111–120 of 132 posts
> “Back in the day, officers used to harass us day and night: throw van keys on the roof, throw them in the garbage, bring us into the station just for driving a van.” An N.Y.P.D. spokeswoman didn’t respond to a request for comment The sad thing is that stories like those don't even seem to elicit surprise. We need a way to refocus our police on their mission, to "protect and serve". We need to demand more profession…
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There's one data point. One with many special conditions. Calling this a failure of Free Enterprise is to ignore the conditions you are describing -- people weren't free! Violence, other strong-arm tactics, and lack of liability are the opposite of freedom. Of course Free Enterprise doesn't work when basic rights (life, liberty, property, speech, conscience) aren't protected. And for a counter example, New York is ve…
> a system that serves drivers and passengers poorly in many respects. but also serves drivers and passengers pretty well in many other respects
On the passenger side of things, aside from the lack of innovation, getting a cab in certain neighborhoods is problematic. Cabbies profiling potential fares is still a problem, despite regulations. There are other availability issues as well, for example when the weather is bad or when you get "upstreamed" during peak commute times.
It seems *similar unlicensed busses are gone now: http://www.fastcompany.com/1839333/business-lessons-chinatow...
I never understood how those unlicensed "Chinatown buses" managed to survive anyway. Their fares weren't any cheaper than their licensed (and FAR safer) brethren in Megabus.
It's funny, I somehow expected this would be about anything but dollar cabs - they're just a mundane part of life throughout the mid-Atlantic. Where I grew up they were the cabs and delivery service since the 'legit' equivalents refused to come into the neighborhood.
Define "mid-Atlantic"? I could imagine that covering everywhere from Spain to Africa to the West Indies to the American South.
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LA's public transit broke every misconception I had about it. It was fantastic. We actually ditched our rent-a-car and grabbed a $5/day transit pass and got to most of the places we wanted to go. All without being stuck in traffic. From Griffith Observatory to downtown, to long beach, to hollywood blvd. And it was super clean. The subway stations were beautiful. I can't wait to visit the city in a few more years afte…
I used to live in Long Beach, and you're right that the transit is quite good between heavily trafficked points and along major corridors. But the huge area the system needs to cover means most of the resident population is significantly underserved. As a random sample, I just put the 15 miles between Lakewood to Carson into Google Maps and the transit routes start at 2 hours each way, even during peak hours! It's a…
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Israel has always had 'Sherut' taxi vans. These usually follow regular bus routes and actually pot the bus route's number. The biggest use case is Saturdays, when public busses don't run, but it's not unknown for a 'sherut' van to arrive in some terminal trying to put together a route for any potential travelers sitting around or even to go along a long haul bus route 5 minutes ahead of the official bus and pick up p…
Yes, the "Sherut" taxi vans(that hold only 10 people) in Tel Aviv are great and far more frequent than the buses that travel the routes with fewer stops. There are frequent Sherut taxi vans that travel between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. As soon as there are 10 passengers, they go. I wish NYC had Sherut vans. People would probably taking far fewer taxis and be much greener if it did.
There are also Taxi shares in NYC, which are similar, but hold less people (4). These are somewhat informal affairs and you have to know where to go / stand. But if you're going downtown anyway, why not split the fare with 4 strangers?
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>That's not racism, that's just the reality of how you make money as a cab driver. ... under a bureaucratically-controlled pricing structure that ignores reality by forcing you to price all those routes the same.
Even if you could price "poor area" fares lower, how is that helpful as a taxi driver? Cab fares don't scale, so working the same time * lower fare = less wage.
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This is a 35 year old system. Also, the US can't be third-world by definition. Third-world just means not aligned with the US or Russia, and is an anachronism.
Everyone knows third-world pretty much means "developing world" nowadays.
I've commented before on HN with this important cautionary tale from South Africa: In the late 1980's the apartheid government (which was taking very tentative steps towards reform) decided to cheaply "solve" the problem of public transport in poor, black areas, while encouraging small business. Thus was born the unregulated minibus taxi industry. It all started off well, but soon, instead of a Free Enterprise utopia…
There's one data point. One with many special conditions. Calling this a failure of Free Enterprise is to ignore the conditions you are describing -- people weren't free! Violence, other strong-arm tactics, and lack of liability are the opposite of freedom. Of course Free Enterprise doesn't work when basic rights (life, liberty, property, speech, conscience) aren't protected. And for a counter example, New York is ve…
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It's quite the hike. Covered in varying weather conditions. Not nearly as bad as either the heat of the deep south or the cold of the northeast, but rain or just the fog and humidity plus walk make for a damp experience. Worse is trying to rush the distance catching one of the hourly-only off-peak trains. Or having to carry anything other than a light bag the distance.
Wow - do Americans really consider a 20 minute stroll to be going for a hike? That's incredible.
Some people are limited mobility as well (like the elderly), and/or especially vulnerable to heat and inclement weather.
It's a little offensive to generalize about "Americans" as a whole, especially based on the comments of exactly 1 person, so please don't. 300+ million people live here, with often very different customs and practices, of different social classes, ethnicities, beliefs and worldviews, and living in many different geographies. It's not as diverse as all of Europe, but not even close to homogenous and easily generalized either.