illegal, and can be reported.

> Every single one of those things is illegal, and can be reported

Yet they're still common. I've reported them, and occasionally there's a fine, but at a certain point the cost of constantly reporting outweighs the benefit. It doesn't help that the TLC is a political position with the same financial conflicts of interests as the City Councilman who presented this bill [1].

[1] https://nypost.com/2018/01/27/taxi-committee-head-got-thousa...

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#107

Post by jroblak » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 10:02 PM UTC

madamelic wrote: post #97

jroblak wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a lot of ridiculous hyperbole and disingenuousness in this post so it's a little hard to take seriously. As someone who has lived in New York for the past ten years, the entrance of Uber hasn't changed my life at all, other than some VCs subsidizing/coercing some lower income drivers into taking $10 off my fare when I go to the airport. Public transportation, which you deride, usage utterly dwarfs taxis/uber…

>I don't need to be reminded of the standard, clean, regulated experience I have every time I jump into a yellow or green cab You and I have had vastly different experiences in cabs. The cabs are disgusting. I can't understand the driver and he takes the long way around to squeeze more money out of me.

You're absolutely 100% wrong if you argue Uber X has a higher average car quality than yellow cabs.

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#108

Post by dionidium » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 10:02 PM UTC

chlvsl wrote: post #33

dionidium wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the most common objection, but it's not a very strong one, for at least two reasons: 1. There's no reason we couldn't provide exceptions for the kinds of vans and trucks that blue-collar workers need to drive into the city to make their livings. 2. There's no reason we couldn't offer income-based exceptions to people who absolutely cannot ride transit for this or that reason. As in all proposals to ration som…

If we start to allow those who can't afford the congestion pricing to get a discount on congestion pricing, do we really have congestion pricing? Or just a new proportional-to-income "driving tax" in addition to state, county, and city taxes?

A "driving tax" is just another way to say "congestion pricing." Driving introduces massive negative externalities and should cost a lot more than it does today.

Automobiles are one of the absolute worst quality-of-life-impacting things about living in Manhattan. They're loud, dangerous, and smelly.

I'm not trying to hide my cards; if it were up to me, I'd ban private cars (at the very least) entirely in Midtown (at the very least).

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#109

Post by shoshino » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 10:03 PM UTC

misiti3780 wrote: post #79

romwell wrote: post #22

Alternative title: "NYC Taxi mafia strikes back, gives Uber 12 months to come up with a large enough bribe". Really, the life of nearly everyone (who's not a taxi driver, perhaps) improved a bit since Uber entered the city. Even the fabled subway in its theoretical best has been dysfunctional in Brooklyn since the takedown of streetcars a hundred years ago (see how all the tracks are running towards Manhattan and ver…

i live in nyc and im glad this is happening. we have a traffic congestion problem here - i dont want more ubers, lyfts or yellow cabs on the street, i want less. i wish nyc would copy london and actually tax people for enter every bridge, tunnel etc in rush hours to stop it. the law of diminishing returns is in full effect here, regardless of what the engineers and SC want to tell themselves.

> i wish nyc would copy london and actually tax people for enter every bridge, tunnel etc in rush hours to stop it.

The only toll route I know of anywhere near London is the QE2 crossing, which is outside Greater London.

The CCZ (congestion charging zone) covers less than 5% of the Greater London area. There are plans to expand the CCZ, and tackle pollution via an ultra-low-emission-zone.

> "The Congestion Charge is an £11.50 daily charge for driving a vehicle within the charging zone between 07:00 and 18:00, Monday to Friday."

Re: Uber Hit with Cap as New York City Takes Lead in Crackdown

#110

Post by jroblak » Wed, Aug 08, 2018, 10:03 PM UTC

jroblak wrote: post #94

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the standard, clean, regulated experience I have every time I jump into a yellow or green cab Huh, haven't been in one where the driver wasn't on the phone in ages. Two weeks ago, my black friend was refused pick-up. Brooklyn-based friends are regularly refused transport. At least the credit card machine broken trick stopped a few years ago.

Every single one of those things is illegal, and can be reported.

Both of these are arguments for more regulation and enforcement, not less.