Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Fall of Travis Kalanick

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 159 posts

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#111

Post by eric_the_read »

mrgordon wrote: post #102
eric_the_read wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't seen this actually happen, though. In Denver, at least, RTD has been expanding routes and light rail service (albeit slowly, but that is most definitely NOT Uber's fault), even as Uber, Lyft, etc. have become more popular.

Well Denver won best transit in America recently to be fair. This article points at what I'm saying: http://fortune.com/2017/10/13/uber-lyft-public-transit-rider... Fewer people ride public transit when ridesharing is available. Ridesharing actually substitutes more for public transit than for driving, which means it puts more people into small vehicles and creates more pollution and congestion. Whether you see it in…

Thanks, that was the sort of article I was hoping for. I am surprised to see Denver winning best transit in America, though; it still takes me 2-3x the time to travel light rail or bus than driving. Sometimes the convenience is worth it, but usually not.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#112

Post by gknoy »

dylan604 wrote: post #62
matte_black wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't companies usually hand out t-shirt swag with their company names on it? Most of the time that I see someone with a company logo on their shirt I do not readily assume they work at that company.

I've been at a couple of companies where a large number of employees wore company branded items. I was flabbergasted to learn that the clothing items were not swag but purchased items. Of the 2 companies, one had world wide name recognition, but the second definitely did not.

I enjoy where I work, and would happily wear company-logo shirts every day. Unfortunately, I can't just buy a _single_ company-logo shirt, as they are only sold as part of the marketing-swag portal that requires Large Batches (20+?).

I'm shocked that, as an employee, there's no "company store" where I can buy an extra $Company coffee mug, t-shirt, polo shirt, etc.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#113

Post by IWeldMelons »

mrgordon wrote: post #101
geezerjay wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the medium term, they get public transit systems shut down This sounds like grade-A bullshit. At best rideshare services reduce the use of personal cars and compete with taxi services, but they can't or won't compete with mass transit. Moreover the upper or even middle class aren't exactly the target market of public transportation services. If anyone was switching from public transportation to rideshare service…

First of all, I don't think your tone is very kind or conducive to a productive conversation. You state with no evidence whatsoever that rideshare services "can't or won't compete with mass transit" while the truth is that millions of people decide between the two on a daily basis. In places like NYC and SF where transit is viable, it is widely used by the lower, middle, even upper middle classes. It has become much…

I do not understand how it is possible. Public transit is soo much cheaper. In many cases, it is just unaffordable for someone to switch from taking the bus to Uber.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#114

Post by dharmab »

dylan604 wrote: post #62
matte_black wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't companies usually hand out t-shirt swag with their company names on it? Most of the time that I see someone with a company logo on their shirt I do not readily assume they work at that company.

I've been at a couple of companies where a large number of employees wore company branded items. I was flabbergasted to learn that the clothing items were not swag but purchased items. Of the 2 companies, one had world wide name recognition, but the second definitely did not.

I once worked at a company where the dress code required collared shirts, but the dress code stated that any company-branded items were exempt from the policy. The company had branded T-shirts to give to customers as loyalty rewards/promo items, so we bunch of us pooled together on a batch order. Cost about $2 a shirt and was dress code compliant, which was great for those of us who commuted by motorcycle!

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#115

Post by mrgordon »

IWeldMelons wrote: post #113
mrgordon wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, I don't think your tone is very kind or conducive to a productive conversation. You state with no evidence whatsoever that rideshare services "can't or won't compete with mass transit" while the truth is that millions of people decide between the two on a daily basis. In places like NYC and SF where transit is viable, it is widely used by the lower, middle, even upper middle classes. It has become much…

I do not understand how it is possible. Public transit is soo much cheaper. In many cases, it is just unaffordable for someone to switch from taking the bus to Uber.

For example, in San Francisco the bus costs $2.50 to $2.75 depending on how you pay. If two people want to go somewhere, thats at least $5.

Instead I can get door to door service with Lyft for between $3.90 and $4.10 for the first person and an additional $0.90 for the second person. This means I typically come out slightly ahead with Lyft with two people and its way more convenient.

Its great... for now. Who knows how long it will last at these prices?

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#116

Post by meri_dian »

platz wrote: post #40

"Silicon Valley innovation now is directly aimed at oppressing the underclass, and everybody knows it and can see it. They hate Uber. People hate Uber. It means the death of the era of good feelings that came with this constant Moore's Law style innovation. And that was an unforced error, by Silicon Valley. It was in their DNA. They didn't have to give Travis Kalanick, a guy they despised and never trusted, for good…

Silicon Valley doesn't oppress the underclass, what a load of melodramatic nonsense. Most Silicon Valley companies have nothing to do with the underclass, and when they do it's usually in the form of making things like movies, TV shows and music more affordable (think Spotify and Netflix among others).

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#117

Post by mrgordon »

eric_the_read wrote: post #111
mrgordon wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well Denver won best transit in America recently to be fair. This article points at what I'm saying: http://fortune.com/2017/10/13/uber-lyft-public-transit-rider... Fewer people ride public transit when ridesharing is available. Ridesharing actually substitutes more for public transit than for driving, which means it puts more people into small vehicles and creates more pollution and congestion. Whether you see it in…

Thanks, that was the sort of article I was hoping for. I am surprised to see Denver winning best transit in America, though; it still takes me 2-3x the time to travel light rail or bus than driving. Sometimes the convenience is worth it, but usually not.

Yeah I think ultimately NYC still has the most usable transit network. I am not sure the details of the award without searching but they had it plastered up inside the buses when I was there. It probably gets good user ratings because its been improving as opposed to NYC which is overwhelmed with riders and maintenance. I did notice Denver had a lot of buses compared to most places in America, but it is still a car culture after all.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#118

Post by IWeldMelons »

mrgordon wrote: post #115
IWeldMelons wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not understand how it is possible. Public transit is soo much cheaper. In many cases, it is just unaffordable for someone to switch from taking the bus to Uber.

For example, in San Francisco the bus costs $2.50 to $2.75 depending on how you pay. If two people want to go somewhere, thats at least $5. Instead I can get door to door service with Lyft for between $3.90 and $4.10 for the first person and an additional $0.90 for the second person. This means I typically come out slightly ahead with Lyft with two people and its way more convenient. Its great... for now. Who knows h…

3.90? Are you going like half a mile or what? Most of the city people usually have bus passes, because jobs are often far away.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#119

Post by erik_seaberg »

mrgordon wrote: post #101
geezerjay wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the medium term, they get public transit systems shut down This sounds like grade-A bullshit. At best rideshare services reduce the use of personal cars and compete with taxi services, but they can't or won't compete with mass transit. Moreover the upper or even middle class aren't exactly the target market of public transportation services. If anyone was switching from public transportation to rideshare service…

First of all, I don't think your tone is very kind or conducive to a productive conversation. You state with no evidence whatsoever that rideshare services "can't or won't compete with mass transit" while the truth is that millions of people decide between the two on a daily basis. In places like NYC and SF where transit is viable, it is widely used by the lower, middle, even upper middle classes. It has become much…

BART never solved the last-mile problem before ridesharing. The nearest station is a 10-minute walk to a 20-minute bus ride after a 30-minute wait. And that's a pretty direct 4 mile trip, from most locations it'd be worse. Driving myself isn't even an option unless I get there before dawn because BART can't keep up with demand for parking.

Re: The Fall of Travis Kalanick

#120

Post by lhorie »

IWeldMelons wrote: post #113
mrgordon wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First of all, I don't think your tone is very kind or conducive to a productive conversation. You state with no evidence whatsoever that rideshare services "can't or won't compete with mass transit" while the truth is that millions of people decide between the two on a daily basis. In places like NYC and SF where transit is viable, it is widely used by the lower, middle, even upper middle classes. It has become much…

I do not understand how it is possible. Public transit is soo much cheaper. In many cases, it is just unaffordable for someone to switch from taking the bus to Uber.

Think about it this way: if you already own a car, why would you use ridesharing? Taking a uber instead of public transit because you're late, or because it's faster than taking 2 buses to some one-off destination, however, seems entirely reasonable.
Post reply on HN